NATURE'S CLEAR WELL

Another one of these prog bands that released one album, then disappeared. I hear conflicting stories that GALAXY was either a Swiss band or a German band. Regardless, these guys released "Nature's Clear Well" on the small German label called Venus. It received an American release on the Visa label. I actually saw a used cassette of this floating around for a couple of bucks, knowing that these guys were a little-known prog rock band, I snatched the tape. The cassette packaging looks and smells '70s: the cassette and the casing was blue, and the track listing on the back looked like something off an 8-track. Apparently the German version of this album has a totally different cover than the American. It's definately the American version that has the better cover (nice sci-fi artwork). And apparently the track listings are arranged differently from the German version.

Regardless, the music is pretty typical late '70s prog rock, with its share of string synths, Farfisa electric piano, Davoli synthesizer, and even some Mellotron. Comparisons to YES and GENESIS are often thrown at the band, for obvious reasons, as, like many other prog albums from this time, originality wasn't on their side. The title track, without a doubt, is the album's high point. It's also the longest. The lyrics seem to be about urban people who act like they don't know anything out of their urban environment, and how they "long for water, from nature's clear well". A couple of songs seem to have folk undertones, like "I Came From a World" and "Wish I Were Happy". For such a late release, I am really amazed that some of the material lack such maturity. The music on the whole album is quite accessible, but of course still progressive. Nothing original or grounbreaking here, but worth having if you're a diehard prog rock fan like me.

pretty masterpice of this uknown swiss band in the dragonfly ,jane ,flame dream and nautilus vein.it produced by the famous dieter dierks who all he touched transformed in gold (nektar,atlantis and even scorpions)the title track is one of the best krautrock suites of all the times,some themes are very acoustics but always with a great progressive feel.it injures who his career finished here.

I must Say this is I think the best record ever done after pink Floyds THE WALL!!! By the way this band is not swiss! this band is multinational but founded in Frankfurt am Main in Germany! This swiss label ripped them off! they never ever got a penny for this album! they never knew it was sold outside the country!!!! shame on Brezze Music GMBH!!! but this mr. Dierks is Bankrup anyway!! Just keep that in mind next time someone thinks "OH! these bands they always get SO much money!!"!!! Great Drummer by the way!!! Victor You Rock!!!!

A few housekeeping items are in order here. First, the name of this band is not Galaxy, it is Waniyetula. Like so many coke-addled record executives in the latter seventies, the ones at Venus Records got the brilliant idea that they needed to practice deception to capture music fan’s interest (as opposed to simply supporting the musicians on their labels and leaving the whole ‘interest’ thing up to the fans). Secondly, this is not a Swiss band – they’re German. Not being from that part of the world, I am understandably surprised at how often that mistake gets made with German musicians that don’t sound like either Magma or the Scorpions. Weird. Finally, the album cover that is usually shown for this record is not the only one it was released with. The better one features a spaced-out sketch of a statue that appears to be on another planet, and looks like one of those monolith statues on Easter Island. Very cool.

So despite all the confusion, and the relative obscurity of the band, this is an excellent record. The lyrics are introspective, and are apparently supposed to represent an other-worldly view of earth through the eyes of visitors from afar. Kind of similar to the perspective of Klaatu’s ‘Hope’ album, or the Kansas tune “Nobody’s Home”. You know, the world is full of a bunch of self-destructive humans who would do well to look to the skies for inspiration and a better way of living. Pretty cheesy and idealistic, especially for 1978, although if I’m not mistaken this was actually recorded in 1976 but not released until ’78.

But anyway, the music is quite good, melodic with lots of funky guitars, mellow keyboards, and harmonic vocals. And speaking of the vocals, these guys don’t sound German at all. In fact, lead singer Richard Kersten starts off the album sounding an awful lot like Parallel or 90 Degrees & the Tangent vocalist Andy Tillison, and ends up coming off as a slightly jazzy Rupert Holmes (remember ‘The Piña Colada Song’?). And the rest of the band does a pretty fair job of parroting the rest of the Tangent on most of the backing vocals as well. Well, parroting isn’t quite the right word since this album predates any Tangent album by more than a decade. But you get the point.

The keyboards are quite good for the time period, and are a perfect example of the neo symphonic resurgence that peaked a couple years before this was released. The album had virtually no promotion that I can remember, and ended up almost immediately in the cutout bins when it was imported to America. It has since been released on CD, but still isn’t exactly well-known.

