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Guldbamsen 
Special Collaborator
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Joined: January 22 2009
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Points: 23098
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 Posted: April 01 2015 at 16:48 |
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Vocals are a huge piece of the puzzle. It's the human part of any rock band, which also means that they play a big part in making or breaking any band.
Btw I listened to 'Love Oer Six Centuries' yesterday and it again reminded me why it's my absolute favourite Eloy track: those wonderfully quirky sounding drums! Yep those and then everything surrounding them; the surreal and sluggish keys, the way the guitar falls in with the bass line, oh my!
I lie though.....the best thing about that song are the LSD narratives spoken by that hazy drugged out chick.
Best Eloy tune ever!
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“The Guide says there is an art to flying or rather a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.”
- Douglas Adams
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Guy Guden
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Posted: April 01 2015 at 17:21 |
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I think probably those first six or so albums all have something special to offer. Power and the Passion comes to mind.
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kenethlevine
Special Collaborator
Prog-Folk Team
Joined: December 06 2006
Location: New England
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Points: 8854
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Posted: April 01 2015 at 22:22 |
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love Eloy, never bothered by Frank's vocals. I agree with Mellotron storm that they were probably at thenir most accented during the last 1970s, with Dawn especially bad (although it's a FANTASTIC album!). On the early albums his voice was too freaked out to be accented, and on the early 1980s albums he seemed to have improved a lot in every sense, which is just one of the many reasons that Colours, Planets and Time to Turn were, for me, the peak. Another was the marvellous synths, another the hearty change of direction while staying basically non-commercial, etc.
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mithrandir
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Location: New Mexico
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Points: 933
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Posted: April 01 2015 at 22:49 |
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I love everything about Eloy, and I like every one of their albums to some degree, and I've heard the most of em, but I haven't heard Ra or Destination yet, I wish they would get reissued, I'd like to own them too
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richardh
Prog Reviewer
Joined: February 18 2004
Location: United Kingdom
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Points: 26151
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Posted: April 02 2015 at 01:41 |
Ra has electronic drums so beware! I managed to find Destination not that long ago so I think its still available if you look hard enough. I've only played it a couple of times and can't think of anything to say about it. Although Eloy peaked in the early eighties (imo) they still have some solid releases post 1990 with Visionary , Tides Turn Forever and Ocean II all well worth having.
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Tom Ozric
Prog Reviewer
Joined: September 03 2005
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Posted: April 02 2015 at 04:28 |
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Right, setting the record straight, I LOVE ELOY. Frank's voice never bothered me, kudos to him for a German singing in English. The music is superb, up there with the best 'spacey, stoner, mellow' Prog .
My only 'beef' is when they credit ''Mellotron' on their albums, when it's clearly a string-synth. Such great musicians, how could they get it wrong ???? Several bands do this. Splitting hairs, but WTF ??
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kenethlevine
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Posted: April 02 2015 at 08:26 |
 richardh wrote:
Ra has electronic drums so beware! I managed to find Destination not that long ago so I think its still available if you look hard enough. I've only played it a couple of times and can't think of anything to say about it. Although Eloy peaked in the early eighties (imo) they still have some solid releases post 1990 with Visionary , Tides Turn Forever and Ocean II all well worth having. |
overall, though, I think Ra is superior to destination. Much better compositions. Well, Destination is probably my least favorite, even though they tried to shake things up a bit with flute. ""Tides" is a big improvement and "Ocean 2" even better. "Visionary" was disappointing; iven the long interval after Ocean 2, it was rather telling that they could barely must 40 minutes. But it does have a couple of strong songs in the Ocean 2 vein
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moshkito
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Joined: January 04 2007
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Points: 16148
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Posted: April 02 2015 at 08:57 |
Mellotron Storm wrote:
Hard to disagree with the Mosh man about the vocals. When it comes to Psychedelic and German Kosmiche they just aren't that important. Think of John L with Ashra Tempel or Moody with Can and on and on. There were some good vocalists i'm sure but it's about the mood and style more than the vocals. |
Eloy is not a good example for the vocals thing. ELOY was different than the previously named German bands and their music. Same with Jane. They were more straight ahead rock music of the somewhat progressive kind. Not sure they would be full fledged members of "progressive".
I think a bit differently since many of these bands were tied to a lot of other artists in film, theater and other dimentions. My take, is, that the voice, in those days, was considered an "instrument" and for the most part that was its function.
It did not mean, however, that a song could not be written, but the lyrics while you and I can sit here and try to make sense of all of "Wolf City", in the end, we will disagree on everything, just like the Friedels and I were not in agreement on "Apocaliptyc Bore", which to me was where AD2 ended ... when the lyrics started becoming venomous and pointed and vengeful. Even if Mozambique got its independence a few months later ... but the damage was done! CAN had the same thing going, with Damo there for Future Days (nicely too) but obviously showing his limitations in the work, and totally gone by Soon Over Babbalooma. The "voice" was now to be replaced by lyrics of any kind, I guess ... which they learnt from Damo, I bet, because Malcom was an actor and was working on rhymes and different work all around. Damo, was almost exclusively pure voice work.
The experimentations, through out the late 60's and early 70's were historic in most arts and their history ... only not so in the rock world, because we have turned it into a top ten and not look at the music from a grand'er perspective to see its influences and changes ... but the number and variety of styles and types make it harder, although this was more a reflection of the media than otherwise.
