GLORY OF THE INNER FORCE

Of course there is a back story! In Manchester there used to be this cavernous cellar of a record store named Yanks, later to change its name to Power Cut. It was extant from around 1975 to about 2000. The name Yanks came from the fact that they seemed to import loads of stuff from the USA that I assumed had reached 'cut out bin' status. The sleeves were the heavy US card and all the albums had the import cut off or puncture in the corner...ie sleeve clipped off or hole punched through. They sometimes had different sleeves to the Euro/UK release too. The best thing about them was the price! Again, assuming they were bought as massive job lots to save from the incinerator, Yanks used to knock them out at Ã?£0.99, Ã?£1.49 or Ã?£1.99...at a time when new albums were Ã?£5-Ã?£6...like I cared some of these were 2 or 3 years old...then considered a lifetime in the faster moving pop/rock market!!So of course it was easy to buy 6 albums for your Ã?£6 and take a punt...although most long haired/prog stuff would hit the mark to varying degrees! Finally we get to Finch! I totally had no idea who they were but liked the idea of four 10 min plus tracks and the cover suggestion that this was my kinda stuff! And at £0.99 how could you go wrong. I still have this and the import puncture in the top right corner! And near 40 years later this still gets a regular turn! I discovered they were Dutch and prog come latelies...maybe the record companies in 75-77 wanted some of the Focus action...but probably already in retreat from the new wave.....which made this gem all the more precious! Glory Of The Inner Force was their first of 3 albums (have to admit to not owning the other 2) and it compares to one of my other all time favs from 1975, Chocolate Kings by PFM. Not necessarily stylistically but in the long term impression it left. Eschewing such fripperies as vocals, the band concentrated on what they did best. Extended compositions, dexterous musicianship, using as many time signatures as 10 mins would allow and being better than the sum total of whatever influences they came from or displayed. The opening Register Magister starts with a very strong guitar/keys entwined riff that suggests Genesis and King Crimson and then hits its stride...admittedly an ever changing one...with a definite hint of fusion and more melodic passages perhaps closer to say Be Bop Deluxe than any direct prog references. I can hear similarities to Druid and in this track and definitely throughout the album, parts that if someone said it was from a Mars Volta cd you wouldn't be at all surprised. Paradoxical Moods has something of a Streetwalkers vibe and for sure they had listened to (earlier)Yes and is highlighted by a keys heavy section that could have been Uriah Heep at their best. Yes, the guitarist has his Jan Akkerman moments (Focus inevitably) but hell, that's no bad thing! Pisces is a very angular track and I can hear a touch of Return To Forever in there. A Bridge to Alice is the most ambitious. Definitely a King Crimson sound and one that veers towards an eastern scale then a gorgeous Focus (baroque) meets Allan Holdsworth acoustic interlude before a touch of VDGG menace takes the song forward with a side order of Kansas and The Enid thrown in. Overall, the keys and near poppy (but thankfully short) melodic/catchy passages don't work for me....am guessing this is what gets them the symphonic prog tag....but as a treasured punt that worked big time it would be a near 4.5 stars but losing the half for the too jarring symphonic sections....! May your unexpected discoveries give you as many years of repeated plays...