OUT OF THE ASHES

Pancake is an obscure symphonic prog band coming from Germany releasing 3 albums in the '70's. If first one was more towards rock with some Camel influences here and there , on their second release from 1977 named Out of the ashes they manage to come with a diffrent aproch of the music and the sound is now more like Eloy from that period or Pink Floyd in places, but aswell I can trace a lot of Gentle Giant similarities on couple of pieces. For ex the opening track named Painted Rush Hour is a GG clone, the same aproach, manner of composing, arraangements remind me of GG, anyway a good piece, after this tune, the album goes more on spacey atmosphere not far from Eloy and Pink Floyd in places like Rainbow Suite. Aswell the band has a lot of instrumental passages , to show that they are capable to compose complicated pieces that worth intrest of prog listners. The music is ok, nothing really ground breaking, like on Eloy or Pink Floyd (that era), but is a pleasent journey for sure overall. The voice of Rainer Rohm is ok, typical for this kind of music, he did a good job , but the drumer is the main attraction here Hand Derer (who later will join Anyone's Daugher) together with the keyboard player excellent musicians. The album was released on CD by already famous Garden of delight and even this way the band is still unknown to many, I simply can't understant why this band is so underrated here on PA, and this album and their next one are fairly good examples of good music from Germany in late '70's, I mean no vote, no reviews since mine, starange enough. So, a good album who desearve 3 stars for sure. The cover art is great.

Second efford from this little known german band of the 70´s, with a hideous name (Pancake? Oh, c´mon!). This time there were some line up changes, with one less guitar player and a keyboardist added. Gone were also the Wishbone Ash influences. The band now played a much more krautrock sound, with soft keys (mostly Hammond organ) and nice guitar parts. The vocals are typical of that style, I mean, weak. Sometimes you wonder why they hired Rener Röhm to sing (friendship? maybe).

However, it is obvious they did evolve from their mediocre debut. The songs are much more well structured, the arrangements are more imaginative and the overall production is much better. Not that Pancake is very original: the first track Painted Rush-Hour is a Gentle Giant rip off in all aspects. Fortunatly, this and the beginning of Rainbow Suite are the only ones, for the rest of the record leans much more toward the space rock/psychedelic book of rules and in this field they are quite good, although not original nor groundbreaking. Songs like Rainbow suite and Artc Ocean are over the nine minute mark with good guitar lines, and the title track has a terrific instrumental part, reminding me of early Eloy.

In all a vast improvement over their first efford. it made me curious to hear their third album. If you´re into krautrock but ypu´re not a very demanding fan, Out Of The Ashes is recommended.

Rating: 2,5 stars that I will round up to three because I think they deserved so after such a quality leap.