ANYONE'S DAUGHTER

SIDE 1 1. "Adonis" (24:09) (47.5/50) - Part I: Come Away - opens with a distinctly GENESIS sound, both with guitars, keys, and vocal harmonizing. Even when drums and bass kick in, it's totally GENESIS I'm hearing. Such rich, gorgeous soundscapes in those fifth and sixth minutes! This is amazing! Guitar solo previewing the sound and stylings of MARILLION's Steve Rothery. (15/15) - Part II: The Disguise - opens with classically influenced synth play--something I find quite common among German proggers like TRIUMVIRAT, NEUSCHWANSTEIN, NEKTAR, ELOY, PATRICK MORAZ, and even the accomplished musicians from the original NINA HAGEN BAND (8.5/10) - Part III: Adonis - opens differently--in a prog folk kind of way; reminds me of STRAWBS or ELOY, as well as both Gabriel- and post-Gabriel-eras of GENESIS and soon to arrive MARILLION and 1990s COLLAGE. Brilliant work from all instrumentalists! Most excellent prog! (15/15) - Part IV: The Epitaph - complex solo piano opens this section before multiple voices join in singing. Full band joins in after the first minute just before the song lapses into a brief guitar-led instrumental section. Piano and multiple voice vocals continue throughout the song with guitar solos leading the instrumental interludes. (9/10)

SIDE 2 2. "Blue House" (7:20) opens with some very elaborate classically influenced keyboard soloing but instead of using a piano or organ its a ARP Omni and MiniMoog! Two minutes into it there's a switch to solo electric bass guitar arpeggi with background guitar and synth lines slowly woven in. In the third minute the full band congeals to support the bluesy lead guitar as he solos in a gorgeous RAY GOMEZ sound and style. Gorgeous and fully engaging. (14/15)

3. "Sally" (4:20) piano based in a kind of saloon way with amazing rips from the RAY GOMEZ lead guitar of Uwe Karpa. The vocals of Harald Bareth and Mattias Ulmer are kind of innocuous and forgettable--which detracts from my enjoyment of this music as they are quite central to the song. (8.75/10)

4. "Anyone's Daughter" (9:10) what a guitarist! (17.5/20)

Total Time: 45:19

Five stars; a minor masterpiece of progressive rock music. I understand and do not disagree with the Neo Prog assignation that many give to this band and particularly to this album, but I'm not sure it's completely accurate: the music stands on its own without seeking its possible influences or derivatives very well. I almost feel guilty not giving these remarkable musicians full credit for their sound and style, but then . . . there are familiarities/similarities.

Fast-forward 20+ years to the 125th anniversary of Hesse's birthday and a special concert in Calw which apparently included Canadian rockers STEPPENWOLF (named after one of Hesse's other popular novels). German poet Heinz Rudolf Kunze was cast as the narrator for the "Piktors" segments of this 90 minute concert by Anyone's Daughter, which deftly blends the old and the new. This recording was not released until almost 10 years later, but it was definitely worth the wait.

While I still have the same reservations about the Piktors part, chiefly in the pervasiveness of the narration that is lost on non German speakers and the limited development in the instrumental parts, I do find a vast improvement in the clarity of Uwe Karpa's guitars, which might make this the definitive version. Then again, I have always found Anyone's Daughter worth hearing live, even if the surviving poor quality videos confirm that they were not showmen by any stretch. Hence their facility with old chestnuts like "Between the Rooms" and "Moria" is hardly surprising, with every instrument and word mainlined to your listening space, and minimal clutter and live distortion. While the music from the more recent "Danger World" lacks the sophistication of their 1980s classics, it too is performed well, with "Nina" and "Helios" (the only quasi progressive piece from that album) being especially luminous. I'm not as keen on the elongated version of Lennon's "Imagine" which served as encore but don't deny it was a symbolic coup, with Kunze singing verses in German.

With the proviso that their vintage era live albums are more highly recommended, "Calw Live" captures Anyone's Daughter's different phases with fitting dignity and respect.

When this is bad it's wretched, and that is pretty much the case for the first 6 tracks, for all the reasons referenced above and then some. But when it's good, as in most of the next half dozen cuts, it's still a bit of a sh*tshow, just one I can mildly endorse. The progressive quotient has well and truly slunk away, tail between its legs. But a few highlights do emerge once the shock of the Christian Rock cliches has worn off and before they return in force for the ludicrously dubbed "bonus" tracks. "She's Not Just Anyone's Daughter" cleverly references not just the band name but the last track on the "Adonis" album, and is a dignified ballad as well. "One World for You and Me" is the most courageous number here, a techno meets hip hop meets RUNRIG multilingual proposition that is as enthralling as it is preposterous. "No Matter" offers welcome acoustic contrasts though the melody is a bit too familiar...stay tuned. "Voodoo Child" is a pretty decent cover of a Hendrix tune. Wait, what? Finally, the title cut is enhanced by Ulmer's keys and synthesized orchestral accompaniment, a piano ballad morphing into a sing songy anthem that isn't a total embarrassment.

