TIME ROBBER

3.5 stars. OMEGA deserve a lot of respect for the career they carved out for themselves over a 50 year period including over 30 studio albums. And they are from Hungary but they certainly made waves outside their own country. "Time Robber" from 1976 is my favourite from them but it sure has a strong ELOY flavour to it.

I find every song hit and miss except for the closer which of course is my favourite. "Late Night Show" is that song and it has some depth to it with that upfront bass and drumming but check out the wordless vocals late to end it. Again an ELOY vibe here but this is really good. Least favourite is the one before it "An Accountant's Dream" an uptempo rocker bringing classic rock to mind but thankfully this is the shortest piece.

"Don't Keep me Waiting" is spacey as the vocals arrive before 1 1/2 minutes bringing ELOY to mind as it plods along with bluesy, FLOYD-like guitar. "Invitation" opens with electronics as drums join in then vocals a minute in. Not big on this but the bass and sound during the instrumental section is really good. The opener is a two part affair reminding me of ELOY and we get either really high pitched synths or theremin led passages contrasted with the vocal led sections. This does go into more of a rock territory but theremin is back late.

Again much respect but just not consistent enough or my kind of music overall to give 4 stars. By the way I think it's cool that they used the same colour or hue on five album covers including this one. So '74, '76, '78, '86 and '96.