FLOATING

Third album from this German (Hannover, I think) quartet, often unfairly (especially for the other) compared to Pink Floyd, when Nektar (and to a much lesser extent Hawkwind) is much more fitting. Apparently the restlessness of the line-up and direction of the band are now solved with Bornemann emerging as a leader after the coup after firing the rhythm section and installuing fresh blood for Inside, their second album that was released on their new label Harvest. With a more psychedelic artwork, Floating appears to be a heavier follow-up of Inside but a logic continuation of it as well.

For some reasons Eloy always kept out of my radar, just hovering behind my outer bound of active curiosity, staying in the prospective areas to explore when time allowed, which it never really did. Had I once chosen a better Eloy album when I was 17, I'd probably fallen into the attraction space of the Eloy planet and their Hammond-driven (but guitar-steered) hard rock and spacey noodlings placing them between Heep, Purple and Nektar

Out of the mean throes of a Hammond organ, the short title track is a strong keyboard-driven track that allows scatting vocals and a nice guitar solo in its slower middle section. The 14+ minute 'The Light from Deep Darkness' is wild piece of consistently changing hard rock and its great middle space jam ala Barrett-era Floyd.

However the short Castle In The Air with its drum solo and semi-ethnic theme and it tends to overstay its welcome at past 7 minutes, as does the 9-mins+ Plastic Girl despite an interesting organ solo work with Gothic-like chord progressions, but ultimately boring. Don't get me wrong, none of these two tracks are bad per se, just a little weak to make this album a classic. Madhouse is an interesting rock track ala Nektar with plenty of guitar heroics from Bornemann.

The three bonus tracks on the remastered version are all three live, from an October 73 concert, two of them not on this precise studio album, none of which are of much interest (poor sound) unless a confirmed fan. But these tracks do confirm the Nektar influence that Eloy had, which appeared especially in a live setting. The remastered booklet has extended sleevenotes in German, some extra piccies and the lyrics printed; but the artwork was slightly altered to fit the Eloy logo of the late 70's rather than the original one. So once again, had I picked up this album as a teenager, I'd have been assuredly a fan, but fate didn't allow it back then, so now I can only recognize its flaws and strengths without juvenile fervour and memories.

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