NEW VIEWS

TRIBUTE were a Swedish progressive band who recorded 2 very sweet studio albums in the mid 80's which featured GONG's Pierre Moerlen. "New Views" was their first album which features the most amazing 22 Mins epic track "New Views". This track alone makes the album well worth the price... gentle GENESIS-like 8 mins acoustic guitar intro with building symphonic keyboard passages and great melodic mid section instrumental interplay before the majestic and energized conclusion. This album is all instrumental with emphasis on the keyboards giving off a symphonic fusion world of colors and with the guitar accents really reminds me at times of CAMEL, ALAN PARSONS, ELOY and even The ENID. I must warn you that TRIBUTE's music is very easy going and takes you along for the ride without introducing cluttered and/or unnecessary complex time signature changes or mood swings. The focus of the music is definitely pro-melody with some real grand musical moments. In other words no real surprises here and a bit along the contemporary commercial side of things which is not as this proves always a bad thing my friends. Overall a great album and one of those albums progressive music fans will be grateful for owning in their collection... and one that Mom will love as well.

Well I’m not sure what the ‘New Views’ are the band is referring to in this album’s title, as there is very little here that is particularly inspired or original. That said, the band does a respectable job of keeping their ambient sounds moving along at a steady pace for the entire forty-six minutes of the record. The name Tribute almost seems to refer to the fact that the group seems to be paying tribute to their influences, and almost all of them must be other eighties bands.

This is a slightly obscure Swedish outfit who apparently recorded this and another album in the eighties with the support of Gong’s Pierre Moerlen, but this music is much more subdued and less ambitious than the stuff Gong did.

The first couple of tracks remind me a little of the gentler side of Gentle Giant, and even a bit of Happy the Man, a band that has received quite a bit of critical acclaim over the years for reasons that escape me personally.

“Climbing to the Top” on the other hands sounds remarkably like an Alan Parsons Project tune; a repetitive keyboard sequence combined with a simple bass line and some melodic guitar to accentuate the arrangement. Really not much more than that – I have to wonder if the band had a stack of APP records with them in the studio for inspiration. And Gideon Andersson on drums could almost be mistaken for Mick Fleetwood circa Fleetwood Mac’s self-titled album, or maybe even ‘Bare Trees’. “Unknown Destination” could be taken for a Parsons composition as well, with maybe just a little bit of a borderline Giorgio Moroder thrown in for good measure.

The pièce de résistance (sort of) is the twenty-plus minute title track. I say that rather loosely since in this case the lengthy arrangement really only further reinforces the band’s style of understated, restrained acoustic and keyboard noodling. Around the ten minute mark things pick up with a slightly martial beat and flute, followed by a bit of a percussion jam that is mildly interesting but never really builds to anything definitive. The bells and choral ending is sort of anti-climactic, and barely worth the investment of time it takes to get that far listening to the album.

File this one under ‘I understand why it is in the stacks at the public library’, as in – nobody liked it enough to steal it. A decent enough instrumental album with potential as mood music on a sleepy evening when you don’t want to invest much energy or mental effort in your music listening. But not essential by any means, and only mildly progressive. Recommended without much enthusiasm to folks who get into Gentle Giant, probably Camel, Happy the Man, or Alan Parsons. But that’s about it. Three stars.

peace

2.5 stars actually...

TRIBUTE were a 7-member Swedish art rock band,found in 1982 in Norrkoping,Sweden by multi-instrumentalists Christer Rhedin and Gideon Andersson.The band promoted their work mainly in Germany and Holland,before releasing their first album ''New views'' in 1984.Their first effort was an interesting combination of early MIKE OLDFIELD-like atmosheric music,keyboard electronic progressive in the vein of TANGERINE DREAM and symphonic rock,not unlike mid 70's GENESIS and CAMEL.The album is totally instrumental (except some sparse female choruses) and,considering the year of its release,it was a very important work for progressive rock,as TRIBUTE tried to keep this sound alive blending 70's progressive musicianship with 80's electronics and effects...However,to my ears TRIBUTE's debut sounds like a false combination of unoriginal ideas,while the musically accesible instrumental leanings are over the top sometimes.So,not really my cup of tea and occasionally I will return to this album,but can't rate it with more than 2.5 stars...