CRAFT

Overblown and self-conscious Cheez Whiz is what we have here... and it's not all that bad, actually. Three of the five tracks on the original release, 'Aries', 'Gemini' and 'Leo', are highly listenable academic Symph Rock numbers taking from Saga, U.K., Genesis, Tull, ELP, later Yes, a pinch of Asia and a nauseating whiff of 80s hair metal, and trot along with courtly pomp peppered by good keyboard breaks from ex-Enid man William Gilmour. Martin Russel's (also of The Enid) treated bass substituting for a guitar and Grant McKay Gilmour's acceptable drums add some flavor. If Rick Wakeman composed the music for a kid's TV show about a team of galaxy-defending space knights galloping through the cosmos on horseback, it would sound like this. But this trio does it well, as adolescent as it may be. And there's nothing wrong with that last time I checked.