I don't see an audience for this anywhere, anytime, but hey what do I know? I'm not even sure I can say that even poor ANYONE'S DAUGHTER is better than none, but this mostly faceless futureless release affords just enough quality to escape the bottom rung. You can probably still skip it.

All musicians master their instruments with dignity; guitars are confident, agressive or calm. Keyboards are omnipresent and not only play solo or background chords but also create tasty textures. Drums are dynamic but I don't like their sound.

The first, title track shows that vocals are not strong or not comparable to instruments. Thankfully, they are not used often. "Blue House" offers symphonic keyboard moments before entering a mellow guitar section and the pace stays slow.

"Sally" starts as an Elton John song but with much worse voice, the piano compensates for it. To be fair, guys attempt singing harmony vocals and there is a good saxophone part. Thanks to the brass section and drums, one can feel jazz and Canterbury influence.

In comparison "Anyone's daughter" is much more serious and solemn. Synths, organ and guitar play together before a Hammond solo speeds music up. Intensive pace won't stop and vocals join. There are several rhythmical changes.

I recommend this CD to all progressive rock fans but there is nothing exceptional or largely original about this album.

I could go on and on how much I love Adonis by Anyone's Daughter. But I don't want to bore you so here are the core things which make the album so great.

1. The 20 minute epic.

I'm always happy whenever I see a prog band include a 20 minute epic on an LP. The title track here is the perfect example on how to make it awesome. First of all, it avoids these 2 common pitfalls - too much solos and/or bad balance. Because of that, it keeps you immersed till the very end. The first part is the perfect introduction. Kinda dark, it basically drags you into the world of Adonis and makes you want more. The synth section and vocal interplay blows my mind on so many levels. Part 2 is a rocker and it delivers sweet, extremely well balanced solos with a strategically thought up groove change. Part 3 is the prog part. It offers its melodic side and the crazy noodles living in perfect harmony. The finale (fittingly titled Epitaph) is the romantic triumphant anthem after the long journey.

2. Great musicianship.

The playing here absolutely rocks! They frigging nailed it! The drummer is a beast. The guitarist's solos are dream-like, bluesy but also technical without gravitating too much towards any of the aforementioned styles. It's so consistently powerful! The basslines fit the style incredibly well and the vocals, although with a slight accent are NOT DISTRACTING AT ALL! I'm stunned.

3. The shorter, supporting tracks

Blue House is a little instrumental piece with a romantic feel. Great! Sally is the little sing-songy number for a change. Great cute tune even though I don't quite get what it's about. ;p The closer - Anyone's Daughter (not to be confused with the DP song of the same name) is a pure hard rocking, smoking hot bomb with crazy Hammond parts.

This album is a symphonic masterpiece. Period.

While a few fine tracks emerge, specifically the enthusiastic ballads "Nina" and "I'll Never Walk that Road Again", the proggy "Helios" and the techno pop "No Return", we are also subject to some truly unredeemable material like "Good Gone Bad", "The Glory" and "Wheel of Fortune", which sound like anonymous modern rock with an above average keyboard player. The rest of the original material is mediocre, its lack of conviction magnified by the searing technique and soaring emotion of "Moria" and "Sundance of the Haute Provence", both originally appearing on their self titled second album from 1980. As a side note, I love to hear "sunbathing" correctly pronounced this time around.

From a prog perspective, there really is little to recommend here, and even from a pop or rock perspective, I'm not sold. If you must enter the dangerous world of 21st century ANYONE's DAUGHTER, I suggest doing so via the "Trio Tour" live CD, which includes the best material from this and the follow up disk "Wrong". That's assuming you have already caught up on their classics from the original incarnation.

While the DVD portion consists of a mere 4 tracks identical in sound to those on the CD, it also serves to confirm the intimacy that one feels when surrounded by these three gentlemen, two of whom I should note are original members of the band that sold 120,000 records in their heyday of 1979-1983. No bass or drums are present but the sound remains textured, at times even dense. Apart from the voice of André Carswell and the largely acoustic guitars of Uwe Karpa, it's really Matthias Ulmer's arsenal of keys that steals the show for better or worse. Usually his considerable chops win the day but occasionally they are like a tugboat trying to lift the titanic, especially on endemically weak numbers like "The Wrong", "Without You", "Miscellaneous" (based unsuccessfully on a riff in "La La", off the 1982 album "In Blaue"), or the Celtic misfit "Porth Mhuirghesa".

