LIGHT

The lyrics is about Moses. I think that is kind of given by the album title. The lyrics seems OK and cannot offend anyone. It is said that this a Christian rock album. In that case, Iron Maiden's The Number Of The Beast album was a Christian rock album too. And the latter one was not particular popular with the Christian fundamentalists around the world. The story of Moses is one of the best stories from the world of literature and it does not surprise me the slightest that a prog rock band has made a concept album out of it. Christian or not Christian band.

The music is pretty good with some vibes from The Nice, The Moody Blues, Procul Harum and baroque music. The sound is old vintage with a brilliant keyboard and mellotron sound. The music is not particular overcrowded with instruments. The keyboard, mellotron and the pretty pleasant vocals suffice here on this rather understated album. The story telling is rather over the top though. I guess the band had one eye on the possibility of getting this music into a theater too. It feels a bit musical like, this album.

Unfortunate, my main gripe is the lack of any great songs. Good songs are a plenty. There is no great songs though and no songs which puts this album alight. But it is a good album and a great choice for those into the above mentioned bands. Let's hope this album does not spend as much time in a desert as Moses did.

3 stars

The story is told from the moment when little Moses is found floating in his basket on a river by a daughter of the Pharaoh, thus the album starts with some watery sounds, leading to the intro of "The water" with an organ that sounds very much like a real church instrument. This gives way to a very melodic piece where Adri Vergeer makes his mellotron, keyboards and organ sound like a whole orchestra, all in all giving the theme for the first parts of the album. There is even a bit of quite heavy drumming by Sjaco van der Speld.

On the way to the second title we hear Vergeers organ and Gerard Steenbergen on acoustic guitar, the music sounding a bit Moody Blues-ian. The voice of Marian Schatteleyn gives us the first vocal impression, when she's telling where Moses got his name from. Quite heavy dutch accent, she has, while the singer - I think Vergeer - doesn't give away his country of origin so easily as his vocals in english don't give a hint. He tells the first part of the story in song.

Then a bluesy guitar intro opens "The Blackberry Bushes". During this song there's sort of a Santana-esque part with all sorts of percussion, Hans Hollestelles electric guitar and Vergeers organ, getting jazzy soon when Hans de Bruin kicks in with his saxophone, the band reminding of Colloseum. This leads into another vocal part with Robbie Dale telling about the burning bushes. The rest of side one of the album is dominated by Greenslade-ian keyboards.

Side 2 opens with "White turns into black", there's a lot more of Vergeers organ, the bass leading the band into a piece that could stem from fellow countrymen "Ekseption" or "The Nice" accompanied by flute. This leads to "The nuisances" with - I'm quite sure - Robbie Dale telling about the plagues God sent (rain, hailstorms, frogs etc.) and the band giving a short acoustic impression of the nuisances. "The desert" and "The red sea" follow and have an arabian touch (or maybe it's just what a european thinks of as arabian) with de Bruins saxophone defining the mood.

Unfortunately the vocal performance is a bit weaker on side two. Also the ending is a bit abrupt and leaves you with the feeling, that there's something missing like a closing piece.

I sometimes think that "Light" were just a bit too early or too continental european for bigger success, which they certainly deserved. Although I've mentioned some other bands they are not plagiarising anybody, my mentioning them was just for comparing. I personally would have loved to hear more from the band Light.

"The Story Of Moses" may not be a masterpiece, but I consider it well worth for Prog-afficinados.