Eloy is a bit of a misfit. The krautrock proggers are often overlooked when the classic 70’s bands are mentioned, which is unjust. I’m afraid I have to plead guilty too: the last time I listened to the band was way back in the days of vinyl. But when well-done remasters of a couple of their recordings are released, the time seems right to go back in time and re-discover the band. After the re-release of their earliest albums a few years ago, at last two of their most respected albums are next: “Dawn” and “Oceans”, plus their only official live album.

“Dawn” (1976) was a brand new start for the band, which kept only guitarist / vocalist Frank Bornemann from the earlier line-up. The new musicians proved to be exactly what the band needed. Klaus-Peter Matziol’s bass is remarkable and Detlev Schmidtchen uses a whole arsenal of keyboards: synths, mellotron, moog, piano, Hammond,…, exactly what you can expect from any respectable prog keyboard player. Ex-Scorpions Jürgen Rosenthal (who also co-wrote the lyrics) has a very prominent drum and percussion sound. Along with Frank Bornemann’s at times very Floydian guitar work and his distinctive voice, this would turn out to be ‘classic’ Eloy. Bornemann may not be the world’s best singer, he does have a unique voice, that fits the style of music well. The heavy German accent is indeed something you have to get used to, but it is an essential part of that typical Eloy sound.

The sound of a thunderstorm, supported by a string orchestra, opens this bombastic concept and sets the tone for the rest of the album. Eloy’s music here is a distinctive mix of space rock, progressive rock, hardrock and (on this album) classical music, in which the long, dreamy passages are noticeable, often accompanied by spoken parts and rich sound tapestries. Excellent!

“Ocean” (1977) is yet another stilted concept album and is generally accepted as their best-loved work, although personally, I think it is not quite as good as “Dawn”. This album sold more copies in their home country than Queen and Genesis, and that is not something to be taken lightly. Without the classical instruments, the keyboards have even more freedom, something Schmidchen readily makes use of. The album tells the story of the rise and fall of mythical Atlantis, and has only four tracks. A more typical example of 70’s prog will be hard to find. What to think of a song with a pretentious title like “Atlantis' Agony At June 5^th – 8498, 13 p.m. Gregorian Earthtime”? The song clocks in at over 15 minutes, a large part of which is spoken language, and it has a several minutes-long synth drone.

“Live” (1978) features mostly songs from these two albums and is pretty good, but not exactly essential. After this, one album would follow with the classic line-up: the famous “Mighty Cries And Silent Echoes” (1979), after which the band would follow quite a different direction.

Musically, these albums are wonderful, but the grotesque concepts, the at times ridiculous lyrics and Bornemann’s heavy accent are things which will put some people off. Strangely enough, though, this all seems to fit the bill, and if you can live with these issues, “Dawn” and “Ocean” can really be considered classics. I catch myself thoroughly enjoying these discs and so the remasters are more than welcome, especially because they are very well done: the booklets have lyrics, lots of photos and extensive info (in German) on how the albums were created. Now, if “Silent Cries…” were to be re-released next, I would truly be a happy man.