FOLLOW MY DREAM

The name from this known Polish band is an abbreviation from Silesian Blues Band. In the early Seventies they started as members from a musical project by musician Czeslaw Niemen. From 1974 they decided to make their own music and S.B.B. started to give concerts and to make albums.

This album is from 1978 and contains two long parts (each has a running time from at about 20 minutes). The first one entitled "Going away" starts with the powerful and distinctive sound from the Hammond organ, then soaring keyboards and Gilmourian guitar work ("Meddle"-era). Due to the vocal similarities with Steve Hillage the music evokes Gong and early Hillage-solo. The more fluent parts feature flashy Moog synthesizer flights and other vintage keyboards like the clavinet and string- ensemble, a very pleasant colouring. The second composition "Follow my dream" delivers more jazzrock inspired music, the Moog work often reminds me of Jan Hammer (Mahavishnu Orchestra and Jeff Beck solo). We can also enjoy swinging parts with a fat bass sound and Fender Rhodes piano and some good guitar soli. Unfortunately the final part sounds more poppy, not a very representative ending of this fine and varied album.

In the liner notes it talks about how SBB really blazed a trail for Eastern European bands back in the seventies. After signing a deal with some West German businessmen they were allowed to use Western European liscence plates which angered a lot of the border guards who would often hold them up for hours and even strip them naked in order to humiliate them. Meanwhile they were conquering Europe with their jaw dropping instrumental work and live shows. This album is far more synth laden the earlier ones and the guitar has been pushed to the background.The two longest tracks have vocals and are by far my least favourite compositions. He sort of sounds like Adrian Belew when he sings, not bad it's just better when they concentrate on the instrumental stuff in my opinion.

The two side long suites are both broken down into 4 songs that all blend together. "Freedom With Us" opens with organ that just seems to hum. Nice. It fades out and vocals come in around 2 minutes. Inspirational lyrics here but i'm not a fan of this one. I do like how it turns dark towards the end. "3rd Reanimation" is an instrumental and my favourite track on here.This is uptempo and quite powerful as the synths and drums dominate.The drumming is very far out. It sounds so good before 3 1/2 minutes that it moves me. "Going Away" builds quickly to a full sound after 1 1/2 minutes. This sounds awesome like the previous song. It settles some after 2 1/2 minutes and vocals follow. Instrumental only after 5 1/2 minutes is so incredible ! "(Zywiec) Mountain Melody" is a trip as spacey synths eventually take over.

Side two begins with "Wake Up". Spacey to start before we get a melody after 2 1/2 minutes. Spacey again before 5 minutes. "In The Cradle Of Your Hands" is a short track with vocals. "Growin'" has a great sound to it once it gets going before a minute.The tempo picks up 3 minutes in. Love the drumming. The guitar comes in and plays over top. It goes on and on. Nice. "Follow My Dream" opens with drums as organ comes in. We're grooving now as vocals arrive. This is catchy but not my cup of tea. Guitar after 3 1/2 minutes.

It's almost a 4 star album for the second track alone, but in reality the vocals and lack of guitar bring it down a notch.

SBB - Follow My Dream (1978)

On the Follow my Dream album of Polish symphonic/space/fusion act SBB the band acquired a new sound. With modern, professional equipment (perhaps influenced by '75 Pink Floyd) the band re-invents itself after a career that already gave rise to three major progressive releases. The production of the album is very good, which I can't always say about their earlier releases.

Follow my Dream was aimed at the western part of Europe, which of course had the biggest market for progressive music. Applying the Manticore-tactic, SBB started singing in English and Józef Skrzek does an acceptable job. The accent is however always disturbing and I myself had no problems at all with the Polish lyrics.

Though equipped with a new sound a fresh new market to be explored I must admit I think the band didn't have too much inspiration for this record. The opening section 'Freedom With Us' (they shouldn't have re-used the title of the powerful epic of New Horyzont) is utterly boring. Luckily '3rd Reanimation' is an exciting fusion jam with great slightly distorted synthesizer sounds and a remarkable bombastic ending section. 'Going Away' has again a boring intro and couplet theme but a compensating instrumental refrain that is highly rewarding. Somehow I always get the feeling of relieve listening to this song. The song evolves into the electronic sound-scape Mountain Melody, which is also very rewarding and well recorded. On side two Wake Up is an atmospheric opener. The English version of the Pamieç masterpiece 'In the Cradle of your Hands' is a strong effort, but I prefer the more mysterious sound of the Pamieç version. Still this is track that shows the best of compositional genius that SBB has to offer, and perhaps even the progressive genre itself. The adventerious section after the opening section is one of my favorite moments of progressive rock. The title track 'Follow my Dream' is a boring fusion track like the opening of side one. Luckily the instrumental ending section is highly rewarding. A good ending for the album.

Conclusion. This album showcases an important phase of SBB that would eventually lead to their later major progressive rock releases. The Follow My Dream album falls short to be mentioned in the list of SBB greatest records, but it does have some really amazing moments like '3rd Reanimation', the instrumental sections of 'Going Away' and the ending section of the title track. For me this is a good but non-essential prog record I would mainly recommend to fans of SBB. Three stars it is then.

SBB's Follow My Dream is another exercise in incorporating the trappings of other prog subgenres into the space rock-symphonic bedrock of their sound. On the one side, Going Away includes some electronic portions which sound an awful lot like the sort of territory explored on Klaus Schulze's work at the time or the better Tangerine Dream albums, whilst the title track culminates in a joyous crescendo with just a hint of jazz fusion to it. SBB master the different strands of progressive music they dabble in with astonishing ease, and weave everything together into a quite satisfying whole. A more than well-earned four stars.