OCEAN 2 - THE ANSWER

Surprisingly, this talented German band has reunited in the late 90s to make a somewhat progressive album that recalls the old days of Eloy. I like the synths used here. While they do not sound as good as the ones in 'mysterious monolith', they are still analog synths.

1. Between Future And Past : a mellow introduction in the style of 'atlantis agony' from Ocean I. Ambient music. 5.5/10

2. Ro Setau : This is a song with nice synth solos. I feel the 'ooo' vocals here overstay their welcome though. 4.5/10 3. Paralysed Civilization : A mini-epic song that succeeds instrumentally, if not vocally. The keyboards here are at their best and dominate the song. The second section has an excellent keyboard line in a loop, and the rest of the track stays in good quality. 6.5/10

4. Serenity : A short piece which uses unique sounding synths. 6/10

5. Awakening Of Consciousness : This song has potential, The synth playing here is very inspired. Unfortunately the main melodies and the vocals are weak. 5.5/10

6. Reflections From The Spheres Beyond : An overlong track in which while it has enough variety to avoid repetition, its music is not very interesting at all. The weakest song from the album. 4.5/10

7. Waves Of Intuition : It introduces itself with a memorable bass riff and a very pretty guitar riff, and shows itself as a good soft track. 7/10

8. The Answer : The main problem with it is that it is longer than it should be. The main strength of it is that the musical theme repeated in this track is brilliant! The band gets together to create a majestic track with the use of choirs. 7/10

If you are a huge fan of 70s synth with a modern quality to them, and do not mind mediocre vocals/melodies, you may like this album ... but get Eloy's 70s albums first.

My Grade : C-