FLOATING

Inevitably, I'll keep comparing FLOATING to Eloy's most known body of work, OCEAN, because the two albums are quite different in approach. If you've ever heard OCEAN, you're aware of the epic storyline and overboard slabs of mellotron and synth, all wrapped in a symphonic package. FLOATING is nothing like that.

FLOATING is more heavily reliant on Bornemann's guitar and Manfred Wieczorke's Hammond organ. Because of this, FLOATING on its surface caters more to the fans of pure hard rock and psychedelic rock. Prog aspects are here, chiefly in the nearly fifteen minute epic, ''The Light From Deep Darkness'' and ''Plastic Girl'', the only time synths appear (and used rather sparingly).

However, the heart of the album is the extended jamming. For all of those that might be worried about the jam sessions, you can count on Eloy pulling off some solo (mostly guitar and organ, although there are a couple of drum solos to cringe at) without overdoing it on the pyrotechnics, dynamic changes are likely to occur (excepting ''Castles in the Air''), and they usually feel shorter than they really are. The big epic here is a great example of this as at the end of the song, it builds, crashes, rebuilds and hits its epic climax without making you feel you've wasted a minute.

For those with little patience, the title track is a snazzy organ drvien fusion-rocker with wordless vocals. About the vocals, they happen only sporadically, so if you're annoyed with Frank Bornemann singing, you get a break. Actually the vocals aren't too bad until Frank tries to be metal halfway through ''...Deep Darkness''. The only musically weak spot is the Deep Purple rocker in ''Madhouse'' that at times sounds like Jethro Tull.

This is pure hard psychedelic prog rock that actually pleases me more than OCEAN does, believe it or not. However, both FLOATING and OCEAN have their quirks, and both are good entry points into the mystical world of Eloy.