CIRCLE OF THE CRAYFISH

A progressive rock duo,which started as a regular band in 1969 in Bad Kreuznach under the guidance of 19-years old keyboardist Armin Stöwe.Soon the band was shortened to a duo with Stöwe taking over the guitars as well,while next to him was drummer Ronald Schupp.By the fall of 1972 the duo recorded their sole studio release ''Circle of the Crayfish''.The album was released the next year on Phillips.

The sound on the album is keyboard-driven Hard Prog, dominated by Stöwe's keyboards supported by Schupp's powerful and technical drumming.The opening ''Ballast'' is a fast- groove track,featuring some hard guitar playing along with driving organ and steady drumming.''Kolibri'' is more in an E.L.P. vein with alternating jazzy and classical-inspired themes.Good organ and piano throughout along with impressive drumming.''Becoming older'' is the first track with vocals.Actually the vocals are supported by melodic organ-driven rock,soon to be replaced by hard jammming parts,very close to FRUMPY.Journey is more of the same.Long jamming along with classical-inspired passages and some vocal parts.The 15-min. ''Paradise lost'' opening the flipside is quite a (bad) surprise and far from the previous style.It opens with an ultra-long intro,featuring synths and gongs,close to Electronic-Kraut to be followed by another very long fast organ/synth/drums jamming with repetitive rhythms till the end.The vocal part by the last minutes will not save it from failure.The closing ''Crayfish'' is dominated by the pounding organ and the nervous synths playing,but the whole idea is rather stretched out.

''Circle Of The Crayfish'' is not the better place to start your progressive rock journey.It follows an organ-driven style many bands had already left behind by 1973 and the long jamming parts tend to be rather boring and extended along the way.Of course the album is very far from being a disaster,there are plenty of talent and good ideas among the tracks,but they are enough to record two or three good numbers and not a full-length release.For those, who can't escape themselves from a rather dated organ-driven Proto-Prog sound,this album may be of significant interest.