À LA CARTE

Triumvirat was a progressive rock band that was formed in 1969 in Cologne, Germany by keyboardist Jürgen Fritz, bassist Werner "Dick" Frangenberg and drummer and lyricist Hans Bathelt. Frangenberg left the group in 1970 and was replaced by Hans Pape. They released their debut album "Mediterranean Tales (Across The Water)" in 1972. During the making of their second album "Illusions On a Double Dimple" released in 1973, Pape also left the group and was replaced by Helmut Köllen. Their third album "Spartacus" released in 1975, gave to Triumvirat their greatest commercial success. At the end of the live tour of "Spartacus" Köllen left the group too. Frangenberg rejoined the band and Barry Palmer was their new lead vocalist. This quartet released their fourth album "Old Loves Die Hard" in 1976. Their fifth album "Pompeii" was released in 1977. The band was firefly renamed New Triumvirat due to legal dispute between Fritz and Bathelt. As all we know, by 1978 progressive rock was no more a popular musical genre. So, it was in this difficult musical context that Triumvirat recorded their new album, the sixth Triumvirat's album "A La Carte" released in 1978.

If we take a look to Triunvirat's career, it becomes clear how much the band changed all over the years. Starting out as a bombastic, keyboard-led prog machine, or an Emerson, Lake & Palmer clone as many have labelled them, with such classic albums as "Illusions On A Double Dimple" and "Spartacus", the band slowly went the commercial avenue, and the culmination of that style became with this album "A La Carte". While certainly no "Spartacus", this CD does contain some good moments. However it sounds like a completely different band. With its mix of Toto or Ambrosia sounding California pop/prog and Eectric Light Orchestra harmonies, combined with the Keith Emerson inspired keyboards of Jurgen Fritz, "A La Carte" is commercial pop at times, average prog rarely, but bland or mediocre for most of the time.

The line up on the album is David Hanselmann (vocals), Jürgen Fritz (keyboards), Werner Kopal (bass) and Mathias Holtmann (drums). The album has also an endless number of many other participating musicians.

"A La Carte" has nine tracks and is a very complete different album than their other previous five studio albums. As I wrote before, it even sounds more like a completely different band. The band's established The Nice and Emerson, Lake & Palmer symphonic progressive rock style is suddenly discarded on this album, as well are the virtuoso keyboard excursions of the band's leader Jürgen Fritz. In their place we have a collection of pop rock tunes that had exchanged the bombast and opulence of former offerings for slimmer arrangements, successfully based on international musical productions along the lines of Supertramp. And the worst of all is that the pop song writing is very inconsistent and unbalanced, a true mix salad, making of "A La Carte" a very difficult album to listen to even if you are a great pop rock fan. Undoubtedly, the album reflects the band's most commercial significance in those days, and turns the album a true lavish pop rock feast. The album seems to be really a menu, describing the nine tracks as if they were truly dishes.

In relation to the tracks, I must say the following. "Waterfall", "(Oh, I'm) Late Again" and "Jo Ann Walker" are decent musical numbers, with the strong vocals of Hanselmann leading the way and with Fritz in a support role of multiple keyboards. In fact, these tracks are all very nice as pop songs in 1978. "For You" is a soft sappy pop ballad that makes even cry the paving stones. "I Don't Even Know Your Name" is a mediocre light rocker musical number with lots of horns featuring all sorts of guest musicians. "A Bavarian In New York" is the first really good track on the album. It's a hard driving song with a good bass line, interesting symphonic synthesizers and organ and nice piano works by Fritz. "Original Soundtrack From The Movie O.C.S.I.D." is a very good piece of music and can be considered the best track on the album. The two last tracks "Darlin'" and "Good Bye" are two both generic and bland songs, a pale of Supertramp's songs with the obvious intention to achieve the Billboard charts, which sadly for them, they never been able to achieve.

Conclusion: "A La Carte" is, for me, one of my biggest disillusions in the progressive rock. How was it possible that the same virtuoso musician that released "Illusions On A Double Dimple" and "Spartacus" do something like this? Like antonio I also think that "A La Carte" is better than "Russian Roulette" is, but like him, I also think this is another story. However, I can't agree with progbaby when he says that "A La Carte" is a good album and the only problem with it is that he isn't a progressive album. I must say that, in my humble opinion, all Genesis' studio albums since "?And Then There Were Three?" are slightly progressive or even non progressive, and that has not made of them too weak albums. By the other hand, "Giant For A Day" is even worse than "A La Carte" is, and is almost as bad as "Russian Roulette" is. And this isn't only for being non-progressive albums, but mainly because their musical quality. Concluding, "A La Carte" is a very weak album and it has nothing to do with all previous Triumvirat albums. This is a commercial pop rock album, without great quality, and almost with nothing of what we can call progressive music. So, I'm very disappointed.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

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