JANE

Fire Water Earth Air is another dreamy Jane album, but like the length of the album this review will be short. The album is a classic Jane, 33 minutes long but seems much shorter, maybe because there is only 3 songs. The first song is 17 minutes long and has some great guitar work and the vocals are great on this song, really they are great on the whole album, Panka must have been working on his English. Though like I've said before because he can't do English that well the music and his voice work really good together and this song is excellent.

This album was much better than Lady. After the first 3 albums which were all good came Lady which was a notch down. Then starting with this album came another 3 more good albums. The next song is only 5.5 minutes and then it closes out with a 11 minute number which starts out with some cool lyrics, the middle has some keyboards and sound effects and closes out with guitar and synth. Another one of those albums that are great with headphones and sit back and take a trip. Rate this at 3.5.

This second album by Jane is just a dreamy flow of beautiful music. The singer from the first album is gone but drummer Peter Panka takes on the vocals. Hess and Krantz play both bass and lead guitar and both are quite good. The best way to listen to this album, just start with Redskin a mostly instrumental bluesy track and just sit back until you get to Her We Are as all the songs fit nicely together and will take you on a trip.

After Redskin is Out in the Rain a nice ballad with nice lead guitar and then an acoustic track Dandelion. Moving flows right after and is followed by two more instrumental songs until the climax Here We Are. All of the songs have great lead guitar along with the keyboards and even though Panka's English is not very good, the vocals just blend beautiful with the music. Great album.

Oh, the 70's! The decade of the double live album! So many masterpieces came from that time: Deep Purple with Made In Japan, Uriah Heep with Live, Wishbone Ash with Live Dates, UFO with Strangers In The Night, to name but a few. Even live triple albums were game in that category (Yessongs and Welcome Back My Friends..., were the prime ones). Well, it seemed a sure shot for everyone. And even some, say, "second league" bands did release some at least very good ones. So when I found out that Germany prog rocker Jane did theirs, I smelled something good. And, thankfully I was right. Jane never really got much of my attention at the time, for there were so many better and more creative groups releasing far superior albums at the time, even in that country (Triumvirat, Ammon Dull II, Eloy and others). But nowadays I tend to appreciate their work more. And as a live band they do sound better than in the studio, at least for me.

At Home Live was recorded at their hometown, Hannover, and so, the audience was truly a fanatical one. Everything work on this album: the cover the repertoire, the performances, the production, even (excellent picture of Mars landscape). I was drawn to this record mainly because it featured ex Eloy Manfred Wieczorke on keyboards, so I knew it would have lots of heavy Hammond runs, and sure enough they are there. Jane never really got too sophisticated or complex as its contemporaries, and it shows on the longer tracks, where it is clear they are not capable of long solos or jams and are relying a lot on Wieczorke's talent to hold things up. Although it does not always work, most of the time it does. And, what the hell, it is a kind of "best of" compilation, I guess the songs featured here are indeed their best so far. I'm not so fond of the last track, the unreleased Windows. With its 20 minute long running time it shows that it was a good idea not to commit that one of their studio album. Typical at the time it has its moments but could have been cut to one third of its length for a better result. But I guess they had to prove they could deliver their "epic". It was kind of obligatory in the 70's to do such thing, I guess, even if you could not really handle such undertaking.

All in all a real good live album, Not really a masterpiece, but a solid work with probably the best songs and performances of those guys. And I love those vintage keyboards sounds!

Rating: 3,5 stars, that I will round to four because of those great keys!

A real disappointment after some of the heights they scaled on the first two albums. It explores similar territory to Wishbone Ash using the same twin guitar line up but there is still enough of Jane in there somewhere to give the album an identity which is unique. The real problem with this album are some truly abysmal vocal performances. It seems like the band was trying to be democratic but handing the vocal duties on a potentially great track like 'Mother You Don't Know' to Charly Maucher is a disaster. The results are a great composition married to the worst pub rock vocals.

' I Need You' fares better its a great composition and a fine melody, but the vocal is still the weakest part . The version which appears as 'Rest Of My Life' on the live album 'At Home' is miles better. Piano and acoustic guitar feature on the ballad `Way to Paradise' which has a passable lead vocal . Despite the flaws its still a good album , interesting and a part of the Jane story so 3 stars .

This album is one of those which could have been an all time classic but fails because of the way the tracks have been compiled. It contains the sensational 'Out In The Rain' which is enough on its own to guarantee greatness. one of the all time peaks of progressive rock

So what went wrong ? ...well 'Redskin' for a start is a disastrous choice to open a vital album. It would have been OK tucked away to close Side 2 but as a grand opener it just doesn't work. There is not enough melody form and it soon gets repetitive. Everything else is just dandy. 'Waterfall' is great too. I tend to skip side 1 but on the odd occasion I do give it a spin its an enjoyable experience. Jane are always interesting and this is indeed an excellent addition to any prog collection, so I'm saying 4 stars.

This surely must be worth 5 stars. Its a very bold idea to mix classic tracks with unreleased material in a live album. This wonderful collection consists of familiar material from the first 5 albums plus previously unreleased tracks . The ratio is 50/50 of classic tracks to new tracks but everything blends together remarkably well. It's probably because the tempos , keys , melodic ranges of the lead lines and the feel of the tracks is very similar. Its true symphonic prog. A masterpiece which was a huge seller in Germany and even broke the band in America (well a little bit anyway)

The cover picture of the surface of Mars was also a bold move for an album released in 1977. Everything is perfect. This album should be hailed alongside Made In Japan, Strangers In the Night and Uriah Heep Live as one of the all time double live albums.

