FOOL TAPES

These early tapes from the band aren't a thrilled experience in my old prog ears. Early neo-prog (or close) mixed with some weird texture as the reggae-ish opening number ''The Curious Line''. An horror during the vocal parts while pretty decent during the fine instrumental ones.

But this is going to be a major concern throughout their career, unfortunately.

Some mix with old disco times (''Dirty Needles'') aren't really what you would expect from a prog band. But at times, the mix of music is not too bad, but there is nothing to write home about these early ''fool tapes'' really.

Some catchy pop melodies are the best you can expect from this album. But don't expect anything a la ELO or from the great Marillion Mark I. The band doesn't come even close to such concepts. At best, some average elevator music. No more here.

The overall mood expresses a lot of boredom. One really needs a lot of patience to go through the whole of this album. But the band will do better later on even if their best times are combined with a total ''Genesis'' cloning. But I'll discuss this in a later review.

As far as this album is concerned, I can't go over two stars in terms of rating. It is really a very, very average album. Very much to the later days of ''Genesis'' while they were three. I guess that you get the picture (''What Do You See'').