TREASURES

Some treasures from Switzerland!

This is the second album I listen from Überfall, a band that consisted on three members: Markus Stauss on sax, Pit Kayser on keys and voices, and Andy Muckenhrin on drums. They were together for some years in the 80s and then disbanded in the early 90s, however, last year (2010) the name of Überfall appeared once again, due to the release of an interesting album in which one can appreciate the music they created when they were together.

"Treasures" was an excellent choice for a name, and I truly believe they do consider each and every song featured here as a treasure. Now I will quote some words written in the first page of the CD booklet that describes what you will find here: " an anthology of happy little dancing tunes offers dramatic sarcasm, frightful facts and resistance against standardization. 1984-1991" So now you could have just a slice of an idea of what is it about, the bad thing for me here is that I cannot understand the lyrics, so I may not get their ideology, but well, what I enjoy here is the music after all.

This album released under Fazzul Music features fourteen compositions which make a total time of 70 minutes. What this Swiss trio (with some guest musicians) offers is a mixture of avant-garde, jazz, progressive rock, with some humor, complex compositions and weird sounds. Despite the songs here were composed several years ago (25 years, some of them) this is the first time that these versions appear on a CD, so here we have a kind of old-new album.

I love the mixture of sounds here, from the craziness of some tracks (Strahlen), the hypnotism of "Kulturbetrieb", to the gentle and charming musical passages created in "so froh", the powerful bass notes on "Überall", and the delightful and challenging songs such as "November" or "Total". Another good thing is that they managed to create music that share different emotions, sometimes it leads you to a moment of tension, while in other you are tranquilized.

The music is pretty rich and interesting, though there are a couple of songs that are not really outstanding, and I have to admit that the voice is not actually my cup of tea, the album in general is strong and interesting without a doubt. These three musicians did a great job, and it is a fortune for us prog rock fans that they decided to save from the nothing some of those "forgotten" treasures and give us a CD. This anthology is recommendable to any prog lover, especially if you like jazz and avant-garde music. My final grade will be three stars, (I normally don't rate anthologies or compilation albums with more stars).

Enjoy it!

Swiss trio UBERFALL was active from 1984 and until the early '90s, and released four studio albums before they called it a day, with a compilation album from 1994 closing the chapter of the band's history as an active band unit. "Treasures" is a collection of material pulled from the band's archives, and was released by the Swiss label Fazzul Music in 2010.

Based on the contents of this CD, Uberfall is a band that merits a closer check by those with an interest in jazz-rock and a liberal point of view as to what constitutes music in this genre. Their blend of various more or less mainstream pop-oriented escapades with jazz and jazz-rock tendencies strikes me as just as interesting as the more purebred and occasionally rather experimental fare in this album's second half, with captivating saxophone and keyboard arrangements as a distinct and strong point there. Those aware of and enjoying a project like Taylor's Universe should be a good fit for the contents of the second half of this CD, and those with a taste and affection for jazz-rock blended with other and arguably mainstream-oriented styles should find the first half of this CD to be a treat.