ALMOST PURE INSTRUMENTAL

A lot of members forming a supergroup? No, After Crying is more than a prog band. Here we have a little chamber orchestra able to mixture classic music, jazz and rock and doing it in the best way. With very rich instrumentation, Almost Pure Instrumental is a good example of these Hungarians potential, and -like their live and probably best album Struggle For Life- a good introduction to know what After Crying can offer. Don't worry about solemnity: music maybe clear or dark, sometimes dense, but every track is enjoyable at all moment. The brief piece Acqua, Pilgrim's March and Shining (incredibly beautiful theme with an angelical female voice) are the classical orientated highlights, but the whole album deserves any prog fan attention. Recommended.

After having received many E-mails from prog fans insisting I listen to AFTER CRYING, I broke down and purchased this quality compilation covering highlights from their career. Without a question this is a highly energetic and highly talented band who play beyond that capability of many. Their song writing is deep, rich and highly original which is encapsulated with the finest of musical talent. One of the most exaggerated differences in their music is their use of instruments which are pure and highly emotive in their feeling. At times AFTER CRYING break out into heavy jazz/classical/prog styled jams which covers a wide spectrum of genres which comes as no surprise after reading through the credentials of the members in this band.

Well usually After Crying show their grandeur live on stage and such a great impact as well, more than whatever album they have recorded in the recent years in their Studio Records (their production is anyway so fertile)!!...nevertheless it could be a mistake to give immediately your opinion about their talent, regarding of their long experience too,without examining some of their "collections" concerning the early period and always extracted by their Studio Recordings,like the present one (including their magnificent instrumental "Aqua" from "Fold Es Eg"): that is an excellent sample from their first footages,but it has got also such a particular care for their previous album "6", released in 1997, which is more recent!!Normally the production is not always perfect, cause their budget is not so high; but it depends on the kind of hardware used during their "on-line" executions,being often directly connected to the mixer-bench;while in their normal recordings their music is treated like that one produced by a classic orchestra, and this detail can make their job more difficult, above all in the interplay with the electrical instruments and drums as well, when they use a cello and an acoustic piano too, or by alternating such instrumentation with the electrical one...however it never minds,especially if you start appreciating their mix of symphonic music, avant-garde jazz, enriched with a lot of "Crimsonian" moods, during their stunning performances live.In this case you will stand listening to them, and to me that's enough,despite of the discontinuity concerning the quality recording.If you like this one, you will love also their following live experience (performed in a theatre in Budapest) in the period before the issue of "Show", and witnessed in the splendid "Bootleg Symphony".

Check it out, along with Elso Evtized (another good collection)!!For example albums like "Fold Es Eg", "De Profundis" (not represented here) and "6", from their Studio Records, show their huge versatility and are suitable to represent them in a different dimension!!

I discovered After Crying through this album and all I can say is that it blew away my mind. This is an explosion of music. In API we have a bit of everything and the combination is superb. This band seems to have no limits: they move from classical music to hard rock (combined with big band sounds!), from prog rock to avant-garde and then to medieval. I really don't understand how people can waste their time with neo prog when bands like After Crying are playing out there. Their level is so high that I would rank them together with the big ones from the 70s (though technically they are better by far than any other prog band I know.) A must!!!

Here's an excellent introduction to the amazing sound of the Hungarian progrock formation After Crying: a compilation that contains remastered and remixed versions and even four new tracks. Their sound has strong classical overtones due to the frequent use of instruments like oboe, French horn, trumpet, trombine, violin and Grand piano. Despite the blend of electric guitar, drums and keyboards in most of the 14 compositions, the balance remains on the classical side like in the sparkling Sonata For Violincello And Piano. But in some songs After Crying makes a spectacular effort to please the progheads like in Big Evil Fun Fair Final (violins and biting guitar), The Insulted And Injured (strings and organ and lots of shifting moods), Rondo (like ELP with a swinging rhythm section and virtuosic piano play), Save Our Souls (electric guitar and trumpet with propulsive percussion and a string- orchestra) and Struggle For Life (an ominous atmosphere with ELP sounding keyboards, Fripperish guitar and JL Ponty-inspired violin work). Like acclaimed progrock bands Triana, Gryphon, Il Balletto Di Bronzo and fellow countrymen Solaris, After Crying has a very distinctive and adventurous sound, scouting the borders between varied styles and symphonic prog, a band to discover!!