TICKET TO EVERYWHERE

This is the final and arguably lesser album of the SFF trilogy (Fuhrs and Frohling's Ammerland notwithstanding). `Ticket To Everywhere' represents the sound of 1979 for Progressive music, gone are the dense extended tapestries of old, replaced by a cleaner icy blue soundscape of mini-moog, electric guitar and drum dominated pieces. It seems that SFF, like their contemporaries Ashra and Tangerine Dream, decided to incorporate more straightforward (dare I say disco influenced?) rhythms. Whilst the music remains highly melodic, there is a `lightness' here which reflects production values which would find full bloom with the emerging DX-7 textures of the early 1980's. Gone is the grit and stoned mystery of Mellotron and Hammond, instead it's all surface texture, beautifully recorded minimoog and heavily reverbed drums with lots of space.

Having said all that, there is much to like here. The Mini Moog has never sounded better than in the hands of Gerd Fuhrs, and the breezily executed tunes recall the likes of Camel and others who put melody to the forefront.

Lead track `Open Doors' will have you immediately saying "hang on a minute"...until you recognise that the Rhodes motif is directly lifted from The Doors' `Riders On The Storm' ....hence the title presumably. Halfway through the album we have, shock of shocks, a vocal track featuring Klaus Meine of The Scorpions, who actually sounds uncannily like Micky Jones (RIP) of Man. The fact that it's main keyboard melody seems to be borrowed from `The Fish' by Yes makes for an interesting `spot the tune' exercise at least.. Stand out track is the extended (at 8 minutes the longest on the original album) `Slow Motion' which sustains itself beautifully as a study in melodic Moogery.

This the final SFF album does have on the whole a bright commercial sheen, very much in keeping with the keyboard technology and production values of progressive music circa 1979, and for fans of Tangerine Dream's `Force Majeure' and Ashra's `Correlations' this will have much appeal. For afficionados of Moog dominated instrumental music this will be heaven, but one can't help missing the more in depth fusion of influences represented on previous SFF albums.

The very good news is that the live version of `Explorer/Wizzard' is a stunningly well recorded bonus track clocking 10 minutes and featuring tight playing and incredibly, the sound of the audience clapping along to a prog instrumental.