GREEN DESERT

According to the liner notes this was recorded in 1973 between "Atem" and "Phaedra" with the sole purpose of it being a taster for Richard Branson's "Virgin Records" label. It worked as they were signed to a 5 year record deal. The money the received was used to invest in new equipment and they promptly made "Phaedra" with it.This particular recording was set aside until Froese dug it out of the archives in 1984 and added some new material while re-mixing the rest. So yes it has that 80's flavour for good reason. Froese was prone to do things like this, he did it with some of his solo albums to the dismay of many fans.The mellotron is one of the victims when Froese starts to mess around in the recording studio with older material. I guess he likes the more modern sound. I cry sacriledge ! Anyway this is a very good record in my opinion regardless of what Froese did.

"Green Desert" is the side long opener which opens with sounds that drone and hover as other spacey sounds come and go. Drums start to beat slowly after 4 1/2 minutes. Guitar comes in a minute later and mellotron 7 minutes in. I like this a lot. Drums get louder and start to dominate as the guitar stops. Drums also stop before 16 minutes as it turns spacey. PINK FLOYD comes to mind after 18 minutes. Amazing tune !

"White Clouds" opens with drums and synths and again the synths a minute in remind me of FLOYD. The tempo picks up. There are some added jungle sounds which remind me of Froese's "Epsilon In Malaysian Pale" album. Cool song. "Astral Voyager" has lots of sequencer sounds that pulse as other synths join in. "Indian Summer" is the only track that i'm not totally into yet. Synths chords come and go in a rhythm as other sounds come in.

Well worth 4 stars in my opinion.