BEYOND THE BEYOND

FANTASY's second album which sadly never really saw the light of day is nothing short of a superb recording. FANTASY blend highly melodic themes with great tempo changes and superb musicianship. FANTASY play music inspired with loads of analog keyboards (aka GENESIS) and even the odd sprinkle of the ol' mellotron. Vocals are charismatic with lyrics drawing heavily on fantasy-like themes and imagery. Their music is probably best described as somewhere in the middle of the road between GENESIS and YES. It would be a mistake to also review thios album and fail to mention the superb guitar playing throughout, which is much more accentuated than on their debut album. Thanks to the fine folks at Audio Archives for not only doing an excellent job in carefully remastering and repackaging this lost gem but including the 5 bonus tracks (3 old 1970 tracks and 2 demo versions). "Beyond The Beyond Plus" is a great album and I would recommend this album to the lovers of English 70's prog.

Repackaging of a lost pearl of 70's English prog/art-rock; I borrowed this last summer (with SPRING's sole album and some others) expecting to be blown way by superb Genesis-like prog, but for me Fantasy was a mild disappointment, lovely Spring being just the opposite. I can't exactly spot what's wrong: nice old prog sound with Mellotrons and all, good playing of keyboards and guitars, decent compositions, imaginative lyrics, sound quality fine enough. I feel I should enjoy this more. Maybe I consider the singer too colourless (while the other reviewer describes him charismatic) and the music somehow mild and predictable for its time. I admit I haven't been listening my tape very often, and right now I have only two songs in my memory. But surely worth checking, that much can be said.

Fantasy their debut gig at the famous London 'music temple' The Marquee alongside Robin Trower, not bad at all for such an unknown progrock formation. It was the start of a succesfull tour in the country, supporting bands like Uriah Heep, Argent, Free, Supertramp, Geensis, Greenslade and The Kinks. And one night, again at the Marquee, two bands were billed to promote their debut albums: Fantasy and...Queen! The debutalbum was called Paint A Picture and released in '73. Soon Fantasy belonged to the past, the tapes for a next album remained in the vaults of time. Until the label Audio Archives released these tapes as a CD called Beyond The Beyond. In my opinion this CD is one of the highlights of the Early British Progressive Movement, what a wonderful and elaborated compositions! Every track is very melodic and harmonic featuring tasteful keyboards (lots of Hammond organ), strong guitarwork, a dynamic rhythm-section and good vocals. The climates changes from mellow with acoustic guitar and warm vocals to bombastic with fiery electric guitar and majestic Mellotron eruptions ("Alanderie" is such a beautiful example!). THIS IS VERY WARM AND COMPELLING PROGRESSIVE ROCK, ONE OF MY FAVORITES SEVENTIES ALBUMS!!

This is one of those albums, that like groups like Eloy & Nektar, you end up telling yourself - If only this was put out 2-3 earlier. This is good symphonic prog. For 1972. At this point, the symph prog connoisseur has already enjoyed Genesis' Selling England by the Pound, Tull's Thick as a Brick, Yes' Close to the Edge, and even the beginnings of the classic Italian wave of prog , with PFM's Per un Amico, & Storia di Un Minuta. So is this album unnecessary or bad ? Well, as one who was disappointed with every Nektar album save Recycled due to what I felt were dated sounds. And also, as a prog fan that felt that even Eloy's best - Ocean & Dawn - sounded like echos of a more glorious past; I must say that ... well ... this album won't disappoint those who keep searching for the next new find in 70s symphonic prog.

But, if you are looking at classics, if you want to hit the highlights only , due to the many high quality releases during the 70s, this is an album that you can safely pass by. Good, but so what. The old dit-ons - been there , done that, done it better. Fine if you can get it a a great price, if not, save your money for more deserving hidden treasures.

One of these bands where you can really enjoy symphonic melodicity. Not so pandering, the strength of this record lies elsewhere (I'm aware that it's in fact 90's release, but from current point of view, I take this as it is. First part of this albums being mostly soft symphonic rock, but not soft as weak, more like tender (and beautiful), I really felt like giving best mark here, but then came second half of this record and with it, something like heavy prog, which brings it down a little bit. But I remember, something like "epic", Afterthought improves whole feeling. So I hesitate again. And that it's 1974 instead of 1971/2 ? Well, I take this as that they matured. From current point of view it doesn't matter so much, now it's golden age of prog & -||- (the same).

5(-), well, some heavy parts are way too heavy and keyboards can sound annoying, but after all, they're just bonus tracks, aren't they ?

Curious album, that´s the best sway to describe Fantasy´s second album. I found it purely by chance and, judging by the band´s name, I thought it would be something in the vein of Yes or Genesis. Not really. They are quite eclectic and interesting, sounding way too modern for the time: Beyond The Beyond doesn´t seem to be coming from 1974 at all. The production is excellent, very clear and balanced.

After repeated listenings Ican´t make up my mind if I really like it or not. It seems the band was on their way for something big, but the songwriting was still underdeveloped somehow. Not bad at all, but still it feels like they were in the right path but had not reached its aim yet. The better exemple of that are probably the longer tracks: Afterthought is very promising and strong, while the much more symphonic Alanderie with its eastern influences shows the band was not really ready for such undertaking. Well, that´s just my opinion. The title track is also very nice.

Of course the musicanship is very good, with all the band members doing their parts very skillfully. I liked the keyboards parts a lot, with some inventive use of mellotron and organ. The guitar solos are also well done. The singer has a nice voice. The bonus tracks show the band in a more heavy prog mode, but again the music is very good even if they were not as well produced as the official ones. (and three of them have a differnet, more aggressive singer).

It is very hard to rate such an album. This is good music alright, but not really symphonic. It makes yu wonder how far this group would have gone if they had the chance to hone their obvious talents. For this one: something between 2,5 and 3 stars.

Fantasy's second album, Beyond the Beyond (or Beyond the Beyond Plus as the most commonly available version is dubbed) was originally recorded in 1974, but was canned for nearly two decades before it was brought to disc by Audio Archives. As a result, it's been the recipient of the sort of legend-building which long-unreleased albums tend to experience, though not to an outrageous extent. Though I'd say their preceding album, Paint a Picture, is just a shade better than this, it's a neck and neck race for sure, so if you enjoyed their update of the proto-prog sounds of their forerunners on their debut you'll probably enjoy it here too. On top of that, synthesisers (especially the stately Mellotron) are given a bit more prominence here, with David Metcalfe borrowing a little more from then-current strands of prog to help update the band's sound somewhat.