PAMIęć

After their excellent NH, SBB came back the same year with their third Pamieç album (won't venture in guessing this title's meaning this time ;o))), but most fans will be in for a deception if, like me, are a bit distraught at the lost of the Mahavishnu JR/F slant in favour of a more symphonic approach. Another big difference would be the presence of much more vocals (Polish lyrics courtesy of an outsider Matej), even they're not overly-present over the (only) three tracks.Coming with a fairly similar artwork as its NH predecessor, Pamieç is much-more filled with Jozef's Minimoog (all-too) numerous interventions (although I haven't heard much of the announced Rhodes), and seem to lack some cohesiness.

The two 9-mins+ tracks on side A are a bit arduous a listen IMHO, not sounding or flowing as naturally as they should have. It might be a little more difficult to pinpoint SBB's influence on the present than on NH, but clearly we're into almost pure symphonic prog, but not refined enough to compete with Yes or other groups of the genre, both musically (virtuosity) or compositionally. The sidelong title track epic on the flipside is a little more coherent (and cohesive), maybe because of its spacier realm, leading to the first (and last) verse and present some delicate ambiances, but it lingers on a bit too long, taking useless (IMHO) meanders, which tend to dilute somewhat the musical propos. A little conciseness wouldn't have hurt on all three tracks.

Like NH, the present CD reissue is also filled with a slew of bonus tracks, but this time, they fail to match the quality of an already-weaker (IMHO) original album. Indeed the Indian- derived Poranek and African-sounding Drzewa (both from a radio-broadcast) are not only average, but do not fit the album's scheme, while the archive-drawn Osiem Rak and Mahavishnu-esque track Waldie (from an early radio-broadcast) would've both been better suited for the NH CD reissue's realm. The three later (76 & 78) radio-broadcast-recorded tracks are also not really in line with the original album, but then again given the mess of the bonus track selection, it doesn't matter anymore by this time, despite the first being flattering to the ears, but the opposite is true for the last two. Soooooo in short, an IMHO weaker third album (although this is debatable), but clearly further hampered by dodgy additional material. Never mind my opinion if you're more into symphonic-weenie stuff than fusion-stuffed bradwursts, though.

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