Edited by moshkito - April 02 2015 at 09:05
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Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told!
www.pedrosena.com
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kenethlevine
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Prog-Folk Team
Joined: December 06 2006
Location: New England
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Posted: April 02 2015 at 09:13 |
moshkito wrote:
Mellotron Storm wrote:
Hard to disagree with the Mosh man about the vocals. When it comes to Psychedelic and German Kosmiche they just aren't that important. Think of John L with Ashra Tempel or Moody with Can and on and on. There were some good vocalists i'm sure but it's about the mood and style more than the vocals. |
Eloy is not a good example for the vocals thing. ELOY was different than the previously named German bands and their music. Same with Jane. They were more straight ahead rock music of the somewhat progressive kind. Not sure they would be full fledged members of "progressive".
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I certainly concur with your JANE assessment. But ELOY I think were pretty full fledged prog at least after their first album. They changed from spacey to symphonic to spacey/symphonic to heavy, true, and they weren't experimental like the Krautrock bands, but prog, definitely IMO
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Pastmaster
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Joined: January 23 2015
Location: Spiderwood Farm
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Points: 1774
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Posted: April 02 2015 at 14:19 |
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I love Eloy, very underrated band. 'Floating' is one of my favorite albums of all time.
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verslibre
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Location: CA
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Posted: April 02 2015 at 14:41 |
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Floating, Ocean and Metromania sound like three different bands, and that's just one of the reasons I love Eloy.
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Pastmaster
Forum Senior Member
Joined: January 23 2015
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Posted: April 02 2015 at 15:43 |
verslibre wrote:
Floating, Ocean and Metromania sound like three different bands, and that's just one of the reasons I love Eloy. |
Yup, their early and later albums don't get much love sadly though. Their early albums and 'Destination' and 'Ocean 2' are masterpieces just as much as 'Dawn' and 'Ocean' are imo.
Edited by Pastmaster - April 02 2015 at 15:44
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Tom Ozric
Prog Reviewer
Joined: September 03 2005
Location: Olympus Mons
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Points: 15916
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Posted: April 03 2015 at 03:39 |
Least favourite album/least played of theirs would have to be Codename : Wildgeese. A soundtrack to a rather tacky film starring Ernest Borgnine and the late Klaus Kinski (who played a deluded nut so well  ). Interesting they chose Eloy to do the music at all.
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richardh
Prog Reviewer
Joined: February 18 2004
Location: United Kingdom
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Points: 26151
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Posted: April 03 2015 at 05:39 |
verslibre wrote:
Floating, Ocean and Metromania sound like three different bands, and that's just one of the reasons I love Eloy. |
Well seeing as the only constant was Bornemann (Klaus Peter Matziol did play on 2 but not Floating) then they pretty much were 
Edited by richardh - April 03 2015 at 05:40
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verslibre
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Joined: July 01 2004
Location: CA
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Points: 15006
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Posted: April 03 2015 at 10:15 |
richardh wrote:
verslibre wrote:
Floating, Ocean and Metromania sound like three different bands, and that's just one of the reasons I love Eloy. |
Well seeing as the only constant was Bornemann (Klaus Peter Matziol did play on 2 but not Floating) then they pretty much were |
Haha, true, but it's not so much the configs as sounding like psych, then space-symph, then a version of Grace-era Rush from another dimension (minus the vocals).
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verslibre
Forum Senior Member
Joined: July 01 2004
Location: CA
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Points: 15006
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Posted: April 03 2015 at 10:19 |
Tom Ozric wrote:
Least favourite album/least played of theirs would have to be Codename : Wildgeese. A soundtrack to a rather tacky film starring Ernest Borgnine and the late Klaus Kinski (who played a deluded nut so well ). Interesting they chose Eloy to do the music at all. |
Aw, man, don't hate on that soundtrack. I like it. It's not really Eloy, IIRC it was Hannes Folberth and Hannes Arkona (and Klaus-Peter Matziol had some input) operating under the name without Frank's permission. If you like Tangerine Dream's '80s film scores, Wildgeese isn't bad at all. I can see how everyone that listens to it is disappointed, like they're expecting Colourmania or something. 
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dr prog
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Joined: September 25 2010
Location: Melbourne
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Points: 2446
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Posted: April 03 2015 at 17:04 |
Great band from 1973-83.After that they suck lol. Metro 
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All I like is prog related bands beginning late 60's/early 70's. Their music from 1968 - 83 has the composition and sound which will never be beaten. Perfect blend of jazz, classical, folk and rock.
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mithrandir
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Joined: March 25 2006
Location: New Mexico
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Points: 933
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Posted: April 03 2015 at 19:44 |
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I love Metromania man! it has the Neon Rock flavor of so many late nite B-grade SciFi movies from the 80s!
I still want to get Ra and Destination for completest sake, they sound good enough for me and I see some used copes floating around for decent prices
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Pastmaster
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Joined: January 23 2015
Location: Spiderwood Farm
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Points: 1774
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Posted: April 03 2015 at 21:00 |
mithrandir wrote:
I love Metromania man! it has the Neon Rock flavor of so many late nite B-grade SciFi movies from the 80s!
I still want to get Ra and Destination for completest sake, they sound good enough for me and I see some used copes floating around for decent prices
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Ra is pretty good and Destination is a masterpiece imo. Never understood why they get so much hate. 
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Olape
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Joined: July 28 2013
Location: Chile
Status: Offline
Points: 2033
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Posted: April 03 2015 at 21:18 |
I also love ELOY and the vocals don't bother me. Cool music, especially the first albums (Floating, Inside, Power and the Passion...). 
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