GATE TO INFINITY

If you're wondering about the cover, it's a real place. This cover depicts the Azadi Tower in Tehran, Iran, which at that time was known as the Shahyad Tower but renamed Azadi after the 1979 revolution to remove any legacies of the Shah.

Anyways, this is basically where progheads jump off the boat as far as Earth & Fire is concerned. They're now a pop/disco act, and I can't deny the disco influence, but in all fairness, side one isn't all that bad. There's that disco element that's sure to scare off progheads, but I'm actually surprise of the proggy approach of much of this side. As a matter of fact, I don't find it any worse than the title track of To the World of the Future, which itself is an odd disco/prog hybrid. Right in between "Recognition?" and "A Princess in Egypt" is a bit of a shot experimental bit. There is also some small amount of Mellotron, but since real strings are used on the album, it's little surprise tron is used so little on this album (but surprisingly, their next three albums, Reality Fills Fantasy, Andromeda Girl and In State of Flux still uses the Mellotron, albums you'd think they'd completely abandoned that keyboard). I actually love side one, might not be quite on the level of Song of the Marching Children or Atlantis, but what is? Side two justifies the reason so many people dislike this album. "78th Avenue" (did Jerney Kaagman have trouble saying "seventy eighth", so she ended up saying "seven eighth"?) is a disco-funk type of song that was released as a single. Not too bad, but I doubt progheads will have much patience for it. "Smile" and "Green Park Station" are just plain awful, the former a cheesy ballad, the latter a lame disco number about a station in the London Underground. "Dizzy Raptures" isn't too bad (which isn't instrumental despite the album credits saying it is), and I thought the closing song, "Driftin'" was rather good, in that similar spirit to "The Last Seagull", but with vocals. I swear I hear Mellotron on this one, but given the album is full of real strings, it's hard telling (most of the rest of the album at least they don't hide it's real strings). One of those albums to get on the cheap. I should know, I got mine for cheap. Following albums, of course are worse. Three stars because side one is actually pretty good, as well as "Driftin'".