OCEANWORLD

A sticker on the front cover mentiones this: "Unrealesed original 1977 recordings featuring pre-Steve Hackett, pre-Hawkwind, ex-Enid". Well, at least this should appeal to some progheads I presume ...?! The most prominent member on this CD is Nick Magnus, once embellishing The Steve Hackett Band with his wide range of vintage keyboards (Mellotron!!). On most of the five compositions Nick delivers varied and pleasant keyboard work: jazzy play on the Fender Rhodes electric piano, swinging notes from the exciting Hohner D6 clavinet and nice work on the Vox String Thing and Mini Korg 7005. Guitar player Mark Easton often evokes a certain Stephen Hackett (flowing, melodic and frequent use of the volume pedal), especially in the titletrack. In Some Like It Crunchy fiery electric guitar is followed by wonderful strings and a long and exciting synthesizer solo, accompanied by acoustic rhythm-guitar ("did anyone say Cinema Show?"). The final part delivers great guitar and pleasant clavinet runs. That clavinet is also omnipresent in the tracks Little Finger and The Celebrated Court Jester (in both blended with beautiful strings and varied guitar work). The rhythm- section does a good job (Robbie Dobson once joined The Enid and Hawkwind), the musicians on this CD are outstanding! The running time is only 36 minutes but the mid- price eases this pain ...

This is how we all dream that 70s sounds. Or at least me, because this album shows exactly most of ingredients that makes Prog so interesting. Showcase, shopping window of Golden Prog Era.

It's all instrumental, so this may be problem for some, but I personally can appreciate it even more. Vocals can be pleasant, or annoying. Or average, but most of the times, they divide people on fans/haters. There are people who will never enjoy Yes because of Jon Anderson. Here, it works, because there's no obstacle in way.

Camel, that's main influence (and similarity) here and also here you will find great melodies. That's what's going on here. Nothing poppy, this is taking land of beautiful tunes from completely different direction, "Oceanworld" is Symphonic to each and every meaning of this word. I mean original meaning. There was also Cathedral mentioned in one of the previous reviews - indeed, I like both (Camel / Cathedral) and sadly, this group didn't release more albums. They would be welcomed a lot.

5(-) if you ask me.

Sometimes you´ll stumble upon a rare prog gem and you´ll be filled with the joys of a rare discover. Well, that´s the feelingn I got when I heard Oceanworld. The album was only relased in 1998, although it was recorded twenty years earlier. In hindsight It is easy to understand why this magnificent work was not available before: it´s pure instrumental synmphonic rock, something totally unfashionable (and therefore unmarketable in the recording companies eyes) for 1978. Alas, a mere two years before and it probably would be a different story. Sad, but true.

Anyway, I´m glad that at least this wonderful piece of music is available at last. Formed by early Enid memer (and later to play with Steve Hackett) keyboardsman Nick Magnus and drummer Robbie Dobson (another former Enid and future Hawkind player), plus guitarrist Mark Easton and bassist Steve Hoff, Autum delivered an astonishing powerful symphonic sound that shows enormous classical influences, plus hints of great 70´s classic bands like Yes, Genesis and Focus. The music is highly melodic, elaborated, complex and yet accessible, with great musicanship of all involved. They are so good you won´t miss a singer in any moment. The only flaw Oceanworld has is its very short time (36 minutes of music in all). However, ther are no fillers and all the songs are of high caliber. It´s the kind of CD you put to play again and again.

If you like 70´s symphonic rock, this is a must have. Think of Wakeman-like keyboards, Chris Squire-ish bass lines, a guitarrist that reeks of Howe/Hackett/Akkermann styles combined in one and a inventive drummer. Voilá! You have an idea of Autum was. Outstanding instrumental bliss. Ok, they weren´t all that original, but they had their own personality already and their songwriting skills were very high. Certainly this band would evolve into something very big had they stayed together and the times were not so bad for prog acts in general when they appeared. Sad story, but great record. 4.5 stars. Highly recommended to all the symphonic prog freaks like me.