RARITIES

While some of these tracks were indeed rarities at the time of this release in the early 1990s, most have those since appeared as bonus tracks. For instance, "Daybreak" and "On the Road", now available as adjunct pieces on "Inside" (1973), seem to occupy the not insignificant gulf between "Eloy" (1971) and that superb outing, being DEEP PURPLE influenced but with a slightly cosmic bent. "Daybreak" even sounds like it has some real strings to offset the chugging organ driven theme. "On the Road" includes vocals but is otherwise not dissimilar, with more predominant lead guitars.

For those who prefer ELOY's mid period glory days (1976-1982), the version of "Child Migration" is an antecedent to the one that appeared on "Colours". While not nearly as compelling, for indeed the fully formed version is one of ELOY's masterpieces, it still showcases the band's songwriting acumen at that point in time, and is different enough to be considered on its own merits. Along with "Let the Sun Rise in Your Brain", it is now available as bonus track to "Silent Cries and Mighty Echoes". "Let the Sun Rise.." is a superb flute dominated song that reflects its lineage to "Colours". Another one from the same era is "Wings of Vision", a synth pop tune that is now a bonus track on "Colours". It appears here in 2 barely different versions, and probably won't excite many, although it's certainly no worse than what contemporaneous GENESIS was churning out, which isn't exactly high praise I know.

It seems that, even at the time, the record company suits had to scramble to find true rarities to pad this out to 45 minutes, and they failed, as "Horizons", "Illuminations", and "Sunset" are all extracted verbatim from "Colours" while "Silhouette" sounds like a single version of the song from the same album. "Time to Turn" and the abbreviated "Through a Somber Galaxy" are from the excellent "Time to Turn". "The Stranger" is oddly from "Metromania", a 1984 release that is not nearly as rare as its fans. Luckily, it sounds somewhat better removed from its compatriots.

I suppose some ELOY fans might covet the cachet of ownership here, particularly in vinyl form. This also isn't the worst place to acquire the taste for ELOY, although I would still recommend "Chronicles" if you want to go the compilation route for initiation to this legendary band.