ROCKING HORSE, AND OTHER SHORT STORIES FROM THE PAST

First of all, if your a Neo Prog fan then you need this record in your collection. It's far from perfect, in fact I have this sort of "what could have been" feeling towards this record. It is a bit of an odd ball in the sense that they had released two studio albums at this point, then they decided to re-visit the demos and unfinished pieces they had been working on before they had even released their debut back in 1990.

This should have been the debut but it would have been so much better without that five minute instrumental "Touch" and the live version of "Ghosts" when we already have the studio version included on here. Take those two tracks off and I'm seriously considering 5 stars. This album hits some real highs. Essentially they are a trio from Australia of vocals, keyboards and guitar, with a bass player and drummer helping out on their first three studio albums, sometimes combined with fake bass and drums. After this 1993 record they ditched the bass man and drummer and went all virtual on us in that regard.

What is really interesting though, is that if you include the drummer and bass player and make this a five piece as they were early on, we get five musicians who were all born in different countries. The incredible Fish-like singer is from Scotland, maybe he followed the Young brothers to Australia. The keyboardist is from Germany, bass player Australian, drummer from Italy, and the guitarist is from Greece. That 20 minute opener has to be the highlight of their careers. I can't say enough good things about the singer. The emotion and power he brings, are what I am drawn to when it comes to Neo prog. My second favourite track is "Secrets" which is so laid back but it builds slowly and is 7 minutes long. The closer "Changes" rounds out my top three. This one contrasts the light and powerful really well.

A hit and miss affair but as I mentioned, this one hits some real highs, to the point I think it should be rated higher, but then I remember the "Ghost" tracks that bring this down along with the instrumental "Touch". Easily 4 stars though.