SBB [AKA: WOłANIE O BRZęK SZKłA AND SLOVENIAN GIRLS]

S.B.B. - st (Wołanie O Brzęk Szkła aka Slovenian Girls) (1978)

The year 1978 has been the most productive year for the eclectic S.B.B. With Follow My Dream the Polish band got itself a modern electronic sound (perhaps influenced by Pink Floyd of the second halve of the seventies) and tried to conquer the European market beyond the curtain. Though Follow My Dream is a good (but perhaps non-essential) album, the band really succeeded in creating somehting interesting with this odly titled album.

S.B.B. has symphonic, space and jazz-rock/fusion influences in it's eclectic mix. The band usually has some long compositions, and this album has only two compositions of 19 minutes. The sound of the band is totally different from the '77 'Ze Słowem Biegnę Do Ciebie', though the concept of the compositions is actually quite the same. 'Wolanie' is the most electronic album of the band with synths completely dominating the sound of the band. It's actually a shame how the guitars of Apostolis Antymos became a back-ground affair. In stead we get an enourmesly effective cooperation of the compositional master- mind Józef Skrzek on keyboards and the always brilliant and effective Jerzy Piotrowski on drums. The album is very atmospheric and the band doesn't loose it's concentration for one tiny moment. There is perhaps no band that has such a tight grip on it's own sound, on their better albums S.B.B. never looses itself.

Both compositions have lot's of spacey and symphonic land-scapes, fusion themes with improvisation and lot's of experiments (like the great use of the harmonica). The equipment of keyboards sounds stunning and the key-solo's are really good. There are some guitar- solo's, but they could have been louder in the mix. The recording is very very good. Somehow the music of S.B.B. is just so exciting and adventerious. The long tension-bows of the songs are unique in their kind, most other progressive rock bands would make epics with songs-within-a-song like structures. Odejście (the second composition) sound great, but I think I prefer the version that was released as a bonus on Ze Słowem Biegnę Do Ciebie with the long eastern guitar intro.

Conclusion. A very strong S.B.B record that bares the fruits of their new sound gained after the '77 'Ze Slowem'. The modern electric sound hasn't dated at all and still sounds modern to this day. My only complaint is the lack of use of all talent of the band, more guitar-parts and a more important place in the mix would have made this a better record. Still this is a unique record on a lonely high level of quality prog. I'm not shure wether I should give this a four or a five star rating, It'll do with four stars for now. Very much recommended to fans of the eclectic, symphonic and electronic genre.