BETWEEN THE UNIVERSES

Tritonus is another one of those bands that is interesting mostly because of their obscurity, but not really for putting out any groundbreaking music. The band didn't really have a specific, featured vocalist, but their vocal passages do leave an impression, although not always a good one. Former Kin Ping Meh member Geff Harrison is not a member but does some of the singing, while most of the rest of the band consists of Peter Seiler, who would abandon Tritonus shortly after this album in favor of similar music in duo form with Michael Bundt under the band name Sirius. The drummer is Bernhard Schuh, who is otherwise unknown to me and serviceable at best; and bassist/guitarist Ronald Brand, whose bass is nearly absent but who manages several decent passages of brooding, mostly strumming guitar work.

There's quite a bit of electronic wizardry here (or doodling, depending on your perspective), particularly on the spacey (and appropriately titled) "Mars Detection" and the three-part "the Day". This was released at the height of the synthesizer-heavy part of the seventies, especially it seems with German bands, and these guys were no exception. The keyboards are quite varied and prominent throughout, although some of it is plainly obviously in its source, especially several note-for-note lifts from Pink Floyd and ELP. Some of the vocals also sound a bit like early Moody Blues, or maybe the Nice.

So no prizes for originality, or for lyrical skills either, since most of the vocals are of the slightly psychedelic and theatrical style that so many bands tried to adopt shortly after their respective songwriters hit puberty and heard Sgt. Pepper's for the first time. Plenty of slightly hollow two and three part harmonies lumbering on about peace and love, or space aliens, or something. Not really sure and the liner notes aren't much help either.

And speaking of vocals, the opening title track has some really strange ones, with Harrison delivering a moody tenor, while someone else (Seiler, I guess) steps all over him with a slightly off-key vocal track of his own that sounds a bit like a couple of stoners trying to do harmonies but of different songs. It's actually a bit amusing.

Nothing much else to say about this album, except maybe that I read it was re-released on CD with bonus tracks. I'm glad so many older albums are finding their way onto CD these days, but am also constantly amazed that some of these labels are bothering since its unlikely they even broke even with this one.

So not particularly recommended, and really just for collectors of obscure symphonic rock (although this album isn't nearly as symphonic as their first). So another 2.5 stars, but in this case I'll round up in deference to the good keyboard work and the lengthy but unoriginal compositions. So three stars, but just barely.

peace

I've been aware of Tritonus for many years, since 2000 when their albums were reviewed on Tommy's Forest of Progressive Rock (later called Vintage Prog, no longer updated, but the site still exists), at the same time I understand why this band was never a high-priority band for me. This band was lead by Peter K. Seiler, and he's still very much musically active to this day. It's obvious that this band was modeled after the likes of ELP and Triumvirat, but Seiler often has a few tricks up his sleeves that neither Emerson nor Fritz would have never done. But the problem I have is a few parts of this album are unbearable to me. Parts of the title track and the "Suburban Day Suite", but there's some nice moments, but if they got rid of some of those cheesy parts, this could have been one of the great German prog bands. "Mars Detection" might not be to everyone's liking, it might sound like a bunch of synth doodling, but I love that strange synth pattern Seiler comes up with, and while he uses the typical Moog and Solina string synths here, he also uses a PPG module (I always associated PPG with Tangerine Dream, as they were starting to use PPG gear around this time). What I love of this piece is the spaciness, of the kind ELP or Triumvirat would have never thought of. It seems that Geff Harrison of Kin Ping Meh and 2066 & Then sings on some of the music, and since he was British, English would not be a problem for him. Tritonus had troubles with the English language, as did Frank Bornemann of Eloy, a perfect example going for "Sunday Waltz" off their debut where the song goes: "Sunday morning / at 8:30 / when the teewee is on" ("teewee" meaning "TV"), which ended up unintentionally hilarious. So at least that was less of a problem on Between the Universes thanks to Geff Harrison.

To me, not a high priority band, if you can get it on the cheap, then do so, but paying full price for an original LP might be a bit much (they don't come cheap). Three stars.

Tritonus from Germany a prog band that had a short career from 1972 to 1978 and two albums in their pockets. I think thier second release and final one Between the universes from 1976 is the best from the two. It was fun to listen to these guys and particular this album, the music has many times great parts, symphonic space prog is all about here, ELP meets Nektar meets Eloy meets Novalis with that special german sound. The title track is awesome and the best pieces of the album for sure, nice choruses, strong interludes between musicins, inspired keyboards parts. Another greaqt tune is Suburban Day Suite the longest pieces of the album clocking around 17 min, classical influence over symphonic parts, electronic wizardy, all is here. So, all in all a good towards great album to my ears, I really like it, somehow they didn't get any serious recognition back then as not today and Between the universes has enough good music to be appreciated by any prog fan. 3.5 stars for sure.