HÜSÉG

Excellent symphonic space prog with loads of keyboard soaked instrumental passages and acid laced guitar solos. Vocals are in Hungarian are are quite good with lots of symphonic chants throughout. EAST generate some real serene melodies and lush landscapes which makes this album easy to fall for. Songs on "Huseg" seem to run together effortlessly and in fact the whole albums runs very much like a concept album should which this is. EAST are a highly professional unit who play a very sophisticated and deep styled progressive rock whoch is very imaginative. Fans of good symphonic prog will need to have this album in their collection.

3.5 stars. This Hungarian band made two albums in the early eighties, this is the second of the two and the better one in my opinion.The lyrics are sung in their own language, a language that is pleasant to the ears. Keyboards lead the way on this one, although guitar is quite prominant and there is a light fusion element that brings to mind VISUAL CLIFF at times.

This is heard right away in the opener, an instrumental called "Faith". I love the synth melody throughout this song over top of the drums and guitar.The guitar leads are fantastic as Janos Varga lets it rip. By the way I highly recommend Janos' solo albums which I prefer over the EAST records. Anyway the last 20 seconds of the song gets faster and faster until it's over. Great tune. "Search Yourself" is where we first hear the vocals as well as some soaring guitar. "Magical Power" is another instrumental and another highlight. There is some fantastic guitar in this one and the keys and guitar trade solos throughout. "It Was Me" is a slower paced song with lots of synths and vocals. "The Happiness Of The Endless Space" is a short instrumental featuring some jazzy keys.

"Born Again" is another beautiful song, with the birds singing and we get a catchy keyboard melody throughout."Windows" is my favourite, it has such a good beat to it, as well as spacey bubbling synths throughout. Great vocals too. "Losers" is another favourite with emphatic vocals and a good guitar solo late. "Walkin On The Clouds" is an instrumental featuring prominant keys and guitar. "You Must Wait" is an emotional song with more beautiful guitar and keys.The last song is a short, contemplative tune called "Meditation".

All the lyrics in the liner notes are in Hungarian, but as I have shown they give the English song titles too. If your looking for some worth while music from the eighties, check out EAST, you won't be disappointed.

When the anglos were swaying robotically to Gary Numan, the eastern Europeans were still gleefully playing high quality symphonic progressive rock. Nobody told them it was uncool or would not sell, and, perhaps as a result, this 1982 album makes few if any concessions to the commercial sound of its time. Or maybe they were just a few years behind the times. Regardless of the reasons or motivations, we should be thankful to have such a document.

On Huseg, East takes what seems like a simplistic approach, that of alternating instrumental tracks with songs sung in harmonious Hungarian, but it works fairly well because the instrumentals tend to the fusion side of things, at times reminding me of Passport, while the vocal tracks are more slavic symphonic in the manner of Omega or early Barclay James Harvest. This unlikely marriage does not seem to be arranged in the least, but perhaps sets out to explore different forms of faith or conflicts around them. The best way to experience Huseg is to listen from beginning to end and not worry about when one track ends and another begins.

The album opens with the title cut with some blistering leads as well as meters characteristic of the Eastern bloc, a pattern followed more or less on the other odd-numbered tracks. "Search Yourself" establishes the pattern of heartfelt singing of melancholy melodies to celestial keyboards that is reinforced by such beautiful songs as "It was me", "Born Again", "Losers", and "You must wait".

3.5 stars rounded up because this band kept the "faith" during some very dark years both musically and politically.

Due to the fact that the Eastern Europe regimens were not very fond with Rock which was seen as an expression of Capitalism, Prog didn't reached Hungary exactly at the same time than in the rest of Europe, so during the 80's when the rest of the world saw Progressive Rock as an archaic sub-genre and surrendered to Synth Pop, bands as EAST played solid Neo Prog very close to the Symphonic of the pioneers but with extra elements that made it richer than ever before.

