TANZ DER GÖTTER

Thanks to a TV programm Flaming Bess enjoyed a long and decent career.Formed in 1969 in Duesseldorf they gained some local fame through small gigs with an original line-up of Hans Wende (guitar), Horst Wagner (bass), Rolf Selbach (drums) and Peter Figge (keyboards).They soon fell into hiatus and this would be possibly their entire story, remained propably in dust in a mystery rehearsal room, if some tapes weren't dicovered in 1977 by the Westdeutschen Rundfunk (West Germany's broadcasting) and being hosted by Wolfgang Neumann's ''Rockstudio'' series.Neumann was so impressed by the group that he decided to take part in their first album, recorded in Koln in 1979 and released privately the same year as ''Tanz der Götter''.By the time the crew of the group featured only Hans Wende from the original line-up next to keyboardist Joachim Jansen and multi-instrumentalist Peter Wahle, while several musicians appear as guest members with Neumann being responsible for the album's narration parts.

Each track features a short intro with Neumann's spoken words with piano, harsichord and acoustic guitars supporting, quite close to NEUSCHWANSTEIN's ''Alice im Wunderland''.From the opening 10-min. ''Bedrohung'' the CAMEL influence on the group is more than evident, combining the melodic textures with sensitive solos, but the organ work is rather too soft comparable to CAMEL's approach, instead you get the typical Teutonic-styled atmospheric synthesizers in full mode.The following ''Kampf Und Vertreibung'' is a mix of instrumental Deutschrock with light Symphonic Rock, containing a repetitive funky beat on guitars with background electric solos and symphonic synths, closing with a more pronounced guitar-oriented style.Good track, but a bit too long for its own good.''Oasis'' is much closer to Jazz Rock with a definite FOCUS touch in the guitars and CAMEL-esque organ supporting, though the middle section is again a nice synth-drenched moment of symphonic grandieur.''Arkana'' follows more or less the same path, there is even some Canterbury vibe in the guitar/organ interplays beyond the constant CAMEL flavor and the style remains a jazzy-inspired Progressive Rock with loose textures and solos.The longer and more interesting track comes at the end, the title cut with the great intro built on clavinet, synthesizers and bass, emerging into a light Symphonic/Fusion piece with the guitars now reminding of Japanese bands like BELLAPHON and AIN SOPH, surrounded by tremendous orchestral keyboards, a nice sax solo around the middle and deeper organ moves, always in a lovely melodic enviroment, strengthened even more by the mellow piano lines at the closing minutes.

Delicate, smooth and professional instrumental Progressive Rock by an overlooked German group, that had its hard years before reaching its potential.Maybe not too personal of an album, but certainly good enough to fully enjoy it.Recommended.