TARKUS

After the promising debut album we now get ELP really delivering the goods big time....well on side one anyway.The Tarkus 'suite' is still one of the most innovative prog rock tracks ever.The interplay between all three players shows ELP to be the greatest rock ensemble of the early seventies.Emerson's mastery of the organ is self evident especially on the popping and clicking sounds that he conjures up.Keyboard wizard indeed! Palmers drumming never fails to impress at any point as he copes with all the tricky tempo changes as if it is second nature while Greg Lake has never sounded better on 'Battlefield'.I give this album 4 stars because of this peice.Unfortunately the second side (Vinyl wise) was and still is a big let down.Nothing reaches the peak of side one.Even the production standard takes a somewhat bizarre downturn.'A Time And A Place' sounds like a demo to me.Where was Eddie Offord when they did this?? And 'Jeremy Bender' and 'Are You Ready Eddie?' are jokey tracks that ELP seemed to have a penchant for doing.Oh well, buy it for the 'suite',forget the rest.