ORIENTAL CHRISTMAS

Weak, half-hearted attempt at keeping the progressive flame alive in the dark days of 1985. It might have seemed a breath of fresh air at the time, but in retrospect mediocrity runs rampant throughout this release. Compositions that are barely more than repeating ostinato figures, keyboard tones that never go beyond the paltry Yamaha DX7 presets and a drummer that can barely keep basic time (and is utterly helpless when anything more adventurous is called for) are the main points in this disc's disfavour. On the plus side, Marc Cecotti's guitarwork is strong. Pity he doesn't have better songs and more talented sidemen to back up his playing skills.

The original vinyl release had quite humourous cover artwork, different from the CD release.

Edhels is a progressiverock band from Monaco formed in early '80's by guitar player Marc Ceccotti. They beggin their career wanted to keep the prog flame alive in those dark years of prog, mid '80's. They succeded with this second album named Oriental christmas??, not realy. The album to my ears is to dull, to mellow, with a little great moments. Sometimes sounds like a cross between instrumental genesis but far less complex, Rousseau and some spacy moments ala Novalis, but the entire result is not great, realy. I had hard time listning to this album more then two times, in some moments I've almost got asleep. What bothers me is that the album, with the exception opening track , the best from here is not varied and the '80's keybords sound is all over, to mediocre to be a real intrest for progressive rock fans. The guitar lines are ok , Marc Ceccotti realy have some good moments here, but the songwritting is almost mediocre at best here. I'll be short, the album gets from me 2 stars, maybe 2.5 but no more then that for sure. One of the most unintristing albums from mid '80's from this scene for sure.