ONE STEP UP... TWO BACK

Rousseau is a German progrock band that made 3 studio albums in The Eighties, I would like to recommend the first one entitled Flower In Asphalt (1980), I am sure that especially the Camel fans will be delighted. In contrary, I am very disappointed about their third effort Square The Circle (1987) and the reunion CD At The Cinema (2002), the music fails to keep my atttention and Rousseau fails to reach the level as on their first two wonderful melodic symphonic rock albums.

And now there's the CD compilation entitled One Step Up . Two Back, it contains 8 tracks taken from their four albums and four unknown/new tracks. The difference between the first four songs and the rest of the CD is remarkable: pleasant, quite simply structured instrumental symphonic rock featuring lush vintage keyboards and warm fluteplay. I am carried away by the wonderful interplay between guitar, synthesizers, choir-Mellotron, Moog Taurus bass pedals and a Peter Bardens-like Hammond sound in Skylight, the warm string-ensemble sound, a howling guitar and a beautiful final part with tremolo technique on the classical guitar in Entrée, a fine intro with flute and piano, then lush eelctric guitar and flute and finally catchy guitar and synthesizer in Breakfast at Tiffany's and electric - and acoustic guitar overdubs, culminating in howling guitar runs with powerful organ in Windsong. After those four songs the sound is more modern and a bit more polished, nonetheless the guitar sound remains very moving (unfortunately no more flute) like in The Dance (in the vein of Steve Hackett with a fiery solo), Winter's Tale (a beautifully build-up solo, from sensitive to heavy) and howling runs in Northern Lights. Remarkably is the final composition entitled One Step Up: it sounds like a rock song delivering fluent work on organ, guitar and .. flute and also Steve Hackett inspired guitarplay. Because of the lesser sound quality and the 'return of the flute', I ahve th eidea that this song is lef-over material of the early Eighties.

Anyway, Rousseau has released a very fine album (running time more than 1 hour) that in my opinion turns out to be an excellent introduction to the sound of Rousseau, especially the first four songs will please the symphonic rock fans who love Seventies Camel, Focus and Genesis. My rating: 3,5 stars.

Interesting and at times highly frustrating effort from this veteran German act.

This is a compilation album, consisting of chosen tunes from previous efforts and, as far as I can gather, a few new tunes to give buyers some additional value for money here.

And the older tunes are really good; the four tunes pulled from the first two releases by this band are highly intriguing affairs. Heavily influenced by the more atmospheric side of UK act Camel, and at times sounding more like the band than Camel did themselves at times, these instrumental explorations are well made though, with just the right amount of energy and musical surprises to keep one interested and intrigued - and some rather compelling atmospheres explored too.

The more recent efforts of the band become more and more predictable though - nice stuff to some extent, but done thousands of times by other acts, and the melodies and moods just aren't captivating as they should be. The final tune does give some promise of better things to come though; as the band gets a bit more adventurous on this one; and have a few really intriguing segments in that composition. Still, it's the oldest tunes that is the main selling point for this production - as well as being a decent introduction to the music of this German band.