WHITE ROCK

Roland Thoeni passed away, and remebering one of the few times when he performed better than his most famous brother Gustav has made me think to the winter games of Innsbruck 1976 and consequently to this album released one year after by Rick Wakeman. 1977 is also the year of the good "Criminal Records", but even with some similarities, White Rock isn't at the same level. To give an idea, it's closer to Breathalyser than to Judas Iscariot.

One of the reason is that it's just the soundtrack of a documentary about the winter games and I have the impression that it's mainly made of material which didn't find a place on Criminal Records.

The only thing that I really find remarkable consists in the first two minutes of Lax'x (whatever it means) which are different from anything previously released by Wakeman, a sort of experiment. The album opener features a moog so that for the first seconds the listener may think that Emerson is playing.

Possibly, the only reason to give a title like "Montezuma's revenge" to a track consists in the similarities between the effects that this track and the Montezuma sickness can cause. Playing as fast as Paganini is not enough.

There are some goodies, anyway. This is not a "good-for-the-trash" album. The guy who plays is still some Rick Wakeman and when he goes "classical" is never bad.

The album highlight is the closer, maybe this is the reason why it deserved a title referring to the Ice.

Anyway, this is listenable enough and has to be considered for what it is: just a soundtrack for a documentary. Together with the commented images it may make a different effect.

2.5 stars rounded up for the skill