BETWEEN THE UNIVERSES

Tritonus is another one of those bands that is interesting mostly because of their obscurity, but not really for putting out any groundbreaking music. The band didn't really have a specific, featured vocalist, but their vocal passages do leave an impression, although not always a good one. Former Kin Ping Meh member Geff Harrison is not a member but does some of the singing, while most of the rest of the band consists of Peter Seiler, who would abandon Tritonus shortly after this album in favor of similar music in duo form with Michael Bundt under the band name Sirius. The drummer is Bernhard Schuh, who is otherwise unknown to me and serviceable at best; and bassist/guitarist Ronald Brand, whose bass is nearly absent but who manages several decent passages of brooding, mostly strumming guitar work.

There's quite a bit of electronic wizardry here (or doodling, depending on your perspective), particularly on the spacey (and appropriately titled) "Mars Detection" and the three-part "the Day". This was released at the height of the synthesizer-heavy part of the seventies, especially it seems with German bands, and these guys were no exception. The keyboards are quite varied and prominent throughout, although some of it is plainly obviously in its source, especially several note-for-note lifts from Pink Floyd and ELP. Some of the vocals also sound a bit like early Moody Blues, or maybe the Nice.

So no prizes for originality, or for lyrical skills either, since most of the vocals are of the slightly psychedelic and theatrical style that so many bands tried to adopt shortly after their respective songwriters hit puberty and heard Sgt. Pepper's for the first time. Plenty of slightly hollow two and three part harmonies lumbering on about peace and love, or space aliens, or something. Not really sure and the liner notes aren't much help either.

And speaking of vocals, the opening title track has some really strange ones, with Harrison delivering a moody tenor, while someone else (Seiler, I guess) steps all over him with a slightly off-key vocal track of his own that sounds a bit like a couple of stoners trying to do harmonies but of different songs. It's actually a bit amusing.

Nothing much else to say about this album, except maybe that I read it was re-released on CD with bonus tracks. I'm glad so many older albums are finding their way onto CD these days, but am also constantly amazed that some of these labels are bothering since its unlikely they even broke even with this one.

So not particularly recommended, and really just for collectors of obscure symphonic rock (although this album isn't nearly as symphonic as their first). So another 2.5 stars, but in this case I'll round up in deference to the good keyboard work and the lengthy but unoriginal compositions. So three stars, but just barely.

peace