The unreleased material consists of 'All My Friends', Expectation', 'Another Way' ,'River', 'High Time For Crusaders' and 'Windows' This is a real masterpiece. If you only try one Jane album this will have you hooked. Then you can move on to the first album, possibly skipping Jane III and go as far as 'Masque'. 'Masque' is where I leave the Jane fold , but I'm always prepared to be lured back in!

I love the combination of bluesy stonerrock and progrock.

Jane is a great bluesy spacerock band with less emphasis on the synth and more emphasis on the guitar.

Jane sounds somewhat like Eloy (Floating, Inside) but with less organ. Because Jane doesn't have a strong vocalist, the vocals are minimal and most of the music is instrumental. Somehow it also sounds a bit like real early Wishbone Ash.

I love the concept of Fire, Earth, Water and Air, but it's not really important to the music. I think that a lot of people expect the band to play some cosmic krautrock, but they are essentially a heavy guitarband with a proggy side to it.

I will have to be honest about this album: it's disjointed, it's messy. Age of Madness was the end of their space rock phase, and what they demonstrated on Between Heaven & Hell, you'd think they were able to continue on the greatness of that album. Unfortunately that's not the case. The instrumental title track is actually quite good, has more than a hint of Eloy in it, which is really no surprise when you know that Manfred Wieczorke is responsible for the keyboard playing (he left Eloy after the fiasco of Power and the Passion - itself a great album - for a more financially stable band, in this case, Jane). But there is so much questionable stuff that just doesn't appeal to me. They attempt to sound like the Kinks with Ray Davies type of vocals on one song, and much of the rest of the album left little impression on me. I have to say that Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Live at Home, and Age of Madness show Jane at their finest (particularly their space rock phase), so I'd suggest you go for those albums instead.

Jane's debut album, "Together," is a prime example of early heavy prog from Germany. They also inject a bit of psychedelia into their brand of heavy prog. The reviews/ratings of this album are varied here on PA, and good points are made both to praise and to criticize this album. I, for one, really enjoy this album.

The songs are all good, but what really stands out for me is the singing of vocalist Bernd Pulst. This would be the only album he would be featured on, and the next year he was dead. Such as shame for a great talent to die so young. I have not been able to find any information on why he passed away, but I'm guessing it was drug related. Anyway, to give you an idea what he sounded like, think of something like Joe Cocker with a German accent. Some people don't care for it, but I think his vocal performance gives the music an emotional element often missing in prog rock. While none of the musicians are technical masters of their instruments, the performances are solid. At times some of the songs sound a bit like Eloy circa "Inside" or "Floating," but this album actually predates those, so I guess Eloy sounded a bit like Jane! The opener "Daytime," and the closer "Hangman" are the two standout tracks for me, primarily for their emotional impact. The most progressive track is the 11+ minute "Spain," which changes direction several times.

While Jane would go on to greater success on subsequent albums, their first is by far my favorite. Recommended to those who can enjoy a progressive rock album without all the technical wizardry that often goes with it. 4 stars.

A band with constant revolving door line-ups, the sudden departure of keyboard player Werner Nadolny from German rock band Jane meant the sound of their eventual third album in 1974 would be powered by guitars. Acid, psychedelic and hard rock still dominate, no surprise as those are all part of the usual Jane template, but perhaps `Jane III' was still their least ambitious album to date at the time. However, although the lack of keyboards and that beautiful glistening Hammond organ from their previous discs means `III' is initially quite disappointing from a progressive rock standpoint, patient listeners will still find a decent collection of Seventies rock tunes with plenty of instrumental fire to interest them here.

Just listen to the way the bass murmurs in constant delight throughout the plodding opener `Comin' Again', with repetitive guitars strums chiming into infinity and Charly Maucher's mud-thick bass and rough-as-guts vocals slurring through the mix. There's definitely a stoned, wasted Krautrock lethargy to the thick atmosphere, but the manic rising guitar solo in the finale is quite joyous and transcending. Dusty bluesy fire grooves through `Mother You Don't Know', `I Need You' starts as a dreamy ballad that grows in gutsy power as it moves on, and nice piano and acoustic guitar floats through weary ballad `Way to Paradise'.

`Early in the Morning' is wailing acid rock with oceans of electric guitar feedback and some very hazy hallucinogenic panning feedback back and forth in the mix to really bring your mind grinding to a halt! `Jane-Session' starts as a mellow jam with just a hint of droning menace before guitars rage in every direction as it builds in tempo. While the tune of `Rock N Roll Star' is pretty unmemorable, it picks up during a fuzzy heavy psychedelic second half, `King of Thule' is a brief regal instrumental, and `Baby What You're Doin' closes the album, a stomping grooving rocker with a fairly inane boogie chorus, but it's throwaway fun in a fairly brainless way.

`Jane III' is a good little rock album from a great psychedelic hard rock band, and while they made better (and slightly proggier!) albums, this is still a fine collection of rocking tunes and great playing, with a welcome heavy wasted quality throughout the entire disc. The gorgeous psychedelic artwork makes it just a little better as well - lucky those who have it on vinyl!

Three stars.