SYRIUS

For me it is one of those rare gems: truly lost/forgotten masterpiece we constantly looking for. Well, look no further. Mindblowing musicianship includes quite a lot stop/start moments and abrupt changes, which I like very much. The style is rather unique. A somewhat unlikely cross between Colosseum (brass and some bluesy moments) and King Crimson comes to mind but it doesn't fit completely either. A bit rough, sometimes desperate vocal parts ("Psychomania") add some grit to this otherwise rather sophisticated music. Oh and there is some humor in it too. Not Zappa-like, it's more subtle, and all the better for it. It definitely deserves much wider recognition by prog community!

3.5 stars. SYRIUS were a band out of Hungary who formed in 1962 and played Beat music but by 1970 or so they decided to jump on the Prog train drastically changing styles, and this is quite jazzy too. We get two sax players in this 5 piece band along with violin, flute, organ and the usual Rock instruments. They managed to get a recording contract from a label in Australia so they flew down and recorded this beast which was released in 1972. The vocals are in English and I'm not a fan of them but I do like the instrumental work although there are two songs I can hardly tolerate but man the title track and the longest tune that closes the album are both excellent.

"Concerto For A Three Stringed Violin And Five Mugs Of Beer" certainly shows these guys had a sense of humour. It opens with what sounds like acoustic violin and some piano before vocal melodies arrive after a minute followed by dissonant sax with organ and drums to follow. Then some jazzy bass with organ takes over as this plays out, flute late.

"Crooked Man" opens with sax and drums before piano and flute help out. Processed vocals before a minute sound rough as the drums support then piano, flute and sax as it sort of stutters along. Normal vocals after 1 1/2 minutes. Bass and piano lead a minute later then it's sax only before drums and vocals join in after 3 minutes. A calm before 4 minutes as it slows right down with drums and piano then sax. Organ joins in after 4 1/2 minutes then it's bass only a minute later but not for long. A detailed song at 7 minutes in length.

"I've Been Down This Road Before" is one of the two songs I don't like. Sounds like a commercial tune that's bluesy with the focus on the vocals. "Devil's Masquerade" is a top two for me. It opens with organ before the sax and drums kick in as we get such a great sound here. Vocals join in before 3 minutes and they are relaxed and sound best here. It's the chorus that really impresses me with that melancholy with vocals, sax, organ and drums.

"Psychomania" is the other tune I don't like. Man as soon as I see the title of this song it brings to mind the chorus where he shouts this word a few times. "Observations Of An Honest Man" opens with vocals and piano. Flute replaces the vocals as they stop briefly. The tempo picks up. Not a fan of this one but it's under 2 minutes.

"In The Bosom Of The Shout" opens with samples before we get an almost Free-Jazz vibe happening, not melodic at all. That changes before a minute as sax, drums and piano lead. Organ replaces the piano then the piano returns as the organ continues with sax and drums. I like the piano 2 minutes in with bass and percussion. I also like that dissonant sax before 3 1/2 minutes with bass, drums and organ. Great sound! We get both sax players playing around five minutes in then for the first time on this song we get vocals before 6 1/2 minutes. Organ and flute impress after 7 minutes as the vocals continue. Spoken words late.

Avant fans seem to favour this one although I must say this seems to get high ratings every where I looked. 3.5 stars is the perfect rating for me because while I do like it I have too many issues with it to offer up that fourth star.

This album is a collection of live tracks recorded at various times in both Australia and Hungary. The Australian material - the first five tracks - consists mostly of covers, and spotlights a strong 60s soul influence, with some jazz elements in the arrangements. It's far less ambitious than the material that appeared on their studio album of the time - but then, so were Australian audiences, so I guess this is a good snapshot of the kind of material that would have kept them in live work during their year in Australia. I think some of these may have been recorded for GTK. The ambitious side of the band is represented by the Hungarian tracks - principally the 35 minute epic Szettort Almok. This consists of several discrete vocal sections, again generally in a fairly accessible soul/light jazz-rock style, which are linked by instrumental passages which traverse more psychedelic and harmonically challenging territory - however, in general, the music here is still quite a bit more accessible than their more frequent excursions beyond conventional tonality and metre on the Devils Masquerade album. The title track delivers some of those excursions, but seems to be a recording of a rehearsal or an unfocused jam session - the music frequently stops altogether for dialogue between the musicians (not being a Hungarian speaker I have no idea what this dialogue is about ). The Hungarian recordings are of bootleg quality - the title track is particularly poorly recorded.

