AMBER ROUTE

AMBER ROUTE were a two-man act from California, founded in 1973, and this is the first one of their two albums. A pity that the cover design's visualization of the hilarious Dada-like title is rather poor. The music is an interesting curiosity, to say the least. The strong psychedelic flavour is very reminiscent of the late 60's PINK FLOYD. Despite that, the Progressive Electronic subgenre is more adequate than Psychedelic/Space Rock, especially for the compositional structures that don't have much to do with rock. There is also an equally recognizable TANGERINE DREAM influence. In the core of the sound are thick layers of synthesizers, accompanied by guitar, piano, clarinet -- and vocals.

The title track that starts the 34½-minute, four-piece album could have been written by Roger Waters or Rick Wright, with lingering echoes from Syd Barrett, around The Saucerful of Secrets and Ummagumma. The tempo is slow, the Rick Wright reminding monotonous voice keeps repeating the title, and a bit deeper voice joins when the very obscure lyrics progress. The atmosphere is hypnotic and hallucinatory.

The Dada/Surrealistic approach continues with 'When Cries Are Photographed Finally as Ravens'. The vocals are again present in the equally slow tempo, but partly because they're half buried under the thick synth carpets it's not easy to make any sense of them. Hopefully the vinyl contained lyrics printed on the back cover or sleeve (I'm using YouTube). This song is all too similar with the first one. The mentioned Tangerine Dream resemblance is a mixture of the esoteric and abstract soundscapes of the early era, and the mid/late 70's albums Phaedra, Stratosfear and the vocal-containing Cyclone (1978). The use of guitars is rather similar to Edgar Froese's style.

The final piece on the A side, 'Martyrs', tries only lazily to step out of the knee-deep psychedelic swamp. Still in a slow tempo, at least occasionally it contains a bit more airy use of synths and clarinet. When the vocals arrive, we're again pretty close to the preceding tracks. Sigh.

The B side contains a long instrumental piece, 'Asteroid Joroid' (16:25). It's basically a Tangerine Dream clone with the familiar bubbling sequencers and all. Due to the clarinet the best reference is Cyclone and its longest piece 'Madrigal Meridian'. A well done pastiche, and fairly enjoyable if you're into the late 70's Tangerine Dream, but in the end not as many-sided and nuanced as the role model.

The verdict unfortunately leans to the negative side. The level of production? So and so. Originality? Hardly any. The combination of the Saucerful era Pink Floyd and the 70's Tangerine Dream actually says it all. I believe that if I had this LP, I would eventually sell it away, having become extremely tired of its music. Even when I'd still appreciate the albums of their two influencers.