"Hüség" (Faith) starts with the self titled song that starts with a nice jazzy feeling that reminds me a bit of Jean Luc Ponty but with a preeminent Symphonic component, the keyboard sections by Géza Pálvölgyi are very entertaining and blend perfectly with the electric guitar that gives an extra touch of hard Rock, interesting opener.

"Keresd Onmagad" (Search Yourself) begins extremely dramatic with a strong organ intro that leads to a vocal section in Hungarian that without loosing the dark atmosphere, softens a bit the mood, again some guitar solos add a nice touch.

"Magikus Ero" (Magical Power) follows the path of the previous track with strong and mysterious organ, but soon morphs into a faster track with lush keyboards and frantic guitars, a nice change that shows the ban has versatility and the ability to move radically from one style to another, extremely dramatic.

"En Voltam...." (It was Me) places us before a new change of atmosphere, more oriented towards the sound of ALAN PARSONS PROJECT (Pyramid softer tracks), even though is a simpler track, keeps the interest of the Progressive Rock fan due to the excellent organ and Mellotron solos, another good song.

"A Végtelen tér Oröme" (The Happiness of Endless Space) is a short instrumental interlude that works as an intro for "Üjjászületés" (Born Again) which privileges the Melodic Folk side of the band, with a beautiful melody that only changes near the end with another excellent organ and Mellotron based passage.

"Ablakok" (Windows) shows a fourth face of the band, now they get closer to some sort of Space Rock with heavy atmospheres diluted a bit with the vocals that sound a bit out of place, an atmosphere that is kept in "Vesztesek" (Losers), this time with a much better performance of "Miklós Zareczky" in the lead vocals and a surprising guitar solo by János Varga in the style of David Gilmour.

"Felhókón Sétálva" (Walking on the Clouds) as it name indicates is another spacey song, which starts soft with a nice piano buts gets faster and stronger as it advances, on the other hand "Varni Kell" (You must Wait) is an exquisite Symphonic track with good piano performance and strong vocals supported by the whole bands that makes an outstanding job.

"Hüség" ends with "Merenges" (Meditation), a short melancholic song that fades gently with the album.

Even though some demanding Prog fans may find it too soft, I believe we are before an excellent album recorded when the genre was agonizing in the rest of the world impulses the development of Progressive Rock in a region that was giving the first steps towards Rock (Even when in some Eastern countries Prog had developed before than in others).

Bein accurate, I would rate "Hüség", with 3.5 stars but being impossible, will have to go with a higher rating of 4, because is clearly over the average.

Despite Progressive Rock's decline East were determined to revive the sound, at least at the early stages of their career, as their label even released an English version of ''Jatekok'' entitled ''Games'' in an attempt to hit the foreign market.Moreover the band spent no time aiming to a sophomore release and the follow up release saw the light just a year later under the title ''Huseg''.

Stylistically the style of the Hungarians did not change a bit.''Huseg'' is again a mix of grandiose, spacey Symphonic Rock with Fusion, nicely balanced between the two styles, although the more Fusion-esque tracks are not that conveincing.Janos Varga's star shines again throughout the release and Istvan Nemeth keyboard work remains distinct but still pretty atmospheric.Most of the tracks have this ELOY/ANYONE'S DAUGHTER/PINK FLOYD/KAIPA combination of Space and Symphonic Rock with quite powerful guitar lines and superb synth/organ passages, often accompanied by haunting choirs, and this is the style East definitely performed very well.The other side of East, as aforementioned, explored a more Fusion style of playing, with keyboards and interplays in the forefront.The music is fast, rich and often adventurous, but it suffers (as most of the 80's Fusion efforts) from a slick and plastic sound, which additionally hurts the album's consistency.However even these tracks have some good keyboard runs and guitar solos to offer.

If you liked ''Jatekok'', ''Huseg'' will not dissapoint you.Divided into low-tempo symphonic soundscapes and more upbeat Fusion explorations, this album has plenty to offer.Strongly recommended...3.5 stars.