I'm mostly reviewing Australian albums for the moment, but Syrius somehow ended up here for about a year in the early 70s, and for that short time became a very integral part of the local scene. While they were here, they recorded this album for Festival, and it's one of the best albums to come out of the local underground/progressive scene. Their music is rooted in a jazz rock tradition - in the vocal sections, they remind me a lot of Wigwam (but better!) - but their instrumental sections introduce a great deal of complexity in metre, modality (they use a lot of enigmatic scales) and rhythm, which brings to mind Zappa's more instrumentally-focused work, or Gentle Giant's more far out moments (minus the instrument-swapping) - with one hell of a funky rhythm section holding it together. Brilliant.

Canterbury-soul-Aristocats

This is a pretty special album to say the least. Hungarian beat band Syrius originally formed back in 62 and then metamorphosed with the times and the changing currents adopting a powerful melodic jazz rock approach. Even so, the time spent playing together as a band all through the 60s shows almost immediately, when you pop this mother on.

The Devil's Masquerade was actually recorded in Australia, where the band had received a record deal, which to my knowledge is why they decided to sing in English, but don't take my word for it though... Speaking of those vocals, the 60s sound is all over them, and this listener feels instantly warm and taken aback by the sheer soul and chocolate power there is to them. For lack of a better picture, then imagine a white version of Otis Redding, albeit with a slightly heftier backing band. Yeah erm - perhaps backing band is the wrong wording here, because it feels much more like a full frontal attack with heavy based organ work, tip toeing Aristocats piano, manic saxophone sprees - often recalling the more angular Canterburian work, along with a butter-churning funky rhythm section, that will have you out of breath and lying on the floor like a salmon out of water.

There's that early 70s experimental feel to it as well - especially in some of the saxophone parts here, you get sudden bursts of unbridled free-jazz inching its way through the orchestrated wilderness. Still you never loose focus - you're still infatuated by warm and vibrant melody lines, that for some reason always seem a bit hidden beneath these mad interventions - either emanating from the aforementioned sax or an altogether preposterous sounding flute. The melodies are omnipresent often delivered by the soulful piano man, who are as prone to run wildly about on organic fusioneros runs going a hundred miles an hour - or just strolling casually along to these cool jazz Aristocats' chords, that really speak to the feline in me.

It's sexy, cacophonous, soulful, funky, at times ominous - but never dull or uninspired. Jazz with its pants down so to speak... I can understand why this album only has received masterpiece ratings before my review - I really can. Most of all, because I can relate to the kind of music on offer - the way it makes me feel, the warmth and vigour it's delivered with, but mostly because it just jives, bounces, funks, rocks and bleeds all over your living room floor like some kind of welcomed vagabond. With all the twists and turns, it really should radiate more of a schooled snobbish expression, but just like Zappa did with his musical ventures - these guys are able to take it to the streets - right down in the gutter and make it infinitely more earthy and frivolous. I really like that about 'em.

One thing that has got me puzzled slightly though, is the fact that I seem to know some of these melodies beforehand. I'm not suggesting that we're talking rip-offs, no no - I actually have a pretty good listening memory, and have always been able to spot where musical themes are lifted from, if such is the case, - but here with Devil's Masquerade the music just feels like an old friend shaking hands with you - like you instantly know the shake, the bake, the whole register of emotions associated with the experience, and yet you will constantly be facing new facets within the tracks - suddenly popping up within 60s inspired soul choruses you get the odd sax toots or a complete turn around making the music shift course and then go in a completely different direction. Still feels melodic and right at home though, which is one of this album's biggest attributes: the somewhat open and welcoming atmosphere it conjures up transcribes to the music itself. Everything seems to fit whether it be the Canterbury snippets on top of the free-jazz vortex, or the musical themes with a devout soul music shadow intrusion, it's all good and I just love it!

