NORDLAND

Streetmark is one of the lesser known german bands of the 70's.One of the reasons is that the musicians kept their day-jobs, toured mainly in their area and didn't develop a follow up like GROBSCHNITT or NOVALIS who toured heavily.STREETMARK played together since 1968 but took time to record their first record 'Nordland'.They took the time to play the songs live and work them out. 'Nordland' was recorded and produced by the well knownengineer/producer Connie Planck on the new Sky label.Side one starts with a suite ' House of 3 windows'. The first part shows influences of Ekseption and Focus especially towards the end when G.Buschmann does vocalises like T. van Leer.The second part goes more in the direction of Procol Harum, Gary Brooker being the obvious model for Buschmann.The third part is a cover of 'Eleanor Rigby' ( a minor hit for STREETMARK) and quite an interesting approach of such a classic track. STREETMARK plays the song up- tempo and agressive which works fine.'Amleth Saga' is another Procol Harum influenced track. The only weak track on side one is 'Italian concerto in rock' a pseudo baroque instrumental à la Ekseption or Wendy Carlos with cheesy synth sounds. The second side 'Nordland is more athmospherique.The first part, an instrumental reminding NOVALIS goes into a more jazzier track' Lyster Fjord'. The third part 'Ladoga' is my favourite track on the record, a beautiful melody ,the only weak point are the vocals. The second side closes with 'Reality Airport' an uptempo rocker with nice rhythm changes. On the CD edition there is a Bonus track 'Da Capo' a variation on the 'Eleanor Rigby' theme.

The beautifully drawn album covers attracted my attention to this record, but sadly the music of it didn't please me very much. The effort is still very sincere. This is quite keyboard-driven and melodic stuff, but some stylistic elements just don't sound very good to my ear. There are few longer suites here, like "House of Three Windows", if more challenging keyboard driven compositions should be a target of special interest. However the vocals are not very well sung, and I wonder if they should have been sung in German instead of English? Anyways, I have learned to like clumsier pronunciations from other continental European vintage rock records, and maybe the screaming won't just work here as good as on Uriah Heep's "Salisbury", heh. Also the cover version of "Eleanor Rigby" is quite silly performance, unlike Vanilla Fudge's version. In addition to this, the composition "Italian Concert in Rock" felt quite hilariously serious, bringing and an association of an angry school teacher to mind bashing the piano staccato's in vein of pre-Haslam Renaissance albums. Song "Da Capo" sounds then more like Black Widow, and the other longer piece "Nordland" has a very imaginative theme. I couldn't help laughing alone to the "Ladoga" sequence though, I was wondering was the song about the agony of the Vikings hard work founding the settlements of Staraja Ladoga? At least there is pain in the vocals which was very infectious. Well, maybe not, "Reality airport" finally brings a disturbed conclusion to this musical piece. The later albums "Eileen" (or "Dreams" and "Dry" were much better albums, and I got impulse from this record to hunt them down. There are certainly some unique and nice elements included on this band's sound, and I believe this debut divides opinions so it is worth checking also, though I would not recommend blind purchasing without careful listening first.

Musically fairly rich and dense in a heavy symphonic sort of way, "Nordland" suffers mercilessly at the hands of vocalist Georg Buschmann, who mangles almost every track with screams and taunts. if that isn't enough, we have to contend with yet another drama queen version of Eleanor Rigby, and a quasi reprise called "Da Capo". Indeed the best parts of this album are the instrumental parts, even those that last mere seconds. Of particular note is "Italian concert in rock", which is very classically influenced, keyboard dominated and sans vocals.

Streetmark seems to be having trouble deciding exactly what image they want to project, and in fact therein lies a major flaw. The album seems to be about projecting images, fleeting pastiches of posturing and method acting. While Buschmann is the main culprit, admittedly skilled guitarist Thomas Schreiber must shoulder a fair amount of blame. He is too often guilty of the same type of overemoting on his instrument. Keyboard player Dorothea Raukes seems to hold the fort, lending a consistent mood to the excellent "Waves and Visions", while providing momentary inspired flourishes in between the rants.

There are many better places to start your exploration of German prog from the 1970s than this Streetmark album. In fact, it would be hard to imagine anyone who would recommend it first. Whatever of the myriad styles projected by Streetmark, there is a band that handles it with far greater clarity and conviction.

Streetmark came from the D'sseldorf region and were found in 1968 by female keyboardist Dorothea Raukes and guitarist Thomas Schreiber.An early concert review of the time described them as a band ''combining Baroque-type Rock with breezy Jazz Rock'', however the jazzy influences seem to fade by mid-70s, when the band recorded the debut ''Nordland'' in October 75' at Conny Plank's Tonstudio in Neukirchen, eventually released the following year on German label Sky Records.

The album opens with the inventive ''House of Three Windows'', a beautiful lighter version of NOVALIS with dreamy organ and expressive vocals by new singer Georg Buschmann, much in the vein of PROCOL HARUM/THE MOODY BLUES, finally building around the great guitar chops of Schreiber into a nice cover on The Beatles' ''Eleanor Rigby''.''Amleth Saga'' marks no changes.Deamy organ/synth/harsichord-based light Symphonic Rock ala PROCOL HARUM with light jazzy influences on Schreiber's guitar and a spacey feeling towards the end.The short instrumental ''Italian Concert in Rock'' is an attempt by the band to bring on their Classical influences in the vein of TRACE or THE PINK MICE, quite needless as these are evident on the first couple of great tracks.The album closes with the 20-min. eponymous epic, which is rather overstretched in my opinion.A long spacey introduction will lead to Buschmann's vocals, who have a slightly theatrical/romantic edge this time.A fiery organ/synth-part will follow, much like a DEEP PURPLE clone and the band will fall again into spacey Progressive Rock with a calm symphonic atmosphere before the more energetic finale with guitars and electric piano on the forefront along with Buschmann's passionate vocals and strong Blues Rock inspirations.

The first side of this LP is absolutely essential for all fans of the lighter side of Classic Prog, especially ''House of Three Windows'' is a must-listen for its original structure.The flipside's epic has its moments, but ends up being a bit pale compared to the first couple of great tracks.Overall a strongly recommended effort and notice there is also a CD reissue out (from 1993) again by Sky Records...3.5 stars.

Sorry that this, my first review on progarchives, is to be so acerbic. Without going into a full song-by-song, blow- by-blow about just how awful this album is, I'll just mostly agree with kenethlevine's review.

Cringe-worthy, unbearable, over-the-top vocals, too much sustained organ notes... I couldn't make it completely through any one song once the singing started. This is one of the many, many examples of Prog Rock that might have been good without vocals. Overall, thoroughly forgettable, 1/2 star rounded up to one. If you are curious about exploring this band's music, I suggest you start with a different album, as this one has killed any interest for me.

There are times that I listen to something the first time and don't like it, then go back years later and love it, wondering "what was I thinking when I didn't like this the first time??". I don't think that is going to happen for this album . I discovered it while exploring The Progressive-Kraut-Psych-Avant-garde Rock Collection [Part 23], and if I weren't such a completist, I'd just delete it. Maybe I will anyway.