CAPTAIN BEYOND

Well, I have to admit that I only knew the music of this band only sometime five years ago when a friend of mine indicated that he has the CD of this album. When I listened to this one, I did not try to push or relate very hard with who's who of the band members even though my friend told me that he had this album due to somehow related to Deep Purple as Rod Evans was here. I tried to spin the album as objective as possible without any preconceived mind about what style of music they play or they should play. The result was a great experience.

First off, I had a feeling about vintage sounds the band play along the way through the tracks presented at the track list. My first reaction, the guitar playing is marvelous and admire it. It's not something compared to how Ritchie Blackmore or Jimmy Page play but to me the guitar playing is something that really sound raw with minimum effects such as baby cry and many guitar fills played around the tracks. The track duration is basically short with some of them only one minute more. However the flow of tracks are really nice and I got no trouble at all listening to the album in its entirety. Opened with some sort of raw drumming the "Dancing madly backwards (on a sea of air)" (4:02) moves beautifully with excellent vocal line by Rod Evans. The music is dynamic and relatively fast tempo and then continue to second track "Armworth" (1:48) that serves as a bridge to the next "Myopic void" (3:30) smoothly.

"Mesmerization eclipse" (3:48) is another rock outfit that impresses me in its dynamic and relatively fast tempo. It continues to "Raging river of fear" (3:51) neatly with good transition. While "Thousand days of yesterday (intro)" (1:19) is ambient in style, it then moves beautifully to a dynamic "Frozen over" (3:46) with energetic guitar and vocal line combined with inventive drumming.

Composition-wise, all tracks are excellent and different than typical hard rock music as they impose also some psychedelic style in the music. The melody is basically standard with not so much memorable pieces but all of them lumped together with excellent harmonies stemming from instruments played by the musicians involved. I fail to identify tracks that become my favorites. The reason is simple: this is the kind of album that must be enjoyed in its entirety - so it's hard to identify which tracks are best. I just enjoy the flow of music ...and it's excellent!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW