ARKTIS

Those who love lush, majestic sympho-prog will find little, if anything, to enjoy here. But those with a passion for stripped-down, gutsy basement rock will consider the first Arktis album to be a lost masterpiece. An aggressive, rough-edged power trio fronted by an assertive female vocalist, Arktis showed both sides of their nature on their privately pressed debut. On the first side, they offered three punchy, stripped down hard rock songs, and on the second cut loose with the astounding "Rare Girl" - twenty minutes of high octane rock jamming, mainly instrumental and principally the vehicle for guitarist Klaus Blachut, who cut loose with endless soloing and improvisation, providing a tour de force of progressive, psychedelic and heavy rock guitar styles, running the gamut from Ash Ra Tempel to Hawkwind, Black Sabbath and even Status Quo. The effect is simply breathtaking. For the CD reissue, Penner added three slightly later bonus tracks with more of an early new wave feel - once again, nothing for prog purists, but again great rock, especially on the very catchy "Is It Real?".