ZEITMASCHINE

This "only" album by the Germany band Madison Dyke represents true vintage prog rock with combined music styles of Camel, Pink Floyd and a bit of Genesis. Almost all of the compositions are mellotron-drenched overlaid by flute who is also played by the lead singer. The musical style is very similar with Symphonic Slam. However, the music of Madyson Dyke sounds raw and the recording quality is bad.

The opening track "First step" (10:05) has too long and repetitive mellotron work in spacey style. Because it's too long, it makes me "bored". Luckily the melody is quite okay when the lead singer starts to enter the music. There is nothing so skillful in terms of each member's skills that is obvious from the song. The melody line reminds me to the music of Camel. "Cooking time of an egg" (4:09) (what a title! - does not sound prog at all) starts off with a simple guitar fills overlaid by flute work. The whole song is basically an exploration of guitar fills, flute and vocal. "Next conceptions" (6:18) sounds like a continuation of "Cooking time of an egg" as it starts with acoustic guitar work and flute during introduction. The music flows in Camel style with mellotron, guitar and bass.

"Zeitmaschine" (16:40) is the concluding track which serves as an epic. The band has tried to make the song as epic as possible as it was common trend at that time. Unfortunately this epic fails to manage the cohesiveness of each music segments into one thing. Each transition does not sound natural, there are chords and notes that are forced to fit the song. The double guitarist line-up does not help improve the whole track. The bass lines are not that inventive and tend to be annoying. However, this is not a bad epic, it's just lacking on some elements of composition.

This album serves good for those of you who want to make a journey to the past. The past when all of it began and nourished, during the glory days of the 70s. Keep on proggin' ..!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW