TARKUS

Personally, there aren't many prog.rock bands that can hold my interest for more than 10-12 minutes per piece of music. ELP, YES, GENESIS and RUSH are the few exceptions. The _Tarkus Suite_ is one of the finest examples of the prog.rock suite out there(over 20 minutes)...the others being YES's CLOSE TO THE EDGE, GATES OF DELERIUM and AWAKEN, as well as RUSH's _Hemisphere Suite_ and GENESIS's _Supper's Ready_. Others being Caravan's _For Richard_, _Nine Feet Underground_...and the 2 Matching Mole and Hatfield & The North studio recordings(collectively). Some of the German electronic bands can manage the 20 suite competently, as well(Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk, Ashra, etc.). Not much to add here about ELP's _Tarkus_ that hasn't already been written other than it's a keyboard lover's delight. I haven't heard anything since that has brought to that mysterious gothic place since. The only low point of this album is _Are You Ready Eddie?_, but it's joke track to begin with and they placed that turkey at the end of the album. Had they placed at the beginning of Side B, it would be questionable(as in...wow, you've just killed a classic album, guys!). The other classic here are the heavy duty _Bitches Crystal_ and the spacious _Infinite Space/The Only Way_ which reminds me of ELP meets Thelonius Monk. Nice time changes. The heavy rocker _A Time And A Place_ would not be out of place on something like Deep Purple's _Fireball_. Another great track. Jeremy Bender? A competent short track, sounding Pete Sinfield-influenced lyrically, but nothing amazing. Nothwithstanding the flaws of Tarkus, this gets a 5 star rating since the annoyance factor is very limited. Another great starter for those wanting an introduction to prog.rock. You can't go wrong with TARKUS>