The best tracks here bust right out of their studio conventionality: "Far Away" and "Nina" benefit most from the sparkling acoustic backing, while "I'll Never Walk that Road Again" strikes a mood more appropriate to its surroundings than in its original incarnation. Both "Helios" offerings are at least the equal of their studio versions, but it's the rendition of "Adonis II - The Disguise" that tips the scales. At a mere 2:52, it simultaneously reaffirms the compositional and technical mastery of the group's early years while affirming that they "still got it". What's shocking is that the audience doesn't seem to recognize it until the vocals kick in over halfway through, because the progression is faithful even if the instrumentation is dramatically altered. The final encore is a pleasant piano dominated version of their classic prog-pop anthem "Der Plan".

If you have not caught up with ANYONE's DAUGHTER since their reformation in 2000, I recommend this live offering over either of the studio releases, but don't expect another "Adonis" or even a "Neu Sterne". Sadly, it seems that it's just not in der plan.

Historically speaking, "Last Tracks" is intriguing in that it brackets the original years of Anyone's Daughter's run in Germany, and, since they were a fairly popular and well regarded band during a nadir for prog, it warrants closer examination.

The group was formed in 1972 but no recordings are available from before 1977, while their first album "Adonis" was not released until 1979. The last 4 tracks here are culled from 1978, and three of them had never been released in any format until this 1986 "compilation". Their successful run lasted until 1983, concluding with the gutsy neo prog of "Neu Sterne", before they bowed out to better financed UK purveyors of the movement. Their vocalist Harald Bareth left for military service and eventually became a medical doctor. He reappeared in relatively recent times as guest vocalist on a couple of albums by INES. The first 5 tracks here are from 1986 sessions with a new vocalist Michale Braun, as well as a new drummer and bass player.

This is thus two half albums in one, and, believe me, never the twain shall meet. In the LP era they are two halves of an unholy whole, but in these streaming times no break is long enough to convey the infinite gulf. Suffice to say that the 1986 tracks bear no resemblance to even the poppier material on Neu Sterne, nor are they similar to the more modern hard rock of the band's reformation around 2000. Instead they resemble what one might have heard from the garage of GENESIS (the singers delivery is strongly reminiscent of PHIL COLLINS), AHA, or ROXY MUSIC during that time period. In all fairness, the melodies are decent, especially on "Too Much too late", but the robotic programmed percussion and the lack of even the basic complexity of the weaker tunes on "Neu Sterne" render them just to the good side of unlistenable.

Three of the remaining four tracks are really why you have read this far. "I Hear an Army" is Teutonic prog in the style of TROYA's one off of 1975, with sing songy meters but searing guitar leads over organ washes, and establishes the gravitas of the group's initial releases. "Sally the Green" is quality pop and represents an early version of "Sally" that would appear on "Adonis" a year later, so is somewhat dispensable. The remaining 2 tracks are the ones that are seriously worth all the cringing. "Ma cherie Marquise de Sade" is a rare instrumental in a frenetic style only occasionally explored further on subsequent albums. The Emersonian organ is the predominant feature, shouting Matthias Ulmer's dexterity to the skies, but the rhythm section is holding its own as well. I can hear snippets of what surfaced on the astonishing epic live bonus tracks in the 2010 release of "Adonis".

Still, "Window Pain" is even better and more representative of what the group would become over the next few releases. While the band is often compared to CAMEL and GENESIS, not without reason, they always struck me as owing much to the more accessible softer tracks from KING CRIMSON - think "The Night Watch", "Book of Saturday", or parts of "Lizard", and Bareth's voice is not the only reason. This monumental piece ebbs and flows through vocal and instrumental segments, the latter dominated by lead guitar even more succinct than most of what appears on the "Adonis suite", with string synthesizers soaring above and rollicking bass and drums underneath. The only reason I can think why it took so long to see the dim light of a bygone day is that the band already had one side long epic and they might have felt the pressure to change with the times. They did betray their ambitions again with 1981's "Piktors Verwandlungen", but that utilized the hook of Herman Hess narrative and, in terms of genuine musical excitement, does not come close to "Window Pain", a true lost classic.

I'm not sure if the price being charged for the few available LP versions is tenable, but hopefully more streaming sites will pick it up. Largely dispensable for the last tracks, but essential for the "first tracks", this rarely considered entry in the ANYONE's DAUGHTER discography contains two lengthy tracks that led to one of the pillars of early 1980s symphonic prog in Germany.

