VIDEO-MAGIC

I found a copy of this at CD & Game Exchange in Eugene, Oregon many years ago, and was rather surprised to see it's the true original, not some compilation that consists of material from this album as well as Flashback (to bring home the Police connection). This is a rather strange album. Two thirds of the Police are here with Sting and Andy Summers, but not Stewart Copeland. Evert Fraterman fills in Copeland's shoes, with the addition of sax player Olaf Kubler, who I know from Passport's debut album Doldinger, as well as Can's Landed.

This is a strange one. The Police guys try their hands at progressive rock with interesting results. Sting's voice isn't meant for this kind of music. "Speech Behind Speech" is a slow piece with Mellotron all over the place and Sting providing the vocals. You will never mistake this for the Police. "Natural High" at least is a bit more Police-like, but done in proggy fashion, complete with Mellotron. "Octagon" is a nice instrumental piece with Andy Summers providing some nice guitar work, done in prog fashion. The rest of the album shows varying style that I don't feel is totally cohesive. This really isn't a lot Police gem or a prog gem, but a fascinating listen, and if you fancy what the Police might sound like doing prog with a Mellotron, you should give it a listen. It's not the kind of album you'll probably listen to all the time.

Eberhard Schoener has done better albums, Meditation (1973) and Bali-Agong (1976) are albums I find much better, although I'm hardly familiar with everything he's done.