FLY AWAY

MINOTAURUS was one of the latecomers to the prog rock 70s and consisted of the sextet of Michael Helsberg (guitar), Ludger Hofstetter [aka Lucky] (guitar), Ulli Poetschulat (drums), Bernd Maciej (bass), Peter Scheu (vocals) and Dietmar Barzen (keyboards). This German band from Oberhausen was one of many that looked outside of its homeland for inspiration in lieu of jumping on the local Krautrock scene which by the late 70s had been tamed down into more commercial sounds.

This band was short-lived and released only this sole album FLY AWAY in 1978 but due to the eye-catching cover art can also be affectionately referred to as the "I See Your Pee Pee" album! Stylistically FLY AWAY sounds very much like a tug of war between two decades. On one hand it delves into the early 70s for the space rock sounds of Pink Floyd and fellow countrymen Novalis and Eloy but the band seemed to be a bit forward thinking as well given the extra layers of organs, keyboards and mellotron that prognosticate the neo-prog 80s.

With the opening multi-movement "7117" which was supposedly composed to accompany the Stanley Kubrick film of the same from 1976, the band clearly has channeled the proggiest moments of Gabriel led Genesis with a strong keyboard presence, pastoral slow to mid-tempo dreaminess all wrapped up in a Floydian space rock veneer. The vocals are probably the weakest aspect of MINOTAURUS with heavy accented English lyrics that display a very limited vocal range but personally i don't find them as horrific as many others do as the lackadaisical nature of the music itself doesn't really demand a multi-octave performance.

Despite two guitarists on board, the keyboards clearly dominate every aspect of FLY AWAY ranging from spaced out atmospheres to more Emerson inspired virtuosity however this main emphasis on the album is to provide highly melodic compositions that often sound like early Camel only hybridized with Pink Floyd's mellowest moments as well as some of the space rock antics of Eloy. Exceptions are tracks like "Highway" and "The Day The Earth Will Die" which are more focused on late 60s blues rock and sound like bad Deep Purple covers actually.

While considered symphonic prog, MINOTAURUS could be considered one of those bands that bridged the gap between the 70s bands designated as such and 80s neo-prog as some of the faster keyboard runs do prognosticate what Marillion would sound like just a few short years down the road however MINOTAURUS only hints at these developments and never really takes things to a satisfying level. This is certainly a decent album that is filled to the brim with atmospheric charm and the melodies are quite catchy as well but outside of being a highly coveted collector's item, FLY AWAY isn't anything to get overly excited about. It's merely a decent competent slice of late 70s prog that got more attention than it probably would have otherwise due to the dangling shlong on the album cover.