SYRINX

SYRINX were a Canadian band who released two studio albums, one in '70 and the other in '71 before calling it a day. A unique trio of keyboards, hand percussion and electric sax. The leader was keyboarder John Mills-Cockell who had been in a number of bands prior to this. He was also one of the first Canadian musicians to purchase a moog. And this appears to be the album where he tries it out. Moog dominates this album, in fact, take away the hand percussion and electric sax and no one will notice.

It's beyond surprising how mundane and unexciting this 39 minute album is. Moog all the time, but John also adds organ a fair amount, and piano sparingly. It's almost as if John knows this album will be held up down the road as being one of the very first Canadian albums with moog on it, so lets not blow it. Lets not embarrass ourselves by doing anything out of the norm on this historical recording. Okay, maybe I'm wrong, but I just can't get over the discipline in play to make such a monotonous record. The hand percussion is heard a few times. The electric sax leads twice as a solo instrument. Otherwise the sax is buried amongst the moog and organ sounds, it's another layer.

For me the most interesting track is the opener "Melina's Torch" where we get three different sounds eventually being apart of this track. It's melancholic and repetitive and not that great, but not bad. Same with that 11 1/2 minute closer where we get some moments like that but not many. The hand percussion might be at it's most upfront on that closer. "Father Of Light" is slow moving to a fault. Some piano on "Hollywood Dream". The one song that kind of clicked with me was "Field Hymn". A melody that is moving.

Their second and final release "Long Lost Relatives" is so much better. It's kind of what you would expect with that unique trio. This one is a rare 2 star album for me.

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