As with ''Adonis'' and ''Anyone's daughter'', ''Piktors Verwandlungen'' and the new album seem like another pair of albums by Anyone's Daughter, where the precursor work has a big symphonic sound and the following effort follows the same lines albeit with a poppier and more modernized feeling.As so, ''In blau'' sounds closer to ''Anyone's daughter'', it's ethereal and sweet Symphonic Rock with some pre-Neo qualities, however this was the second work in the row by the band to feature German lyrics.Good thing is, unlike many prog survivors of the era, Matthias Ulmer still focused on keyboard parts performed on organ and some electric piano instead of dominating a poor synthesizer.The result is that ''In blau'' still holds the stylings of their first album, although the production reveals the latter recording days.At this point the band had decided to surround the light symphonic tunes with a new dimension, that contained some folky touches and even smooth Fusion exercises, recalling compatriots FLAMING BESS.Nice melodies, emotional vocals, soft but progressive musicianship sets the sound in the same league as ROUSSEAU, even if all tracks are equal in terms of music value.The 3-part ''Tanz und tod'' dealt with the death issue and clocked at 15 minutes, becoming the album's highlight and the closer thing to early Anyone's Daughter.Romantic and energetic Symphonic Rock with an updated sound due to the New Wave-ish rhythms and synthesizers, but also featuring lots of organ smashing, piano interludes and grandiose orchestral moves.

Not the most convincing album by Anyone's Daughter, but a great work nonetheless, especially when taken into consideration that this was created in 1982.I love the fact they did not say goodbye to their 70's roots and this work sounds very fresh and clean until today.Warmly recommended.

Today I'm beginning this new section on the website with the German band Anyone's Daughter and their first album Adonis (1979).

Anyone's Daughter is a German band that was founded in 1972 in Stuttgart by Uwe Karpa (guitars) and Matthias Ulmer (keyboards and vocals) while they were still high school students. Their line-up (in their classic period) was then increased with Kono Konopik (drums) and Harald Bareth (vocals and bass).

Adonis (1979) was the first album by Anyone's Daughter and at that time the album came as a blow of fresh air to the Prog world in general. By at that time the genre was in trouble and most of the successful bands were changing their sound drastically searching for commercial success. And then here comes Anyone's Daughter and the bold album that is Adonis (1979)!

The sound of this German band can't really be compared with their English peers as it usually happens. Though certainly the band was influenced by the English famous bands their sound was much more like its country brothers Eloy (although they deny the fact).

Adonis (1979) opens with the suite of same name and its 4 parts in 24 minutes. The suite starts with a peaceful kind of Prog coming out of the speakers with beautiful melodies. Bass player Harald Bareth delivers some soulful playing and very competent vocals while the keyboard player Matthias Ulmer very often double his vocals forming then a perfect union. Also, in 'Adonis Part III: Adonis' he's the responsible for great synthesizers. Something else to pay attention to are Uwe Karpa's guitars. He doesn't show off all the time but instead he works greatly for the music, meanwhile Kono Konopik delivers tight and competent drums. All in all 'Adonis' is the main piece of the album and it should be clear to everyone with this suite the high quality of the group then, especially because this was their debut album.

The second side of the album starts with the slow instrumental piece 'Blue House'. The track was named after the house they lived and rehearsed for this album in the previous 2 years of the release. The next song is 'Sally'. This track, despite its weird tempo, is more of an upbeat song and a bit more simple in comparison with 'Adonis' suite, for example. Closing the original album we have the track that gives the band a name. 'Anyone's Daughter' (that was also influenced by the Deep Purple's song with the same name) is a building up kind of song. It begins slow and it goes on a crescendo, building its climax till the vocals start around the middle.

The original LP was released in 1979 by the labels Brain/Metronome. The version I'm reviewing was released in 2010 by the German label Tempus Fugit and has 3 bonus tracks. The first two are songs never recorded in studio. 'The Taker' and 'The Warship' were recorded live in 1977 on Scorndorf, Germany. The first has a great organ riff with galloping bass and dancing guitars. The second is more of a 'funk' piece full of twists and riffs, though it goes smooth with the verses.

I usually don't like bonus tracks as very often they don't add anything and are also recordings of a completely different period than this the album was recorded in. Not here, both tracks are great treasures for fans and they fit the studio material.

The third track is in fact a video of 'Adonis Part I: Come Away' that was recorded in 1978 in the studio Zuckerfabrick (Sugar Factory) during the recordings of the album. The remastered version of Adonis (1979) also has a very nice text on the booklet by Stefan Oswald (both in German and English) as well as lyrics and pictures of the band.

Adonis (1979) is a great album that brought the late 70's Prog back on tracks and this new edition is a must have for the band's fans and Prog lovers!

Very recommended!

(Originally posted on progshine.net)