A few words about Eloy....

For my first set of reviews, I thought I might start with a less well-known band.  Don’t worry, I’ll get to all the classics like The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, and Henry Cow, but for now I’d like to take a look at a band that didn’t, and still doesn’t, enjoy the same kind of fame but is nonetheless deserving of our attention.  Eloy, the greatest German progressive rock band you’ve never heard of, is definitely deserving because it certainly did not get much attention in its prime; not surprising, given its background.  From 1969 into the first half of the ‘70s, West Germany was just as productive as England in the art rock movement, but because of different tastes and a strong sense of post-WWII independence, the bands there developed a very different style of music.  Dubbed “krautrock”, the music of bands like Amon Düül II, Can, and Faust featured a wide array of influences and instrumentation, embraced dissonance in a melodious way, and was driven by an otherworldly primal energy.  Crazy, exciting stuff right there!

So when Eloy came together, they put out albums that fit right in with these heavily experimental groups, right?  Wrong.  Frank Bornemann and friends instead played a more “British” kind of prog rock, which makes them pretty unique given that they started releasing albums of this kind in 1971, when all these other German bands were doing something completely different.  Germany would not start producing more bands of their kind until the late ‘70s, so in a way they were ahead of time.  That being said, in this case “unique” does not equal “original”, and Eloy’s sound was highly derivative of other bands.  Whereas their counterparts were taking electronics and ethnic rhythms and combining these in ways never attempted before, Eloy preferred to rip off, er ahem, borrow elements of others.  And boy, did they “borrow” from just about everyone – listen closely to any of their albums and you can pick out the sounds of several different prog bands, the most easily-recognizable being Pink Floyd and Jethro Tull.  But at the same time, Eloy did with this what many bands today seem incapable of doing: they gave it a certain flavor that was their own.  Whether it was the way the constructed their melodies or if it was just their “German-ness”, Eloy’s music sounded different enough from the Anglos’ that it excuses, to a degree, the lack of new ideas.  Eventually some band will make music that sounds like another’s, but if they change it up a little through their approach or through a synthesis of styles, it can still sound unique and that’s just fine with me.  Consider how many AC/DC copy-cats there are which, while entertaining, don’t do justice to their forefathers.  At least Eloy showcased their influences in a more creative way.  And hey, I’m excited that there’s a band that simultaneously rips off Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull, Yes, and that Slovenian fusion group your Aunt Harmony used to be a groupie for.

I should warn, you however, that they can be a little difficult to get into initially.  This is primarily due to the language barrier….oh wait, all their songs are in English.  Better call it the “accent barrier” then.  Frank Bornemann, the band’s guitarist, singer and primary composer, has a thick one that puts some first-time listeners off.  I, for one, love his singing style, whether it’s trying to impersonate Ian Anderson (more on that later), or being more natural, with all those “Ve vill zing to you inz our cool German foisez”, or something like that.  Speaking of which, you’ll notice that I won’t talk a whole lot about the lyrics.  That’s because they’re pretty laughable, and occasionally downright dreadful.  Granted, Frank got better at writing over time, especially when he had someone else to work with him on it, but the words really aren’t the band’s strong suit, and I’ll only bring them up if their particular mediocreness calls for it.

Still, I heartily encourage you to give them a shot.  With all their hard work and persistence, they should be at the very least known and respected if not loved.  They performed live steadily until 1998, but recently decided to regroup for new shows, starting in July, and the first two are prog festivals at that J  Alas, those sauerkrauts had to have the festivals in Europe L  Ah well, those of you who can’t make that journey can still enjoy their albums, and there are a lot of them.  The classic ones (1971-1981) are all recommended.  I haven’t heard any of their ‘80s to mid ‘90s material outside of some pretty weak and annoying synth-pop songs (ugh, the very idea of that sickens me), but I have their 3 most recent albums and they rank among the median of their classic material, so feel free to check those out too.

They’ve had numerous lineup changes over the past four decades, but the two lineups of the ‘70s are the most well-known.  In the beginning it was Frank Bornemann on guitars, Erich Schriever on keyboards and vocals, Manfred Wieczorke on guitar and bass,  Wolfgang Stöcker on bass, and Helmuth Draht on drums.  Schriever and Draht jumped ship after the first album, being replaced by Fritz Randow on drums; Bornemann and Wieczorke took over vocals and keyboards, respectively.  Stocker was soon replaced with Luitjen Janssen on bass, with Detlef Schwar providing additional guitars the following year.  At that point the band broke up, to be reformed by Bornemann the following year with a new and far more stable lineup.  Featuring Klaus-Peter Matziol on bass, Detlev Schmidtchen on keyboards, and ex-Scorpions drummer Jürgen Rosenthal, this version of the band lasted from 1976-1979.  The latter two departed, to be replaced by Hannes Folberth and a returning Randow, while Hannes Arkona also joins on guitar.  When they made their comeback (artistically, not productively) in 1998, the band featured Matziol and Folberth, along with Michael Gerlach on keyboards and Bodo Schopf on drums, augmented this year by Steve Mann on guitar.