THE FLOW

It has been over ten years, now, since any review was posted on this quite outstanding album. Whether this is due to oversight or simple unfamiliarity is immaterial: either way, this represents a grievous harm. The previous two albums in Ines' catalogue (Hunting the Fox, and Eastern Dawning) were both excellent in their own right, but contained some tracks that didn't sit prettily within the whole scheme of things; and by the time of the fourth and final album, Slipping into the Unknown, the band had clearly run out of inventive steam, and duly called it a day. But The Flow is an unheralded synth-washed gem from start to finish. Indeed, it is one of the (very) few albums that I can safely sit through without wishing that something had been omitted. Be assured, we are not in the presence of any Gentle Giant-type instrumental jiggery-pokery (for which I give thanks), or lyricism in the vein of Dylan Thomas, or any of the grandeur associated with Big Big Train, or distorted rhythms, or tedious drum solos - what we have here are terrific melodies throughout, and top-class musicality. I'm not absolutely sure if it properly classes as neo-prog, but what's in a label, anyway? This is just great stuff.

For what it's worth, I note that Ines is still playing wonderful keys, and singing backing vocals, as part of her husband Hansi's eponymous band, Fuchs. If you put Ines Fuchs und Band in the internet search engine, there she will be on You Tube, at the back of the stage to the right, supporting bespectacled Hansi (who is seated at the front), as the band delivers a great version of How Could I Just Ignore Him, from the album Station Songs - which is just a fantastic album, incidentally, as is its predecessor The Unity of Two. (Purely in passing, the band's principal vocalist sounds, to me, uncannily like the late-lamented Geoff Mann.) Be that as it may, I also note that Fuchs are playing at the Night of the Prog Festival taking place in the Loreley open-air amphi-theatre near Sankt Goarshausen (Germany) between 14-16 July. Cyan and Karfagen are also appearing. If the Festival organisers could kindly re-locate the whole kit and caboodle near to God's chosen country (Yorkshire), I'd be there like a shot.

But, as ever, I digress. The Flow is what I'm reviewing. And I have. And it's just magnificent.