TRANS AND DANCE [Ω XIV]

Maybe the best edited album they've ever made. The songs are all in the same mood: contemplative, mystic pieces. Except: 'Levél-Poste Restante' (Letter-Poste R.), it has a different (heavy) arrangement, but the message of the lirycs is similar to the other songs of this album. All the tracks have a very rich arrangement with wonderful guitar solos, nice keyboard (synthesizer and piano) parts. Debreczeni Ferenc drummer is the most creative musician of this album, he gives an excellent work here. (No more words: try it!) The lead vocal (Kóbor) is very emotional, with good additional vocalists. Due to the strange english title, Trance and Dance was not a successful album in Hungary, but in other countries had many positive criticisments. Try it.

This sounds more like proggish pop than actual prog. The music is nevertheless very enjoyable and melodic with frequent atmospheric effects. I like to listen to it in the background while I work, when I do not want to be distracted by the sound of either really impressive or really bad music. The special charm of OMEGA is in the vocals -- they are in the Hungarian language. Thus, I cannot even guess what the musicians are singing about (there is absolutely nothing in common between Hungarian and the Indo-European languages), but some Hungarian words sound very funny :-) Not a great achievement, but a good solid album. I would be interested to try earlier OMEGA albums -- supposedly, in that period they wrote their best music.

The long awaited 1995 comeback studio album from the legendary Hungarian band Omega after a 10 year sabbatical during which time numerous compilations and live concert material was released. It also heralded the return of original composer/keyboardist Presser Gabor who manages to slip in brief Hammond and piano fills reminiscient of the Omega sound of the 1960`s. However, don`t expect a re-kindling of the early Omega magic but rather a completely revamped sound making extensive use of advanced recording engineering technology which had finally reached Eastern Europe by the late eighties and early nineties, possbly as a result of singer Janos Kobor`s business involvement.

Trans and Dance is a ballad soaked album seemingly focusing on religious themes ( all sung in Hungarian ) with contributions from various guest lyricists including Peter Sulyi who had collaborated with the band at various points throughout their long history. More exciting moments occur on the heavier "Miss World" and "A rock and roll nem hagy el " which have sort of AC/DC meets Foriegner tinges to them albeit with the softer Omega touch. These more or less straight hard rock tracks could have been a bit more effective with more guitar freak outs especially with an additional guest guitarist. Those familiar with Omega`s `70s recordings will remember Gyorgy Molnar`s fiery guitar pyrotechnics from that period.

The album is loaded with Jean Michel Jarre-like computer generated synth soundscapes and effects which sometimes can sound like muzak . Nevertheless, they work well with Kobor`s vocals most of the time whose voice was always better suited for ballads and songs with a mystical theme. Some of these tracks have a Pink Floydish feel to them the most noticeable being "A kesuszt ut veg" and "Az almodozo" the former sounding at times notoriously ( but surely not intentionally ) like Brain Dammage and the latter even has a Great Gig in the Sky sounding female vocal at the end! Nice though.

All comparisons aside, a very spacey Omega album sung in the beautiful Hungarian language with stellar production although it does have some grey areas. Neo- progists as well as those who liked 1987`s Babylon should have no problem getting something redeeming out of Trans & Dance. Eight of these tracks were released in English on a subsequent album, Trancendent ( 1996 ) which oddly features a different vocalist who sounds nothing like Janos Kobor. Add ½ star to 3.

This album is largely influenced by the 1980s sound of neo-prog and of AOR type of heavy rock. While first 4 songs are generally well produced and have some redeeming listening quality (with obvious hints from MARILLION and CAMEL), especially in the lead guitar textures, the rest of the album is very weak indeed. The worst moments like Rock and roll nem hagy and Miss World are pure garbage in the vein of bombastic hair metal style. After listening almost a full hour of music products like this, one may regret the old vinyl format which allowed only up to 45 minutes of music. The CD format just more than often produces an excessive amount of wasted material...

PERSONAL RATING: 1,5/5

P.A. RATING: 2/5

In my opinioin this album is the latest good prog album. That album sounds as a long mystic ballade, with nice lirycs. That album shows the omega in another way, unfortunatelly they choosed this way in the next albums. The first 5 track is really good, but the others are more mystic than rock.

Personal Rating: 3,5/5