OCEAN

Eloy's Ocean appears to be the defining moment of this band's long career. After five albums of some exceptional material and some mixed results, they pulled it all together on this four-song concept album about the fall of the mythical island of Atlantis. Not only would this be one of their best and most noted albums, but it outsold other more established prog rock acts in Germany.

Eloy's music from this time period can best be described as symphonic space rock. In many ways, it sounds similar to Pink Floyd's output from the same time period: lush synthesizer backgrounds, soaring guitars, driving rhythms, except it isn't as blues-based as Pink Floyd was. It also shows a hint of East European symphonic prog rock influences.

Although nowadays, Ocean sounds a bit dated from the recording techniques of the time period, the essence of their music remains. Once you get past this dated feeling, the music is skillfully composed and performed. Frank Bornemann and Detlev Schmidtchen were top-notch instrumentalists.

Probably the most difficult challenge in listening to Ocean are the heavily-accented and nasally vocals of Bornemann. Bornemann clearly has improved since this album, but Ocean will take a bit of getting used to. I don't find any distractions at all after many repeated listens, but when I first heard Ocean, it didn't really appeal to me much. It has grown on me considerably since then, and thus it might do the same for you.

Ocean should clearly be one of the essential purchases for German progressive rock. In the overall scheme of things, it doesn't quite compare to the output coming out of the U.K. in the same decade (Yes, Genesis, Pink Floyd, etc.). I honestly think this album would have been on that level if they had recorded it in a more top-notch facility and sang it in their native German. Still, it's an excellent achievement, well deserving of four stars.