HYPER-GAMMA-SPACES

Pyramid was the third album of The Alan Parsons Project, and this single -- recycling also the album's cover art by Hipgnosis -- contains two tracks from it. 'Hyper-Gamma-Spaces' is a typical APP instrumental of the second league. That is, the ones that open the albums (such as 'Voyager' on Pyramid) are always more impressive than those that come later on, such as this one. At least for me, they tend to have a slight album filler feel about them, as they concentrate on the technical production values instead of compositional values. The sounds are excellent but the piece itself is going nowhere and lacks emotion.

Curiously it's the B side that has a gorgeous vocal track -- which hopefully was at the time reached by radio listeners too. 'The Eagles Will Rise Again' is sung very beautifully by the ex-Zombies vocalist Colin Blunstone, heard also on 'Old & Wise', a better known APP ballad. This is in my opinion equally fine song. Or actually just a bit more exciting and cinematic. Not a bad single at all to have on a local jukebox, but it's the whole album that has more appeal to us.

Top of the pyramid

I have always found that the most interesting parts by far of any Alan Parsons Project album are the instrumental tracks. Recently I have revisited some of these instrumentals with fresh ears, mainly because I have become a big fan of keyboard player Duncan Mackay who contributed to some of the Project's early albums as a session man. I suppose I didn't pay much attention to the synthesiser-driven Hyper-Gamma-Spaces before, hidden away as it is towards the end of the weak Pyramid album, but this track has now become a bit of a favourite of mine. I usually don't rate singles unless they offer something different from what can be found on a full-length album, but I will make an exception on this occasion as I think Hyper-Gamma-Spaces stands out as single, and is a lot more interesting than the dull album from which it is taken.

The version of this single listed here has The Eagle Will Rise Again as its B-side, a boring vocal track also taken from Pyramid that frankly does nothing for me. Other versions has other tracks as B-sides, including the awful Pyramania and in some cases In the Lap of the Gods. The latter is another instrumental that is far behind Hyper-Gamma-Spaces in quality but still the best choice I suppose.