Analogy - "Analogy" (1972)

This band was as I understand it, consisting of germans that moved to Italy. Well, if you prefer complex and very symphonic music like Banco del Mutuo Soccorso or Locanda delle Fate, then this album probably wont do that much for you. But if you have a great interest in early 70's progressive ROCK with lots of good hammond organ, cool guitars and some stoned out music, then by all means read on! Another thing also, this album is available in two verions: one from Vinyl Magic and one from Akarma in a sweet digipac. I have the latter. Also, with the Akarma relase comes 4 bonus tracks. And two of the bonustracks are The suite A and The Suite B, two long pieces of music, 27 minutes together, but i will come back to them.

The album cover, startling, shocking (not really...) for sure catches your attention. Well, "Dark reflections" is the 7 minute opener, this is very good smoking 70's rock. One immideatly notes the hammond and the female singer. She has a slightly harsh voice, it really fits well with the music. The sound is bluesy and slightly trippy. "Weeping my endure" is the next, the singer repeats the same lines over and over, and the track is basically a pretty stoned jam. The singer now sings with a very high-pitched voice. Some people might like this trippy kind of music while others might find this boring with few progressive tendencies. Also "Indian meditation" goes in the same direction. Stoned rock, with the singer "singing" worldess melodies in a very special way. "Tin's song" is a shorter nice acoustic fast piece. The titletrack comes next, being 9'45 and containing 'groovy' jams.

"The years at the spring" is a fast wild track, while "Pan-Am flight 249" is slower and bluesier. The Bonustracks: "Sold out" and "God's own land" (released as 45rpm by Yoice (pre-Analogy) in 1971). They hadn't here really found that stoned sound which are allover their '72 album. "Sold out" is pretty average, nothing special to notice here. Nice melody. "God's own land" sounds better to me, opening with a very good theme which I really remember having heard before by some other band (cant remember which). Its a good song, it should have been the "A side", not the "B side" if you ask me. The guitarist sounds fresh and has some really nice solos. "The Suite 'A' "(16:01), is a very good track. I find it much better than the original album. Its 16 minutes of very energetic and good themes flowing free. The track sounds a bit more structured than the bluesier jams from the album. Lots of interesting themes here, more progressive sound. It sounds almost like another band. In fact, the notes from the booklet informs that there was some change in the band, and this 30 minute long suite was recorded in 1973. A fluteplayer had been added and the keyboardplayer had left the band. (There's still keyboards in the song though). The flute really adds to the overall atmospehere, as does a certain small medieval feeling to the sound. Very impressive track.

"The Suite 'B' " (11:52) opens with a very classical sounding theme, acoustic guitars and flute backs up the singers. Then comes the next "piece" (they all have different names), more of that good tight progrock. Very tight "evil"-sounding themes here, relived by lighter themes in the next piece. This is a hard album to review. You better hear it before you buy it. Its not for everybody, and its most likely an album you wont play on a daily basis (probably). About the "original" '72 album, its a very interesting and good album. Nice to have and listen to, in contrast to more complex and symphonic albums from the same period.

I have read reviews about this album, complaining that this music is the worst kind of stoned hippiemusic with very bad musicians who only can play the same chords over and over. Well, I'd say that this band was very good at their genre, which can be described as early 70's rock with progressive hints. True, some jams can drag on, but there's still enough hooks and originality in there to make it interesting. Otherwise, the real highlight of this edition is the longer bonustracks as I have already mentioned. So if you want this album, be sure to get the Akarma digipac edition, which make it close to 75 min of Analogy.