EAST

This is the absolute pits for a once promising Prog band. They fell between two chairs after disowning their Prog roots and then repeatedly producing below Pop "refuse".

Oh, I am counting my words as I am to get up to at least 100 in order to get beyond just rating this band, but to warn unsuspecting Prog fans to avoid this album at any costs.

OK, so far about 73 words. Phew! No, don't get me wrong, I haven't just recently lost my marbles (it was a long time ago, LOL!), it's just I can't think of anything more to say about this disaster of a release. Perhaps one of the worst albums listed on PA.

EAST have done some credible works before on "Huseg" and "Sodom", but here they have let all their friends down. Big time.

Tamed all-right, their essence was largely relinquished, retaining only elements of their former delivery. This album "Huseg" translates as "Loyalty contains remnants of the earlier years. Reasonably good with vocals that are not "bad", only "excess to requirement", the instrumental bits command due attention.

Special mention is due to Geza PALVOLGYI (keyboards) , who has become a darling of the Hungarian rock scene contributing to a miriad of different projects, some are more noteworthy than others.

EAST had a revolving door to great Hungarian musicians, but their recorded material with the band rarely did justice to the talents involved.

Founding member Janos VARGA (guitar) still helps to lift this album to some more credibility, but if you wanted to hear them at their best, you'd want to check out the first release by the JANOS VARGA PROJECT.

In comparison with most of their other works, I feel compelled to rate this one a 4. Without the forced vocals it would be closer to 4.5.

BTW, this band is sitting here rather erroneously as Neo-Prog, a genre that they don't belong with. Someone please take note.

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"Bread and butter" issues saw the band undertake a Pop-Rock approach following almost constant line-up changes. Only then were they able to start recording, by which time the music bore no resemblance to the original Eclectic-Prog style.

The following years saw a number of talented musicians come and go, contributing to an increasingly mediocre material on offer and their involvement didn't really lift the game to any convincing extent.

To brand this live album as Neo-Prog is rather generous. Even Crossover would be borderline. This remarkably bland and boring music may have some appeal to the "uninitiated", but in Prog terms it's a non-event. Not strong enough even for commercial appeal and too weak to be considered as quality Rock by any measure. One foot here, one foot there and the end result is falling in between two chairs.

The vocals are somewhat disturbing and indeed rather embarrassing, representing the weakest part in the performance. Frankly, the "voice" is just not there and singing in key alone is not sufficient to provide much satisfaction. Only the female back-up singers offer a degree of relief in places, but that's hardly what Prog is about. Odd instrumental passages, guitar fills are few and far between and whilst can be pleasant, they are not the dominant aspect of the works on offer.

I wouldn't recommend this album to anyone expecting quality music in any genre.

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.

East is a Hungarian neo progressive band with their heyday in the eighties.The music is actually quite simple but the band has some mollifying aspects that could be the trick here. They sing in their native language, sound pretty timid and the production quality is a bit modest to say the least. And maybe also the fact that in the eighties the usual production quality wasn't exactly high in most cases and let's not forget on top of that Hungary was still communistic when most of their albums were released and didn't have as much contact with western music as nowadays.

Anyway, despite this all, if I have to give my opinion about what I hear it's hard for me to become enthusiastic. I usually don't give extra points for reasons as mentioned above. I give my judgement about what I hear and that's it. And East just doesn't do it for me. Like I said, the music is simple, there are no highlights where songs or instrumental ingenuity are concerned. The most interesting aspect I could discover was some nice percussion in some of the songs. But if that is all I'm afraid the rating will have to be limited here. 2 stars.

"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.