KÉPZELT RIPORT EGY AMERIKAI POP-FESZTIVÁLRÓL (OST)

I won't mince my words here, this release represents the absolute pits in the band's entire career. A concept album, designed to mock American music culture - if only to curry favors with the authorities of the time. It was performed as a theatrical work with actors singing most parts.

The title translates as "Imaginary Report On An American Pop Festival" and designed to focus on negative aspects the audience may have encountered at events like Woodstock. Drugs, alienation, despair. A truly nasty and thoroughly one sided approach where music was largely disregarded. Not worthy of a respectable artist.

Sure enough, former co-leader FRENREISZ (Fender bass, saxes, vocals) refused to participate and left the band in disgust, forming his own reasonably successful rock band, SKORPIO.

From then on, LGT has become PRESSER's vehicle heading into a different direction. His longtime friend and former (early) OMEGA member Tamas SOMLO was given a few days worth of crash course to learn the bass (!) and LGT was "saved".

Somlo was previously a circus performer and in future concerts he could be observed playing while walking on stilts and entertainment often came at the expense of quality music. To his credit, he also plays quite credible tenor sax and his singing voice is exceptionally powerful and unique. Also, as a composer his rare tunes on future LGT releases shine amongst the rather mediocre material the band has collectively churned out over the years.

Shortly after the release of this album, both LAUX (drums) and BARTA (guitars) have emigrated to the US where ironically, the latter has soon met his maker over a drug deal gone wrong. Poetic justice? Probably, but also a sad waste of an exceptional talent.

Musically, this album represents zero interest in any style, let alone as Prog, with one notable exception. The featured remake of an earlier piece "Ringasd El Magad" stands out and probably one of the best tunes the band has ever produced. The driving, throbbing rhythm complemented by excellent drumming and sensational guitars is in stark contrast with the rest of the material. No, I couldn't bring myself to purchase this album, but managed to get a copy of that tune alone, courtesy of an overseas friend.

Rating? For content and music it almost hurts that I can't go below 1 star, but that outstanding tune I referred to is a 5 in my books. Strange world we are a livin' in...

This offering of Hungarian band Locomotiv GT is the soundtrack of the rock musical 'Képzelt riport egy amerikai pop fesztiválról' ('Fictitious Report on an American Pop Festival'). It is based on a shorter novel from 1971 by Tibor Déry, who had already some position in the first communist tyranny of Hungary which lasted fortunately only 133 days in 1919. So Déry was quite an old guard of the Bolsheviks, which explains many things about this particular album. The novel was adapted to stage by Sándor Pócs, the music was composed by Locomotive GT's keyboard player Gábor Presser, and the lyrics were written by Anna Adamis. The story is that an immigrant Hungarian guy is searching his also Hungarian wife at a festival in the USA, where the woman went without his husband's consent, and when he finally finds her wife she is already dying from heroin. Hardly a fantastic story, but what makes it really atrocius that this piece is absolutely an anti-rock propaganda piece., the "message" is very dominant throughout this so-called rock musical. We probably already know that all rock musicians and rock fans are awful drug addicts, but we really needed the genius of Déry to learn about the connection between an American rock festival and the the Arrowcross Party(Hungarian Nazis in the 1930's and 1940's)! Participating in such a work would be an eternal shame for a rock musician, but Locomotive GT did it. I 'm noticing that I have not written anything about the music yet, but there is really not much to write about it. This is basically outdated (in 1973) simplistic beat, and I quite awful policitcal beat, I would rather call this work by Locomotive GT a Chastushka Opera, or Rock against Rock if this music would qualifie as rock. Musically speaking nothing really happens on this album. Obviously it is not recommended to any fan of progressive rock, and not even to any fan of valuable music. I recommend this album only if your misssion is to collect the worst albums in the ProgArchives database.