LA LEYLA

Another German prog rock band from the mid to late '70s, this is their debut album. Basically another band in the ELOY, GROBSCHNITT, NOVALIS vein, and like those bands (save NOVALIS), RAMSES sung in English. Anyway, the music is pretty decent prog rock with some great spacy keyboards (synthesizers, Mellotron, Solina string synth) and great guitar work. Without a doubt, my favorite cuts here are "Devil Inside", the title track, and "American Dream". The title track features some totally mindblowing Mellotron work (the tron set to choir on that part) that lasts just too damn short in the middle part. But strangely this album did have an American release. In Germany, the album was released on the then-new Sky label (which I heard signed bands the Brain label rejected). Here in the United States, it was released on a crap label called Annuit Coeptis (a label that apparently went bust so fast that they gave away the remaining inventory for free - in fact some copies of LPs on this label, RAMSES included, had the word "Free" written in pinholes). Also the American LP replaces the song "War" with "Noise". Basically it's "War" but with the lyrics changed, this time with an environmental theme to it (they probably did that because the Vietnam War was still too fresh in American minds in 1976), and with the background sounds changed to the sounds of jets flying overhead. Regardless, this is one of the more aggressive numbers on the album, with great, early '70s Hammond organ, almost in the DEEP PURPLE or ATOMIC ROOSTER vein. There are a couple of songs that just don't work, like "Someone Like You", which is simply repetitive. "Garden" is also repetitive, but works better, so it's not so bad. "La Leyla" falls short of being a classic of German prog, but still worth having.