THE PRINCE OF HEAVEN'S EYES / MODERN MASQUERADES

Catastrophically overlooked but essential band. Despite the fact that this CD has edited versions of both albums (no Germenghast!) ,they are THE BEST ones from FRUUPP (especially Masquerades)! A Musts for every Prog fan - Misty Morning Way, Masquerading with Dawn , Mystery Night , Annie Austere and other sophisticated FRUUPP pieces composed in "CAMEL meets GENESIS" manner.Rate them, please ,they need you!!!

Financially attractive, but comes at a price

This compilation combines Fruup's third and fourth albums on a single CD. The band offered pretty good value in LP terms, so in order to avoid the need for a second CD, one track from each had to be omitted. The sleeve notes reassuring state that "We are sure this will not detract from your listening enjoyment".

"The prince of heaven's eyes" is a concept album about a man's search for the end of the rainbow in Ireland. The album is a definite improvement on the preceding "Seven secrets", with far more life to it. To a certain extent, this comes at a price, as the prog content is reduced, the band seeking to make the songs more commercially appealing. The missing track is the brief "Seaward sunset".

"Modern masquerades" saw the band changing their line up for the first time, with Stephen Houston deciding to move on. Houston was a major influence on the band's sound, but John Mason makes for a fine substitute. The appointment of Ian McDonald as producer brings with it a definite improvement in the overall quality of the product, the instrumentation sounding far crisper, with real bite at times.

The missing track here "Germenghast" ran to over 10 minutes, thus leaving the buyer to decide whether to forego such a significant part of the album in the interests of remaining financially astute.

Worthy of investigation though.

Finally i have the chance to review some Fruupp music, now, my CD has 2 albums gathered on 1 CD. I was very pleased to have in my collection this CD, the late 2 albums by this band named Fruupp. This two albums are in my opinion the best Fruupp ever done. First, before i beggin the review, something to mention is that one piece from each album was omitted to facilitate a single CD, i'm talking about Gormeghast from Moder masquerade from the 1975 (the last album of them) and Seward sunset from The prince of heaven's eyes from 1974 the album prior to Masquerade and second, Fruupp is one of the most underrated bands from PA, no doubt, with excellent symphonic aproch to prog music. Now about the music: They play symphonic prog not very far from what Genesis done in that same period, very fine and smooth arrangements, excelent is the keyboard player Stephen Houston (who is also the main composer), the rest of the musicians are also super. First album from this compilation is The prince of heaven's eyes from 1974, this one i considered to be their best and thier peak of the career. Excellent album, overlooked by many. Some piece from here are stunning , at least for me, Jaunting car and Annie Austere, simply great music and choruses. The rest of the pieces are also good. The character of this album is Mud Flanigan, a man who traveles the length and breadh of his native country Ireland in search of the rainbow, quite smooth story who melt very well with the music - 4 stars for this album, super to me. The second album from here is the last one they ever made Modern masquerade from 1975. While keeping the symphonic music like on predecesor, this one sometimes is more mellow, but with a good doze of prog elements. Not being a bad album, not by far, is less excellent than the previous one, but has it's good moments like Mysthery might and Janet planet, the rest are ok. While Fruupp move few more steps on progressive ladder, in 1975 the band split up soon and never came again on stage and with another studio album. Again 4 stars fort his one - so both albums get 4 stars, very underrated band and albums, worth investigate by prog lovers, recommended for Genesis (Gabriel era) fans, and at some point Wallenstein. Altough Fruupp is long gone, they should never be forgotten.

Fruupp's two weakest albums on one CD.

One track from each album has been omitted though to make this a single CD. Unfortunate, this means the best track from Modern Masquerades has been omitted. This is also their best track from their final two albums. What remains is watered out, cabaret sounding pomp rock with little appeal to symphonic prog heads. The best album is The Prince of Heaven's Eyes which has some hints of their excellent two first albums. There are some Genesis references here. The Modern Masquerades album contains cabaret sounding pomp rock which is painful for those of us who really liked their first two albums. My verdict is therefore to go for the first two albums and to forget this one unless it is picked from a bargain bin.

2 stars