So, do you consider yourself a fan of 70s Zappa, Canterbury, Nine Days' Wonder - or just music you can seduce your friendly neighbourhood tomcat with? Then, I swear to you on my mother's diving suit, - this Australian produced Hungarian is a safe bet. It certainly has got me dancing the bop.

In 1974, the band leader Zsolt Baronits had to reform the band again. First, the sax phenomena Mihaly Raduly went into New York, in the Berkeley Music School . Miklos Orszaczky stepped out in end of 1973 and settled down in Australia in the next year. Laszlo Pataki, who was the musical brain of the Syrius, emmigrated in Austria, Wien. Just the drummer remained. New pianist , new vocalist, bassist and a complete reed section (sax, trumpet, trombone) joined to the band. In 1975 Tibor Tatrai guitarist came in, who was until brief time in the band in 72- 73. This album is achievement of the strong compromises. They had to give up the progressive ambitions, in exchange this album could release. This album contains american type brass rock, in vein of Chicago, BS & T. The quality of the songs very mixed. We can find four average funky injected pop jazz numbers (track 1,2,5,7), two cheesy, bland ballad : "Mint aprilis" and "Szep arcu idegen". Three outstanding tracks : "A Laz", "Kinyujtom Kezem" and "Igen, Szep Volt" have same structure : colourful arrangements with relative long jazzy fender rhodes and bluesish guitar solos. The trumpet solos by Rudolf Tomsits are gorgeus. These songs are reminiscent of the classic Syrius, but only vaguely. The Syrius disbanded, after two years agonizing, in 1978.

Syrius was formed by Zsolt Baronits in 1962, Hungary, mainly to play early beat music. The band profile changed in end of 1969. They started to play top quality progressive rock and jazz-rock fusion, when Miklos "Jackie" Orszaczky, Laszlo Pataki, Mihaly Raduly and Andras Veszelinov joined the band. They became popular in the scene of the hungarian underground quickly. In 1970, they met with Charlie Fisher producer , who took in Australia them , where they recorded their legendary album, called ''Devil's Masquerade'. The album is very short, 36 minute, but enough complex. Mihaly Raduly plays the sax and flute solos mostly. He is a virtuoso player, influenced by Roland Kirk and Eric Dolphy. First track, the funny titled "Concerto for a Three-Strigned Violin and Five Mugs of Beer" with short scat vocal, agressive reed solos and violin, of course. Next one , "Crooked Man" starts with disorted vocal of Orszaczky. Later vocal became normal, piano, sax and organ solos vary each other in close seven minutes. "I've Been This Down Before" is a bluesy song, might be compared with the Traffic. Miklos Orszacky's soulful vocal sounds like the cross of Stevie Winwood and David Clayton Thomas. "Devil's Masquerade" is organ and dual sax driven title with dramatic vocal. "Psychomania" has a slighty Traffic feel too. The short "Observations Of An Honest Man" is a sad ballad with flute and piano. The longest track is the last one "In The Bosom Of A Shout". It contains free jazzy, Coltrane influenced sax solos. We can hear unrestrained organ and piano runs too. Laszlo Pataky 's organ style is closer Larry Young than Emerson or Greenslade here. This is a very important album in the Hungarian's rock history . We can hear echoes from IF, Third era Soft Machine and Traffic, but the sound of Syrius was very original with bartokian traditions. Syrius got back in Hungary in 1972. After the australian succes, they played small clubs again, in contrast of Australia, where they played on big festivals. In 1973 they got an invitation the Opening of the Melbourne Opera, to perform, but the they couldn't go. The reasons were political and bureaucratic. The disillusioned Miklos Orszaczky left the group in 1973, and emigrated in Australia. He was a member of the Bakery and became very requested studio musician and producer. He died in 2008.