MANA PERDU

Elohim is a progressive rock band from France, releasing only one album in 1983 named Mana perdu and re release on CD by Musea in 2000. To me this album is a total winner, specialy this kind of prog release in the '80's, keeps the flag high in prog music. This is a conceptual album about a creature named ELO 666 and all his religious problems involved around him. What stroke me the most is the keybords here, very fine arrangements, very good musicianship, nice ideas. Maybe the sound is typical for the '80's, but doesn't stop to be this album a real solid release for that period. The vocal parts remind me of Ange or Mona Lisa, with some theatrical aproach, but the instrumental passages realy shines. I easely can say this is one of the best albums from prog rock I've heared from the '80's. Complex arrangements, subtile keybords blistering moments, just listen to the opening track, the longest from here L'Effet Stricking, brilliant. I was surprise to se that this band has no reviews yet here, they are totaly unnoticed to larger public, I wonder why because this album is a good ex of solid symphonic prog in dark period of this genre. Very good album, unfairly unnoticed by prog listners, to me is a solid release that desearve 4 stars easy, better in any way then anything Ange release in that period, who turning in some more and more pop band, Elohim keeps the flag high with this release.Quite similar with for ex danish Zaragon, with a touch besides symphonic prog some hints of early neo. The Musea has this release with 4 bonus tracks, nice pack in the end and worthy music. 4 stars , recommended if you can skip overall '80's sound, the music is a winner for sure.

ELOHIM were a French symphonic prog band founded in the early seventies, stylistically comparable to the well- known compatriots such as ANGE, MONA LISA and ATOLL. However, Elohim's only album Mana Perdu was released in 1983. Despite being a surprisingly good album which was even re-released on CD in 2000 by Musea Records, my review is only the second one here. [Also the accidentally added other album by another group is still waiting to be taken away from the artist page.]

The opening track 'L'effet stricking' is the longest one at 12:20. In the beginning a sharp, synth-centred riff is being repeated a few times. The track is nearly on the halfway, when the CAMEL-reminding, jazzy instrumentalism gives way to rather theatrical French vocals that remind quite a lot of those in Ange. The vocals are, fortunately, very sparse in this composition. The bass played by guitarist Daniel Trutet is delightfully audible in the fusiony flexible sound. There's also a brief section with repetitive MAGMA-reminding high pitched vocals. Oh, by the way, the album has a concept about a creature named ELO 666, but that feature doesn't have any notable part in my listening experience, not only because of my terribly rusty French.

The six other tracks are more or less in the same vein, only with the vocals being slightly more central. The keyboards played by Jacques Sourisseau are almost entirely rather hollow-sounding synths typical to the 80's. This is a shame, because they drag the overall impression closer to the generic neo prog style. Otherwise the music is fairly good, melodic, Genesis-rooted symphonic prog, with an enjoyable touch of fusion. But I have to say I would enjoy the album more if there were completely instrumental tracks too. And the whole is not quite as strong as the opening epic makes you hope for. For these reasons I'm rounding my 3½ stars down. Nevertheless, this album is definitely better than one would expect from the minimal number of reviews or the release year. In France, the more renowned prog bands either had seized to exist or made poor, pop-oriented albums at that time.