THE STORY OF MOSES

Long before there was a term like Christian Prog Rock, Dutch Formation Light recorded and released this album with it's biblical background. As a matter of fact it is a concept album, doing exactly what the title suggests: It tells the story of Moses, who is said to have led the Israelites from Egypt to the promised land, Canaan.

The story is told from the moment when little Moses is found floating in his basket on a river by a daughter of the Pharaoh, thus the album starts with some watery sounds, leading to the intro of "The water" with an organ that sounds very much like a real church instrument. This gives way to a very melodic piece where Adri Vergeer makes his mellotron, keyboards and organ sound like a whole orchestra, all in all giving the theme for the first parts of the album. There is even a bit of quite heavy drumming by Sjaco van der Speld.

On the way to the second title we hear Vergeers organ and Gerard Steenbergen on acoustic guitar, the music sounding a bit Moody Blues-ian. The voice of Marian Schatteleyn gives us the first vocal impression, when she's telling where Moses got his name from. Quite heavy dutch accent, she has, while the singer - I think Vergeer - doesn't give away his country of origin so easily as his vocals in english don't give a hint. He tells the first part of the story in song.

Then a bluesy guitar intro opens "The Blackberry Bushes". During this song there's sort of a Santana-esque part with all sorts of percussion, Hans Hollestelles electric guitar and Vergeers organ, getting jazzy soon when Hans de Bruin kicks in with his saxophone, the band reminding of Colloseum. This leads into another vocal part with Robbie Dale telling about the burning bushes. The rest of side one of the album is dominated by Greenslade-ian keyboards.

Side 2 opens with "White turns into black", there's a lot more of Vergeers organ, the bass leading the band into a piece that could stem from fellow countrymen "Ekseption" or "The Nice" accompanied by flute. This leads to "The nuisances" with - I'm quite sure - Robbie Dale telling about the plagues God sent (rain, hailstorms, frogs etc.) and the band giving a short acoustic impression of the nuisances. "The desert" and "The red sea" follow and have an arabian touch (or maybe it's just what a european thinks of as arabian) with de Bruins saxophone defining the mood.

Unfortunately the vocal performance is a bit weaker on side two. Also the ending is a bit abrupt and leaves you with the feeling, that there's something missing like a closing piece.

I sometimes think that "Light" were just a bit too early or too continental european for bigger success, which they certainly deserved. Although I've mentioned some other bands they are not plagiarising anybody, my mentioning them was just for comparing. I personally would have loved to hear more from the band Light.

"The Story Of Moses" may not be a masterpiece, but I consider it well worth for Prog-afficinados.