THE SPELL

The ENID are one of those "Hate em or Love em" type of bands with this music lover camping on the "love em" side. This was the 6th album from Robert John Godfrey and Stephen Stewart mixing 6 wonderful symphonic tracks and 1 killer live 20 min epic "Song Of Fand". As with all of The ENID's music we are treated to a real collaboration of classical, symphonic and rock genres. Both Godfrey and Stewart perform keyboards and synths with these dominating the album. The overall feel is very lush and tranquil with some grand swoops and mystical melodies. At this time in their career, The ENID had added full time member David Storey (drums) as well. Vocals for the ENID are quite interesting with the fine lead vocals of Godfrey and the background 1950's sounding harmonies.

Overall "The Spell" is a great little album with some very creative art rock and progressive musical moments.

"The Spell is a musical allegory in which the seasons are used to depict the cyclic nature of all things" That's how Robert John Godfrey sums up the meaning behind this enchanting yet dark album. The first track 'Winter: The Key' opens with a series of fanfares, each one culminating in the "Dresden Amen", a cadence used to great effect in Wagner's finest Opera (and greatest piece of music ever written) 'Parsifal' -- an opera which also touches on the theme of "the cyclic nature of all things". After the fanfares have died away, a broad, romantic melody slowly unfolds. This is classic Enid; full of lush keyboard and guitar sounds combining to create beautiful orchestral string textures that ebb and flow and crash like waves upon the shore. 'Winter' soon gives way to 'Spring' and once again it's classic Enid. Some interesting odd meters on this track which soon develops into one of those strange, mutant, sardonic Viennese waltz- type hybrids that The Enid (and Gustav Mahler) exceled at. 'Summer' is a lengthy track with some interesting vocal harmonies, and a nice guitar solo played over a chord sequence reminiscent of Pink Floyd's 'Great gig in the sky' from 'Dark side of the moon'. 'Autumn' opens with the haunting sound of the great "funeral drum", an obvious allusion to Mahler's unfinished 10th symphony. This track is hauntingly beautiful and, like the opening track, uses an exquisite blend of guitars and keyboards to create rich orchestral textures. The last two tracks take the form of short songs. 'Elephants never die' features the medieval plainchant 'Dies irae' used on the 'Last Judgement' from their first album. The words 'Dies irae' are also sung to an irregular staccato 7/8 rhythm; the very same rhythm Benjamin Britten used for his setting of the 'Dies irae' in his mighty 'War Requiem'. The last song 'The sentimental side of Mrs James' is a song of consolation written for a family who lost their son. The bonus track on this CD is a glorious live version of 'The Song Of Fand' recorded at the Hammersmith Odeon, London in 1979. The Spell is an excellent album. The reason I'm not going to give it "five" is because I prefer the sound of the old analogue instruments used on their first four albums to some of the digital sounds used on this and subsequent albums. So it's not a criticism of the music; just the sounds. Therefore I give it ****. (but the music's worth *****)

THE ENID is a unique band that most thoroughly fused classical romanticism with rock but sometimes closer to musical and "new age" (similar to VANGELIS). Harmonized vocals in "Summer" and "Elephants Never Die" remind me also of QUEEN (although the lead vocal is less pleasant).

The music on this album is brilliant but overall it sounds too saccharine and long-winded. Bonus tracks rarely represent the best material but this time we have an exception - "The Song of Fand" is a live performance of symphonic epic and clearly the best track.

After listening to their masterpiece "in the Region of the Summer Stars" it's hard to give "The Spell" a higher rating but all their discography contains some worthy music.

Despite a 'The Enid' name on the album covers and the fact they were all issued on 'The Enid' label, the eighties albums from these guys are really all duos with Robert John Godfrey and Stephen Stewart, accompanied as necessary (or when possible) by a few friends and acquaintances. I can't point to something specific that is lacking musically in this lineup, but in the end after playing these records many times I have to say that they just don't capture the same spark the band had when it was an actual band.

While some of their seventies records tended to be a bit more lush in terms of their musical arrangements and variety of instrumentation, Godfrey does a decent job during these middle years for the band by simulating just about every non-guitar sound needed on his keyboards (although Dave Storey does return once again to provide percussion). The record starts off giving the impression its going to be another all-instrumental like their first four albums as "Winter" launches the record with a series of flourishing fanfares before settling into a rather laconic orchestral work. The transition to "Spring" is abrupt and awkward, and the arrangement is repetitive and not particularly noteworthy.

Godfrey seems to have become enamored of vocals and their potential to turn synthesized classical music into somewhat of a campy stage production almost halfway through the album when he starts in with his Gollum-like crooning on the "Summer" movement of the four seasons 'symphony' that dominates this record. Stewart jumps in almost immediately, and the two of them sound a bit like the Eric Woolfson-era Alan Parsons vocals but with a more classical feel to the music. Those who are familiar with 'Something Wicked This Way Comes' will immediately recognize the same style on this track.

"Autumn" is almost all synthesized with very little guitar as both Godfrey and Stewart spend most of their time behind their respective keyboards while Storey offers grandiose and striking percussive flourishes throughout. This is much more like the music that endeared the band to fans in their earliest years and I would say is the strongest composition on the album as a whole.

I suppose "Elephants Never Die" was added to give the album some length, and once again it comes off as a stage production full of campy vocals and guitar riffs, and in the end doesn't quite fit with the rest of the music on the album.

The closing "The Sentimental Side of Mrs. James" is a requiem to a son lost at sea, and offers possibly the best blend of Godfrey's vocals with the unique classically-inspired Enid sound. A nice ending to a somewhat uneven studio work.

But for fans who have the CD version this isn't quite the end, as Godfrey and Stewart include a lengthy live version of the band's signature song "The Song of Fand" (aka as just "Fand") to fill out the disc. This is a great example of the band at their finest and one of the better 'bonus' tracks I've heard on a CD in quite some time.

The Godfrey/Stewart incarnation of the Enid doesn't have quite the range of the original band, but overall this is a whole lot better than just about any contemporary rock that came out around the same time and arguably better than most of the sparse catalog of prog rock available from the eighties. Not the finest work from The Enid, but worthy of three (out of five) stars and worth picking up by fans of the band.

peace

I bought the original vinyl version of this album. It came on two 12" 45rpm discs, in an effort to improve the recorded quality and dynamic range from the disc. In technical terms, it largely works, and the dynamic range on this album is astonishing for vinyl, but the problem is that this makes it a difficult album to listen to in some respects: If you advance the volume control enough to clearly hear and appreciate the quieter passages, the crecendos and forte passages will rattle your windows, and the enhanced frequency response that the 45 rpm reproduction allows will certainly shake your teacups!

Now to the music: "The Spell" is an Enid examination of the Four Seasons. "Winter" successfully makes you feel cold, and introduces some rather lovely themes that appear in differing forms in subsequent season pieces. "Spring" continues from "Winter" and introduces more themes. "Summer" introduces rather bizarre vocals (entirely in keeping with the music, of course), and includes a wonderful guitar solo that Pink Floyd would be proud of. "Autumn" is predominently keyboards, and is suitably lush,,,,, A well-crafted suite of lovely music. My late Father would sometimes listen to this suite, but only after I'd transferred it to CD and applied some compression to reduce the dynamic range to make it more suitable for comfortable domestic listening!

This album is one really for the more diehard fans. It lacks the immediacy of some of their other albums, but is still one I return to. I'll give it a 3.5 - it's not perfect, but it's much better than most of the stuff that was around at the time!