THE PENTATEUCH OF THE COSMOGONY

This strangely titled album is the absolute low point of Dave Greenslade's long musical career. Anyone expecting an album similar to his first solo album, Cactus Choir, or to the Greenslade (the band) albums is in for quite a surprise. The nature of this music is radically different from those earlier efforts. The keyboards used here do not have any Greenslade's previous signature sounds; here we have only synthesisers! Well, there are actually drums and percussion on some of the tracks, some of which are played by the great Phil Collins. But without the warmer tones of guitars, bass, vocals or any "natural" instrument, this music comes across as cold and barren, much like the scene depicted on the cover. And after listening to the whole album in one session - it runs for almost 80 minutes! - you might very well feel a bit like the being on that picture.

In many ways, The Pentateuch of the Cosmogony can be thought of as the "dark side" of Rick Wakeman's Rhapsodies album and sometimes it reminds of some of Vangelis lesser works. The synthesiser sounds chosen do not always fit the melodies and some times they sound very immature. There are some pleasant parts too, but they do not make up for the many bad parts. The album is almost entirely instrumental but there are some vocals, mostly done with the help of that awful thing the Vocoder!

Further, there are many passages that come across as totally directionless. You often wonder what the overall musical idea was, if there was any! Most probably this is the result of Dave's playing around with his new synthesisers rather than actually composing music.

I can recommend this album only to Dave Greenslade's most devoted fans and followers (and even for them it is likely to be just a curiosity and collector's item rather than an enjoyable listen).

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