User Page: Dirk

This is a pretty good album apart from the long Enciclica which is uneven at best, i hope i will like it somewhat more in the future, have heard it pretty often already though.

Apart from this i have some problems with the vocals, they are somewhat harsh and grating something i encountered also in Banco's music and Zarathustra.

It has been argued that the singer of Banco is one of the best ever and that PFM don't really had a vocalist. This is all very well, each his own, Give me PFM vocals all the time though.

One of the first progrecords i heard (i got interested because they were in the same genre as Pink Floyd on PA). I still think it's one of the best records i have heard sofar. Space rock is clearly the right genre for this album, it's music reminds me of Eloy in the first place though i doubt that this american band is directly influenced by them(so i chose Pink floyd). For me they are far better than Eloy , while the vocals from Jeff mc farland may objectively not be very strong they are not annoying(as Frank Bornemann's vocals are), personally i love them. I also think Lands end is more energetic and has better songwriting on this album than Eloy.
Although this album is very hard to get it's clearly the one to go for. Lower depths and Terra serranum are also good but nowhere near this one.

Good album but not as good as the first 2 PFM albums i think. Quite different also in almost every aspect. More focused on heavy keybords sounds than PFM. PFM has the ablity to cross from one vein of music to another lightly, good example is their track Generale which begins as a GG like track and breaks in the middle to a part of music that could have been walking straight out of a (good) Camel song (Nimrodel from Mirage is what i'm thinking of here).

Having said this Le orme is very good and especially the 9 minutes long first track should not be missed Drumming and keybords rule here. Last song is higly acclaimed but i found this one rather boring.

This album is at least good. After many listens i 'll probably like it even more.

This is an enjoyable record and it's no punishment to listen to it several times. It's not really a killer though. Playing is very good but the songwriting is not always interesting.

With Impressioni di settembre this album starts out with the best italian prog track i know until now. It's really a killer but not very representative of the tracks this band would be making in the future. e Festa is also a very good track. the guitar riff here is reminiscent of Led Zeppelin(Communication break down). thx to Antennas for pointing this out.

Beginning with track 4 the band is moving to more mellow and jazzy rock. All the tracks are at least good and Carozza is very good.

Overall their sophomore effort Per un Amico seems to be in higher esteem than this one.I agree that i if you compare tracks 4-7 with Per un Amico, Per un Amico is better. It's just that the first 3 tracks here are so good that this is my favorite.

Great album, the last track definitely falls short. Generale and Per un amico are the best tracks here.

Great new release by the Flower kings. More reminiscent of "Stardust we are" than of more recent releases like Unfold the future and Adam and Eve. Their best album since Space revolver (together with Unfold the future perhaps, this album being so complex that i'm still not sure about the end evaluation here).

This ia very good album from Steve Hillage. more convincing IMO than
earlier work with Gong( too jazzy and weird), Khan (vocals and melodies not as good as here)

Novalis was a great german band in the 70's. IMO bands like
Grobschnitt and Novalis have never got the attention they deserved.
Of course they were not as original as Genesis , Yes and Crimson but in writing great melodies they were at least equal and sometimes better (at their best moments) than these dinosaurs.
(Ok Novalis's impressionen was a Bruckner adaption, brilliantly done though).

A german band that still gets more attention than these two is Eloy,
i will never know why, while this band is sometimes quit good it can never be in the shadow of afore mentioned great bands.

Note: Carlo Karges went on to play guitar for another great german band: Nena. I might be laughed off the site for this but i actually like Nena and not only for the nice female singer alone.

Easily their best album, Starless is in my top 10 of best tracks ever.

I may not have heard the last 4 tracks often enough. It's a very good album.

I know it's a live album but IMO it defines Grobschnitt as a band
more than any of their studio albums.

It's a great album one of the best i know. It's also a very
accessible album. I loved it from the second time i listened to it, most progrock albums take a lot longer to digest for me.

The album is essentially an hour long structured jam. Subtle
quiet passages are mixed with explosions of floydian guitar duels (Muhlheim special and Otto pancrock) and keybord sounds (Golden mists).

If i had to name an album which resembles this one i would say
Live side Umma Gumma especially Careful with that axe Eugene.

I recommend this album to people who like
Pink Floyd and people starting in prog. It certainly encouraged me to explore the genre further.

Fragile dreams is fantastic, the rest is not really my cup
of tea.

After about 15 listens i have a feeling that after Fragile dreams
it just drones on in melancholy. I keep having a hard time
rembembering the melodies they all seem the same to me.

However, i know several people who think it's a great album so it's probably just me not getting it.

From the 4 double cd's this is definitely the most consistent and also the most accessible effort. the first cd is great with only the track "just this once" falling somewhat short.

The second cd is also very good. Tracks like "pipes of peace", "Don of the universe" and "Hotel Nirvana" introduce the main tune of the great epic "Stardust we are part 1"

The Flower Kings come higly recommended and this is the album to begin with.

Generally I skip track's 5-7 the rest of the album is
fantastic. the first track is one of the best pieces of music i've
ever heard.

The first 18 tracks are part of one concept called the Garden of dreams, Afterlife and Power of kindness are reflections of the tunes played in Garden of dreams and could have been added to this song.

Listening to Garden of dreams i always get the feeling of being in
another fairytale world. One of the best 60 minutes of music i know.

The second cd is not nearly as good but there are some good moments here and it's always listenable.