ILLUSIONS ON A DOUBLE DIMPLE

Always wondered why a group would try to sell an album to teenagers that alluded to anything sounding remotely close to "pimple, but I take it this actually worked FOR them rather than against them >>> read: social life after a zit-attack". I also seem to remember a different rat artwork for this album for the US version.. Probably to avoid shocking well-thinking people with the rat and the empty eggshell. The group's line-up is castly different , since only keyboardist/singer Jurgen Fritz remains. Here with Bathelt on drums and Helmut Kollen on bass are in the group, but there is a bunch of guests to help out on the vocals, but alas, to no avail.

Generally regarded as their best album, Double Dimple is again not striking any cords with me, due ti highly derivative music and particularly execrable singing. The album is split into two sidelong themes where the tracks seem more or less arranged that they forma multi-movement suites.

The ELP influences are less present (but still plainly audible), but you understand that Fritz listened to a lot of Yes before sitting and attacking this album. This is quite audible on the vocal dept and one can hear Relayer bits in the Triangle and Last Dance movement of the title track suite, but also on the start of the second suite Mister Ten Percent. But on the whole, I find the group sometimes sounds like no-one else, meaning itself, thus meaning that the group was constructing its own identity. Alas we know that this wouldn't be the case with the following Spartacus album and a return to ELP clone. There are still some very odd moments like those spoken words denouncing the intermediaries or the local mafia, etc..

While I wouldn't call Double Dimple a masterpiece or anything close to being essential, we have here Triumvirat's best album, the one where they tried, even if it wasn't hard enough, IMHO of course. .