FLOWER IN ASPHALT

A pleasant, if slight instrumental album that often gets compared to Camel...if so, it's B-grade Camel at best. The band lacks Andy Latimer's impeccable sense of melody, and the lead guitar player lacks the skill and fire of players like Latimer and Gilmour. That said, this album does have some pleasant aspects to recommend it. Sting synth and mellotron sounds are used to good effect, and there is indeed an air of defiant romanticism about the whole thing, not surprising considering the year it was recorded. I'd compare it to Novalis, another German synth and guitar symphonic band that never quite gets up to the melodic heights that would make their work classic.