REFUGEE

Refugee

Symphonic Prog

4.14 | 271 ratings

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Easy Livin
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator / Retired Admin

One album wonders!

Sadly, the only album made by what was effectively The Nice with Swiss keyboards wizard Patrick Moraz replacing Keith Emerson (who had left for ELP).

What Refugee produced was a very well constructed and progressive album. The music bears only passing resemblance to the Emerson dominated work of the Nice, with much more of a democracy in evidence. This gives the album a noticeable balance.

Jackson's vocals will never win him any awards, but their gruffness seems right at home here, and in any case, much of the time his voice is not required. Moraz keyboard work is excellent, his familiar jazzy slurring on the synthesiser is predominant, similar to that which made "Relayer" so different from other Yes albums.

The tracks are split between three pretty straight forward pieces clocking in at around the five minutes, and two long structured pieces of pure prog. "Grand Canyon" does a good job of painting a picture of said wonder of the world, with lyrics such as "We'll swoop right up the canyon wall, then like an eagle down we'll falllll (descending echoes on the word "fall")", you get the idea! "Credo" is a slightly rougher more Nice like piece, with slightly jazzier keyboards.

It really is a pity the band did not remain together to develop their unique sound. Moraz went on to replace Rick Wakeman in Yes for the "Relayer" album, then had a spell in Moody Blues with who he recorded several albums.

The fan base was there for Refugee to exploit, but this was and apparently always will be a one off album. (If your searching for the LP version of the album, Beware of releases by another unrelated band bearing the same name.)

Easy Livin | 4/5 | 2004-5-6

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