The title track is the best on the album, and like I said it sounds very much like a good Tangent album – mellow vocals, intricate and vibrant keyboards and piano, jazzy guitars (including a lot of acoustic guitar), and a varied tempo that makes the track seem even longer and more epic-like than its eleven minutes.

The rest of the album is in much the same vein, with the exceptions of “Dreams out in The Rain” which has an Alan Parsons Project feel to it; “I've Come from a World” which sounds like it was recorded apart from the rest of the album and has a latter-seventies borderline arena-rock anthem groove; and the closing “Wish I Were Happy”, which was clearly written to be performed at the end of a live concert (acoustic guitar strumming, string synths, and a jam session ending.

This is a very good album, as I said at the beginning. It was poorly promoted, badly positioned by the band’s label, and just generally not given a chance to be successful. The band would end up putting out an album under their real name several years later, and a couple decades after they broke up Garden of Delights (God bless those guys!) put out a compilation of early recordings, including “You Really Got it Fixed” and “Wish I Were Happy” from this album. Neither of those recordings has the feel of understated grace that this one has though, so if you have to choose, get this one. Four stars.

peace

Galaxy (Waniyetula) is german band who plays symphonic prog in mood of Genesis, Yes and in places from their country fellows Grobschnitt. Waniyetula (Galaxy) recorded this album album in 1975 and was only relesed in 1978 but with diffrent name - Galaxy -the american label who bought the rights of the album from the german one change their name in Galaxy, matter of marketing and because the name was better and more catchy than Waniyetula who sounded pretentions an unintristing. In fact is the same band but with diffrent name. My Cd version is re relesed on Spalanx in 1998. About the music, is very ok with great time signatures, excellent shifts between guitar and keys, remind me of Genesis (Trick of the tail era), great musichianship all through the album. The voice is good, not exceptional but fits very well in this kind of music. One of those forgotten little treasures from late '70's and for sure needs a better view. The music is well played delivering a great symphonic prog with some beautiful key passages made by Norbert Abels. So all in all a great album, the best pieces are: the title track Nature's clear well, over 10 min of pure symphonic moments of the highest calibre, great key arrangements, You've really got it fixed and Dreams out in the rain, the rest are aswell strong. This album desearves from my side 4 stars without hesitation, one of the minor albums from late '70's that gone unnoticed by many.

With Dieter Dierks in the producer's chair, you might be fooled into thinking that Galaxy - who were actually calling themselves Waniyetula when they recorded this in 1975 - might be the sort of Krautrock outfit Dierks is known for working for in his prog-based work. In fact, they play a style of psychedelic-leaning symphonic prog - light, accessible stuff which kind of points the way towards the neo-prog sounds of the early 1980s. It's rather pretty stuff, but I can sort of tell why it was canned until 1978 (when an American record company bought the rights to the album and put it out under the Galaxy name) since in the prog glut of the mid-1970s there were plenty of superior releases. A charming album, but not so incredible that I'd call it a lost classic.

The only thing at all controversial or revolutionary about "Nature's Clear Well" is its backstory. Already somewhat hippy- dippy even for 1975, its release was delayed to 1978, and, in a monumental display of record company hubris, they unilaterally changed the name from Waniyetula to GALAXY, Having said all that, while we still can't quite hone in on the band's precise geographic origins - it's either Germany, Switzerland, or some agglomeration of the two - naming themselves after the Lakota word for winter was almost as brazen as the name change stunt. At least the music and lyrics are congruent with the GALAXY moniker. Yes it is a trite, generic band name, but that too is consistent with the contents of "Nature's Clear Well".

This is generally accessible prog with decent and frequent vocals, acoustic and electric guitars, and plenty of vintage keyboards. I'm reminded of the usual suspects, but also of GRACIOUS, NEKTAR, GROBSCHNITT, and even a few American bands of that time that I can't quite discern. While I'm obviously not a big fan, this is well played with a fair share of pleasant passages, but which are rarely dynamic or lasting in their impact. Similarly, the lyrics are not particularly strong but also not embarrassing. By far my favorite track is "Dreams out in the Rain", with everything you might want in a 6 minute prog song, from a fine melody to exquisite vocal harmonies and keyboards including mellotron flute.

In the universe of 1970s prog rock, "Nature's Clear Well" is obscure for reasons that have nothing to do with its contents, but even if it were better known to more of us, I doubt it would merit more than a tiny-fonted footnote. The band went on to release a slightly better album in the early 1980s under their original name. 2.5 stars rounded down.