TICKET TO EVERYWHERE

The jazz fusion line of work that had been subtly enhanced in SFF's second album was explored further in "Ticket to Everywhere", their third and last studio effort. This factor comes together with a bigger dose of delicateness in the performances and a more obvious accessibility in the compositions: therefore, it is no surprise that the melodic lines now tend to be more clearly recognizable and the progressive complexity is partially lost. Although it would be more accurate to say that it is not the complexity but the intensity what is decreased. The band's overall sound, therefore, tends to be less explosive and becomes kinder, more laid-back, even catchier. Both the namesake track and 'Song from India' show some clear hints to the candour of funky, while 'Spain Span Spanish' brings a jazz-fusion ambience with a Flamenco-like orientation. But this is still well-crafted symphonic prog, with 'Open Doors' and 'Slow Motion' being the most prominent numbers in the album: these tracks sound to me a bit close to post-Hackett Genesis-meets-"Stratosfear" TD - that is, elegant and richly adorned music, based on the elaboration of pleasant moods and evocations, and with a notable presence of synth layers and orchestrations. The closure 'Folk n' Roll' is a playful showcase for the mixture of jazz-rock and Celtic stuff. All in all, one should consider that this album is full of the lyricism that was to become the main pattern for the duo Fürhs and Fröhling, the offshoot that came to life immediately after the demise of SFF. While not being a monster album, it still should be considered as a beautiful musical work: it is obvious that all three musicians' interplays remain fresh and energetic, skillfully delivering the renewed sound that by then they were pursuing. 3 ½ to 4 stars for SFF's swansong album.

This is another good album by SFF. I remember vividly when I hosted an FM radio program in Bandung, I used to play "Spain Span Spanish" as background whenever I started talking. This song is the best one featured in this album, in my opinion. The strengths of this strong are in the beauty of melody and how thme music flows from one segment to another. It's quite interesting to notice that the "spacey" component is relatively heavier than other albums of SFF. "Song From India" is also another good track that I keep playing it from this album.

The album title track "Ticket To Everywhere" showcases how the band plays their music in dynamic: some tempo changes, different time signatures and richness of song in providing textures of the song. I consider this song is more on rock fusion style and it has some sudden changes of style throughout the song. Keep on proggin' ..!

After listening to "Symphonic Pictures" and "Sunburst" this one is a huge disappointment. We are getting close to the eighties at this point and strangly enough there were times I though of eighties music on a couple of these songs. The biggest mistake they made here was eliminating the mellotron then they decided to add vocals to a couple of tracks. "Ticket To Everywhere" seems to be some sort of a concept album about travelling to different places on this earth. Songs like "Spain Span Spanish" and "Song From India" and the title track would indicate this, but the other song titles offer little in that regard, and since this is mostly all instrumental your guess is as good as mine.

"Open Doors" is a good symphonic track that at times reminds me of GENESIS. There are other times when we hear the liquid sounding keys that you can't help but think of THE DOORS (check out the song title). "Song From India" features guest vocals from SCORPIANS vocalist Klaus Meine. The drums are prominant and it's kind of catchy, but I just don't like it. Reminds me of dance music.

"Ticket To Everywhere" is a good one. The guitar stands out for once including a good solo 1 1/2 minutes in. "Spain Span Spanish" has electronica sounds with very active drums at times. Good synth work as well. "Here And Now" opens with synths, drums and vocals. The synths come in waves and there is a PINK FLOYD-like melody briefly 2 1/2 minutes in. "Slow Motion" is by far my favourite song on this album. The title says it all, this is a relaxing, dreamy tune with some good bass work. Best passage on the album is 2 minutes in. Another good section 7 minutes in. Nice spacey song. "Folk 'n Roll" is an uptempo song with light drums. It's ok.

2.5 stars, for fans only.

This is the final and arguably lesser album of the SFF trilogy (Fuhrs and Frohling's Ammerland notwithstanding). `Ticket To Everywhere' represents the sound of 1979 for Progressive music, gone are the dense extended tapestries of old, replaced by a cleaner icy blue soundscape of mini-moog, electric guitar and drum dominated pieces. It seems that SFF, like their contemporaries Ashra and Tangerine Dream, decided to incorporate more straightforward (dare I say disco influenced?) rhythms. Whilst the music remains highly melodic, there is a `lightness' here which reflects production values which would find full bloom with the emerging DX-7 textures of the early 1980's. Gone is the grit and stoned mystery of Mellotron and Hammond, instead it's all surface texture, beautifully recorded minimoog and heavily reverbed drums with lots of space.

Having said all that, there is much to like here. The Mini Moog has never sounded better than in the hands of Gerd Fuhrs, and the breezily executed tunes recall the likes of Camel and others who put melody to the forefront.

Lead track `Open Doors' will have you immediately saying "hang on a minute"...until you recognise that the Rhodes motif is directly lifted from The Doors' `Riders On The Storm' ....hence the title presumably. Halfway through the album we have, shock of shocks, a vocal track featuring Klaus Meine of The Scorpions, who actually sounds uncannily like Micky Jones (RIP) of Man. The fact that it's main keyboard melody seems to be borrowed from `The Fish' by Yes makes for an interesting `spot the tune' exercise at least.. Stand out track is the extended (at 8 minutes the longest on the original album) `Slow Motion' which sustains itself beautifully as a study in melodic Moogery.

This the final SFF album does have on the whole a bright commercial sheen, very much in keeping with the keyboard technology and production values of progressive music circa 1979, and for fans of Tangerine Dream's `Force Majeure' and Ashra's `Correlations' this will have much appeal. For afficionados of Moog dominated instrumental music this will be heaven, but one can't help missing the more in depth fusion of influences represented on previous SFF albums.

The very good news is that the live version of `Explorer/Wizzard' is a stunningly well recorded bonus track clocking 10 minutes and featuring tight playing and incredibly, the sound of the audience clapping along to a prog instrumental.

One of the last albuns of this German band. Some spacey keiboards with string sounds made a psichedelic space rock context in some parts. Nice album. A litle bit of comercial in some parts but in all album, we can find some good concept music constructions. It's the end of the most prolific music decade and the begining of pop and comercial music. Made music for sale and not for quality. To be original is now more rare with high difficult inspiration. It's a last good album of this very good band and one of my favourites German bands. Some tracks have a bass construction similar a funk partys but the other instruments give a good quality of context. I like this album and I give 4 stars.