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Progressive Rock CD Reviews

Wolfgang Bock

Cycles

Review by Gary Hill

This masterpiece of electronic music is getting its first release on CD with this edition. It was originally released on vinyl in 1981. This showcases a lot of the kind of sound that one expects from that era of keyboard instrumental music. It's proggy, classically oriented, spacey and more. It has a real mature and rich sound. I'd consider this to be one of the better releases of the genre. This new CD version includes one bonus track, too.

This review is available in book (paperback and hardcover) form in Music Street Journal: 2022  Volume 3. More information and purchase links can be found at: garyhillauthor.com/Music-Street-Journal-2022.

Track by Track Review
Cycles
The title track is an opening epic that weighs in at almost 19 minutes. It rises gradually with a real electronic space rock element at play as it does. It grows outward in more or less a straight line for several minutes. It changes direction after a time, though, getting into something more along the lines of Pink Floyd or Alan Parsons, but of course, the instrumental sides of those acts. It turns decidedly ambient around the two-thirds point, but then works upward again beyond that. It eventually plays out and drops back to mellower tones to end.
Robsai Part 1
The rich keyboard section that opens this makes me think of Rick Wakeman. As the piece grows and matures, that still seems true. At a little less than two-and-a-half minutes of music, this doesn't get too far.
Robsai Part 2
Just slightly longer than the previous piece, this has more of a rocking energy via percussion. Keyboards are still king, though. However, the percussion ultimately ends the track by itself.
Changes
Ambient sounds bring this into being. It rises upward making me think of everyone from Krafrwerk to Vangelis and Tangerine Dream. There is a section later where it keeps dropping down. That's a little annoying to me, but it's not that long because the track is just over two-minutes itself.
Stop The World
Much more of a full prog rock arrangement starts things here. The track builds out from there. This works through a number of interesting changes and has some cool rich keyboard stuff later. It turns quite lush for a time. Then a section based around weird detuned bell sounding stuff takes over. That twists, slows and seemingly melts downward to end the cut.
Bonus track:
                      
Wir fliegen ins All

This bonus track includes some trippy spoken vocals in German (I think). Musically we get more classy electronic music at the core.

 
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