TWO, TOO...

First album had a lot of songs that sound like Genesis and Yes. Progressive rock fans nod happily in recognition. "Wow, Atmospheres sounds like something off Selling England By The Pound! It's not fantastic or even good really, but hey, it sounds like Genesis, and I LOVE Genesis!!". Not to mention the title track, filling that infamous role of obligatory hokey pablum Classical adaptation. No wonder prog fans ate it up by the droves - it was cack, but caressed lovingly the seemingly gilded testes of their idols. To anyone else it's yet another pat, dated artifact from the dark age of rock music. (And that's not a knock on Genesis, King Crimson or Yes... just the odd handfuls of draconian, vacant-headed collegiate admirers they were unfortunate enough to possess).

Two, Too... on the other hand is utterly bonkers by comparison. Not that it stands outside of tradition - parallels can be drawn to the Zeuhl panoply, Zappa, The Residents, Return To Forever and their ilk. The more demented groups. You might even want to draw comparisons to non-prog or even contemporary glam rockers that contributed to the eventual inauguration of new wave or punk; Sparks, Be Bop Deluxe, The Tubes, 10cc / Godley and Creme... That might be what the guy below was thinking of when he suggested that this record sounds like "some Broadway story with Fred Astaire on leading role"! I pity prog fans sometimes. Anything with the barest whiff of pop smarts gets derided as "fake prog" and "mainstream". For what it's worth I think pop often leaves less room for coloring outside the lines... the worst pop conforms stringently to these limitations, while the worst prog ignores them and normally falls flat-faced into its own icy cold stew of unchecked prevarications. For my money this record (as with most great creative pop/rock-oriented music) strikes a finely tuned balance between these ill-advised extremes.

This record thankfully got its due in 1997 when Terry Sharkie namechecked it in his Zolo Synthesis discography. (You should be able to find it on Google, with any luck.)