WINDCHASE

With the compositional knack and know-how of second-wave contemporaries Camel--most notably to the style herein, The Snow Goose was released a year prior, 1975, and Moonmadness the same year as this, 1976--I also hear stylistic choices derived most likely from Yes and Genesis, respectively (in terms of how much of each you're likely to hear on this album).

Overall, a solid release, especially, I would say, for a sophomore album (and especially one following up such a solid debut as theirs). Some of the compositions are a tad stale and we only get so much interest throughout. The opening title track, a 20-minute epic, is beautiful and at times compelling, and is without a doubt the strongest song (and strongest overall material offered) on the album. Most notably otherwise is track 4, "Hello Phimistar". It's very hard, in this case, not to compare directly to Camel, but Australia's Sebastian Hardie is fortunately no carbon copy (I think it's overstated just how many carbon copies in Prog there are in The Second Wave... Even if there were ultimately more than there were, this is a total non-issue to me).

I would definitely recommend the 2 tracks mentioned above, but also (as I should personally relisten) just strongly recommend their debut. I don't intend to look deeper hereafter. Good while it lasted.