RARITIES

Good compilation of ELOY tracks here, ranging from 1973 to 1984. However, "Rarities" is be a little exaggerated as a title: only 60% of the tracks are rare. So I will only focus on these novelties.

The first half of the disc is hardly composed of A and B sides that cannot be found on official albums/lives. It opens energetically with the psychedelic hard rock instrumental "Daybreak", carved in the same stone than the "Floating" album. "On the Road" sounds very DEEP PURPLE-ish with its omnipresent organ and is very catchy. The best rarity here is the cosmic mini-epic "Child Migration" (different and as less as good as the track of the same name from "Colours"). The song begins with a spacey synthesizer to go on with high-pitched vocals and powerful guitars, definitely worth the trip. The calms reappears with "Let the Sun Rise in Your Brain", relaxing musical piece featuring beautiful flute playing. On the contrary, "Wings of Vision" is not much welcomed in this compilation as it is a little bit cheesy.

The second half of the compilation is merely composed of top tracks taken from ELOY's classic 80's albums ("Colours", "Planets", "Time to Turn" and "Metromania"), with the lengthy version of "Wings of Vision".

Not the best place to start to discover the band, but surely a good investment for ELOY and space rock fans.

NOTE: "Daybreak" and "On the Road" can now be found as bonus tracks on the remastered edition of "Inside", whereas "Child Migration" and "Let the Sun Rise in Your Brain" are now included as bonuses in the remastered edition of "Silent Cries And Mighty Echoes".

"Eloy" didn't release any new studio album between 1988 and 1992. It was maybe the kick for their label to release these "Rarities".

Several songs do have an historical interest but not more. It is the case of "Daybreak" as well as "On The Road". Good old "Eloy" songs. Fully psychedelic. Both were released on the remastered version of their debut album. The most interesting is "Let the Sun Rise in Your Brain". It is one of their few (if not only) "Tull" oriented songs. This flavour is provided with a good fluting break. IMO, it is one the best number from this complilation.

I also lilke very much "Through a Somber Galaxy". The great guitar solo is fully Floydian and it was one of the very few good songs from "Time to Turn". This version has been edited slightly (almost one minute). There are two additional songs from this abum as well but they are really painful : "Wings of Vision" and the title track "Time to Turn" (even featured twice here)! These single (or extended version) won't do any good.

Their album "Colours" which I didn't really appreciate will provide the core of this album. Four numbers actually : "Child Migration ", "Horizons", "Silhouette", and "Sunset" which was one of my fave from this average album.

This collection of songs is by no means of deep interest. Just a couple really deserves any attention. Two stars.

While some of these tracks were indeed rarities at the time of this release in the early 1990s, most have those since appeared as bonus tracks. For instance, "Daybreak" and "On the Road", now available as adjunct pieces on "Inside" (1973), seem to occupy the not insignificant gulf between "Eloy" (1971) and that superb outing, being DEEP PURPLE influenced but with a slightly cosmic bent. "Daybreak" even sounds like it has some real strings to offset the chugging organ driven theme. "On the Road" includes vocals but is otherwise not dissimilar, with more predominant lead guitars.

For those who prefer ELOY's mid period glory days (1976-1982), the version of "Child Migration" is an antecedent to the one that appeared on "Colours". While not nearly as compelling, for indeed the fully formed version is one of ELOY's masterpieces, it still showcases the band's songwriting acumen at that point in time, and is different enough to be considered on its own merits. Along with "Let the Sun Rise in Your Brain", it is now available as bonus track to "Silent Cries and Mighty Echoes". "Let the Sun Rise.." is a superb flute dominated song that reflects its lineage to "Colours". Another one from the same era is "Wings of Vision", a synth pop tune that is now a bonus track on "Colours". It appears here in 2 barely different versions, and probably won't excite many, although it's certainly no worse than what contemporaneous GENESIS was churning out, which isn't exactly high praise I know.

It seems that, even at the time, the record company suits had to scramble to find true rarities to pad this out to 45 minutes, and they failed, as "Horizons", "Illuminations", and "Sunset" are all extracted verbatim from "Colours" while "Silhouette" sounds like a single version of the song from the same album. "Time to Turn" and the abbreviated "Through a Somber Galaxy" are from the excellent "Time to Turn". "The Stranger" is oddly from "Metromania", a 1984 release that is not nearly as rare as its fans. Luckily, it sounds somewhat better removed from its compatriots.

I suppose some ELOY fans might covet the cachet of ownership here, particularly in vinyl form. This also isn't the worst place to acquire the taste for ELOY, although I would still recommend "Chronicles" if you want to go the compilation route for initiation to this legendary band.