Frank Bornemann: Lead vocals, guitar
Manfred Wieczorke: Keyboards, guitar, percussion
Fritz Randow: Drums, ccoustic guitar, percussion, flute
Wolfgang Stocker: Bass (Inside)
Luitjen Janssen: Bass (Floating – Power…)
Detlef Schwaar: Guitar (Power…)

Eloy may have been extremely popular in their home country Germany, abroad they have never really outgrown cult status. Frank Bornemann’s heavy German accent may be one of the reasons for that; for non-German speakers it is pretty hard to take the band seriously because of that. But if you can live with it, it is clear Eloy did have a lot to offer.

The band was formed in 1969 and took their name from the futuristic race from H.G. Wells’ novel “The Time Machine”. The science fiction element is one of those things which would be used in their lyrics during the whole of their career. Their debut, “Eloy” was released in 1970, but had very little to do with what Eloy would stand for in later years. For most fans, their history begins with the second album…

On “Inside” (1973), we mainly hear what the band liked to listen to at the time. The influences from hard rock, prog and psychedelica are clear. On the over 17 minutes-long opener “Land Of No Body”, this is mainly Jethro Tull, not in the least because Bornemann tries really hard to sound like Ian Anderson. In the instrumental part near the end of the song, we hear Deep Purple in the drums and keyboards; a Blackmore-like solo follows and when Bornemann starts screaming like a young Ian Gillan, it is fully evident where they took their cues. A Pink Floyd touch is also obvious. These influences are also clear on the rest of the album (in “Future City” there’s even a part which seems to have been taken right out of Tull’s “Aqualung”. Eloy is clearly still looking for a sound of their own, but nevertheless, this is a pretty good album.

“Floating” (1974) is more of the same; almost literally, because the band seems to repeat themselves here. The compositions leave a bit to be desired, though, “Castles In The Air” being the only memorable song. There’s a lot of instrumental work, with interesting bits, but the songs don’t appear to be going anywhere. On the whole, this album is not quite as interesting as its predecessor. As the only one of the remasters (until now), there are some live bonus tracks included, but they really aren’t that exiting because of the poor sound.

“Power And The Passion” (1975) was the first attempt at a concept album. It tells the story of a young man, who travels back in time to the Middle Ages and has a love affair there. Musically, this album was a big change as well. The hard rock of the previous albums is still evident is a.o. “Daylight”, but mostly the emphasis seems to be on creating a certain atmosphere. The best examples are “The Bells Of Notre-Dame” and “Love Over Six Centuries”; the long, dreamy parts with spoken dialogue would be the trade mark of the band on later albums like “Dawn” and “Ocean”. “Power…” never reaches the level of those little masterpieces, but as a try-out, this album is pretty neat.

The remasters are well done. Some of the cover illustrations are adapted slightly by using the well-known Eloy logo. On the spines of the CD’s, there’s a piece of what should form that logo once you have all the (EMI) remasters. The booklets contain photos, lyrics and extensive and interesting liner notes, unfortunately only in German. The English translations can be found on their website.