AGEMO'S TRIP TO MOTHER EARTH

I hadn't realized that Group 1850 was part of the database until a couple of months ago. My mother bought their debut for some reason unbeknownst to me, but I got to sneak in a few listens. My conclusion is that AGEMO'S TRIP TO MOTHER EARTH is rather messy and unfocused.

If you've ever had problems with bands that cannot solidify their art for an entire album, Group 1850 seems to have trouble with stability for even a song. ''You Did It Too Hard'' is a good example; for a minute it starts off as a cool heavy-psych song, but then it starts to get destroyed by chirpy dialogue (a la Frank Zappa circa WE'RE ONLY IN IT?) that is complete buzzkill. And in comparison to Zappa's band, they (up until MONEY) could use the goony humour in good context; there simply isn't a good excuse that ''You Did It Too Hard'' ends the way it does.

And that's just the shortest song. ''Refound'' and ''Reborn'' achieve the best consistency on the record, but sound like prelude or interlude tracks that merely pad. Big problem-those two songs close the album. They save the rating of the record, but ending the album on that kind of lull is simply a bad idea. Noise excursion also disrupts the flow of the record (to their credit, none are separate tracks) of which most tracks sound like lesser Mothers, Moody Blues (the big influence I detected; listen to the spoken word section in ''A Point in This Life'') and Procol Harum songs.

''I Put My Hands on Your Shoulder'' is no exception to the rule; in fact, it represents the problems I have with this album. While there are great riffs throughout, the transitions are too kneejerk for any core stability. Worse is that five minutes in, there's a 5.5 (I timed it) minute ''pause'' for phased drumming under an oddball and out-of-place poetry recitation. This section never needed to happen in the first place, let alone for as long as it is.

The psych-rock stuff wouldn't be that bad if it had some consistency. The credit for being one of the first Dutch prog bands only goes so far with me (considering that Focus and Golden Earring are along the way, Dutch prog has come quite a distance). My favourite song associated with this album is ''We Love Life'', a non-album single. There is some potential in this group, but that potential isn't put to the best use here.