AMENOPHIS

A decent release from the dark ages of prog (1983). Heavily influenced by Camel, this group creates an enticing canvases of Latimer-esque guitar and flowing analogue keyboards. I don't really hear a big Genesis-influence, as others have said. Not as much as Neuschwanstein, anyway. Heavy on the beauty, not the chops, which is good for me, but if Relayer is your favourite album, this won't nearly be choppy enough for you. The vocals are as predictably poor as we can expect from European bands trying to wrap their tongues around clumsy English lyrics, but fortunately, as on many Eloy albums, the long instrumental passages are worth trying to ignore them. The CD collects a bunch of bonus tracks, which are in French for some reason, but they are nice acoustic pieces which don't resemble the rest of album much. Camel freaks might want to search this one out.