APO-CALYPSO

Embryo couldn't have chosen a more suitable title for this poor attempt at mainstream accessibility. It is a disaster record indeed and the one to avoid if you want to discover this incredible band.

The album suffers first of all of bad song-writing, whatever the idea was behind 'Break Into Pieces', it is first of all a very clumsy song with ill-inspired vocals. The psychedelic jam that starts halfway in is more enjoyable but not good enough to wind forward to it. Skip. 'Endless Feeling' is slightly better, it's more coherent at least, with a kind of soul vibe to it, be it rather plain and commercial. 'Together' is a poor funky jam with a Motown-alike intro and outro vocal. Not my thing. 'Knast-funk' is a mellow funky groove with organ and vibraphone soloing. Not bad but considering where this band came from on earlier albums it is very average. The same goes for the lengthier improvs/jams that follow.

A creative backdrop of sorts and a failed attempt to tune into the silky fusion taste of the day. Luckily, the band quickly reestablished themselves with the superb "Embryo's Reise".

Apo-Calypso was the first Embryo album I heard. And it was an amazing introduction to a band - or better to say to a family of extraordinary musicians coming from different parts of the world - which has made one the finest contributions in fusing jazz-rock with a variety of ethnic elements, from Western and Central Africa to India and China. With Apo-Calypso Embryo was still in the framework of jazz and rock, with notable hippy atmoshere, offering music for pleasure of a unique kind. But the last song, the 14 minutes long Getalongwithasong, clearly announces the upcoming shift to more expressed Eastern influences and affinities, which would become so delightfully dominant in their 1979. masterpiece - Reise. The song is a nice piece of work, flavoured by echanting presence of great collaborators Shoba and Trilok Gurtu, years before their very good independent effort 'Usfret'. The rest of the album expresses the mastership of Christian, Roman, Uwe, Michael and Butze, the most stabile Embryo line-up in the seventies, resulting in five great songs, mostly instrumental, like Knast-Funk, Amnesty Total and Together. Knast-Funk contains a freakish hammond organ solo of Michael Wehmeyer - probably the most exciting part of the album. I admit Apo-Calypso is not the best Embryo album, but, in my opinion, still deserves no less than five stars.