REFLECTIONS !

Apparently when Second Battle in Germany wanted to reissue "Reflections on the Future", a rather obscure German prog rock album released in 1972 on United Artists, the master tapes were apparently lost (especially since United Artists, as a record label ceased to exist long ago). So this CD apparently contains 1971 alternate versions of the entire "Reflections On the Future", as well as bonus material that originally surfaced on "Reflections on the Past". So I don't think I'm getting the original "Reflections on the Future" on this CD reissue, but it don't seem to matter. Because this is some truly killer heavy prog rock with killer Hammond organ. This stuff really grows on you.

The band at least had sense to use an English-born vocalist (in this case, Geff Harrison, later of KIN PING ME). His vocals did throw me off as he sounds at times like BS&T's David Clayton-Thomas, and at other times like Rod Stewart. Not exactly the style of voices I'm accustomed to in prog rock, so I don't alway think the vocal passages were the best thing of the album, but there are exceptions, especially "Autumn". "Butterking" oddly reminds me of GENESIS (mainly because of the GABRIEL imitations here - did these guys pick up a copy of "Trespass", or was it just coincidence?), but with more keyboard pyrotechnics. "Reflections of the Future" is a prime example of the good and bad of this album, the vocal sections just aren't up to par, but when the instrumental passages come in, they just kick butt (plus the band really goes off the deep end with some disturbing electronic experiments on the VCS-3 synthesizer and Mellotron). "The Way I Feel Today", like "Autumn", is another excellent cut where even the vocal sections are great. Since the vocalist was sounding like David Clayton-Thomas here, I was expecting to hear some BS&T type of horns anytime (ditto for the opening cut, "At My Home"), but not at all! The three additional cuts are "Spring", "I Wanna Stay" and "Time Can't Take it Away". "Spring" is an all-instrumental organ-driven piece that never made it on "Reflections on the Future", while "I Wanna Stay" tends to be a more straighforward rocker. "Time Can't Take It Away" is rather mediocre, complete with clichéd female backup vocals. Anyway, incredible music, especially if you like such acts as ELP, The NICE, JETHRO TULL, and perhaps even GENESIS.