PAMIęć

SBB - Search, Break up, Build. Poland's most notable prog band (at least in the 70's), led by keyboardist/ multi-instrumentalist Jozef Skrzek. This far I've reviewed only their most accessible album Welcome (1979) - and perhaps a bit too favourably, because it does contain quite mediocre songs. Pamiec, their third album, builds from the preceding Nowy Horizont (1975) which had that classic SBB style of soft, spacey, jazz-tinged symphonic prog in greener form. The music is instrumentally oriented but with each vocal part - full of Peter Hammill-ish emotion without his over the top acrobatics - I wish I'd know Polish as the lyrics seem to have thoughtful depth. The sound is dominated by Moog synth which also does many bass lines, and the tempo is mostly relatively slow and spacey, reminding me of Dark Side -era Pink Floyd.

The fusion-style drumming is also excellent but the guitars of Greek-born Apostolis Antymos remain quite suppressed even when soloing. Two tracks (of 9-10 minutes) work very well as they wander from introspective atmosphere with vocals to more symphonic passages. The 20-minute 'Pamięć w Kamień Wrasta' (Memory Grows Into Stone) does not quite justify its length but again sounds good all the way, save the rather tiring and directionless opening section. I think this album is one of SBB's better works that can appeal to a demanding and patient prog fan who doesn't mind too much about the language barrier. 3½ stars.

In a book on European prog SBB is described as a slow motion mixture of Mahavishnu Orchestra, Genesis and Yes. Well, at least I would change Genesis to Pink Floyd in that sentence, but maybe it has some truth in it.