NORDLAND

Musically fairly rich and dense in a heavy symphonic sort of way, "Nordland" suffers mercilessly at the hands of vocalist Georg Buschmann, who mangles almost every track with screams and taunts. if that isn't enough, we have to contend with yet another drama queen version of Eleanor Rigby, and a quasi reprise called "Da Capo". Indeed the best parts of this album are the instrumental parts, even those that last mere seconds. Of particular note is "Italian concert in rock", which is very classically influenced, keyboard dominated and sans vocals.

Streetmark seems to be having trouble deciding exactly what image they want to project, and in fact therein lies a major flaw. The album seems to be about projecting images, fleeting pastiches of posturing and method acting. While Buschmann is the main culprit, admittedly skilled guitarist Thomas Schreiber must shoulder a fair amount of blame. He is too often guilty of the same type of overemoting on his instrument. Keyboard player Dorothea Raukes seems to hold the fort, lending a consistent mood to the excellent "Waves and Visions", while providing momentary inspired flourishes in between the rants.

There are many better places to start your exploration of German prog from the 1970s than this Streetmark album. In fact, it would be hard to imagine anyone who would recommend it first. Whatever of the myriad styles projected by Streetmark, there is a band that handles it with far greater clarity and conviction.