I hate to do this to you again Tom but I will simply quote your recent review at this time before adding my own thoughts to your inevitably correct assessment:
Of all the albums in his latest dig, I have to say Nimbus (Germany) is one that I keep hearing about, but never have actually heard. Its reputation is stellar, so does it live up to the "hype" as it were? I use the term hype carefully, but I fear to say that there are many out there who do, in fact, hype this one to me. As in "buy my CD-R... now!" (I don't buy or trade CD-Rs, but that doesn't seem to stop the solicitors of such). And one can't possibly have a deep dive expedition without at least one Kraut Fusion album, now can we? "Yet another instrumental progressive fusion rarity from the vast German private press scene. But this one's a cut above the norm, with excellent compositions spiced with a healthy does of progressive rock, keeping things interesting all the way through. The keyboard work in particular stands out. Unfortunately, the sound could do with some cleaning up, which makes a reissue all the more necessary. This is certainly in the top tier for this style, so hopefully one of the German labels will step up to the plate someday."
The music is as The AC describes, a highly melodic instrumental jazz rock album, with guitar and keyboards in the lead. Bands like Surgery, Mosaik, Moira, and Profil are all good guideposts here, and all just as obscure as hell too (though at least the former did get reissued by Garden of Delights
Priority: 3
I probably would have rated it higher, but I have more of a predilection for fusion, obviously. In order to present a suitable track for sampling I elected to use the fourth track. The first (Hymn) is a relatively simplistic, perhaps commercially oriented fusion or fuzak track, the second takes it a bit further in a symphonic direction with the summer's evening sound, the interaction particularly of rhodes and electric guitar make for a wonderful interplay, though the invention is not sustained to the end as I felt it should be. As we often see in these situations, the third track is a throwaway noise thing, luckily less than a minute long. The fourth is called Forum and it is here that you can listen:
Note how nicely the keys and guitar play together here, a big feature of this record's attractiveness. Unfortunately, side b comprises the two long progressive and interesting tracks (Living and Sinus), particularly the final one where a kind of Crimsonesque ambition prevails. Altogether, worth seeking out, and apparently on contacting band members, from where my own rip originated, they are quite open to a release of this work. Perhaps if there is more clamour for it they will be more convinced?
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