Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: Eloy
Label: EMI Records
Release: 1985
Rating: 1.5/5
Don’t let the logo of the legendary German progressive rock band on the album cover fool you. “Codename Wildgeese” has about as much in common with Eloy’s traditional space rock sound as Klaus Kinski has in looks and temperament with Lee Van Cleef. Which means the resemblance is practically zero. You can barely pick out any of the elements Eloy’s music was famous for, and sonically the album isn’t even close to the space metal the band was known for in the 80s. The main reason is dead simple: this is a soundtrack album for the action movie of the same name, starring Klaus Kinski, Lee Van Cleef, Lewis Collins and Ernest Borgnine, which in itself means this is no ordinary Eloy record. The second fact, which seriously undermines the use of the band’s name and the credibility of the release, is the absence of the undisputed Eloy boss, guitarist/vocalist Frank Bornemann, who had parted ways with the rest of the band at the time over differing visions for the future. The others, with the exception of drummer Fritz Randow, who wanted nothing to do with the project, decided to accept the offer to record a film score and in that way bring the band some extra visibility, which they could have easily done without. So Hannes Arkona on guitar/keyboards, Klaus Peter-Matziol on bass and Hannes Folberth on keyboards recorded and released, without Frank’s involvement or blessing, an exceptionally monotonous and half-baked record that easily lands in last place in their discography when it comes to quality. Plenty of fans, with perfectly good reason, don’t count it in their discography at all, even if they own a copy, simply because it came out under the Eloy name.
So what’s wrong with this film experiment that it doesn’t deserve a place alongside the other Eloy albums? Quite a few things, but at the top of the list, its lowly standing comes down to a general lack of inspiration and a dated sound that you’ll find on nearly every track. The most irritating sonic element is, first and foremost, the unnatural drum sound, typical of 80s synth-pop bands. The excellent Randow was replaced by Jan Nemec-Bolek, who wasn’t considered an official band member and who used a drum machine for most of the record. Bolek without Lolek’s help simply can’t come up with anything particularly useful. Folberth’s electronic keyboards also contribute a lot to the sterile, synthetic sound, and paradoxically they’re both the best and the worst thing about the album, depending on the track. In places they sound desperately synthetic and robotic, somewhere in the vein of 80s Tangerine Dream, while in their best moments, with good symphonic arrangements, they build a solid ambient atmosphere. Those are also the only moments on the album where you can sense any connection to the real Eloy. For the most part the album is dominated by short, rhythmically monotonous instrumentals, with the exception of one hair metal vocal number that has nothing to do with Eloy’s usual metal excursions. The rest could be described as synthetic electronica with the odd ambient, new age moment. With few exceptions, the whole thing comes across as so sterile and uninspired that even the proven talents of all three of the Eloy musicians involved can’t save it. Another thing I’d pin on it is that Folberth’s synth/symphonic arrangements dominate everywhere, while Hannes Arkona’s guitars are barely there, just a token sample. Arkona preferred to keep Folberth company as an extra supplier of synthetic sound waves.
There’s no point going into the details of individual tracks this time, as some of them are as alike as two peas in a pod when it comes to the sheer amount of monotony and synthetic-electronic elements. The opening “The Patrol”, rhythmically monotonous and decked out with repetitive synth arrangements, doesn’t bode well and raises the question of whether this is really Eloy’s music or the work of some composer for the B-grade action movies that were swarming all over the 80s. The answer is sadly simple. The same goes for “Hong Kong Theme 1”, which tries to fit the movie’s concept by way of an oriental motif on the synths, but ends up completely robotic and sterile. Next comes “Hit And Run”, which with its heavy electronic synth sound is quite similar to some of the 80s Tangerine Dream stuff, which goes for a few more tracks on the album too. Also worth a mention is “Queen Of Rock’n’Roll”, the only track on the album with vocals (courtesy of one of the two Hanneses). It’s a completely colorless hair/pop metal number with a barroom piano motif and out-of-tune guitar passages. Arkona also indulges in tapping, the hair metal trick that was hugely popular at the time. This pale effort is also the most rockin’ moment of the whole album, if not the only one.
What follows is mostly short ambient, let’s call them new age, instrumentals such as “Destiny”, “Discovery”, “Deadlock”, “Sabotage” (which, for its variety, is in my opinion the best of all the ambient pieces), “A Long Goodbye” and “A Moment Decades”. These contain solid symphonic arrangements, but the rhythm line is usually so monotonous that they all start to bore you pretty quickly, unless you happen to be in a special, let’s say meditative, state of mind. Their main problem is that they don’t go anywhere at all. Anyone who knows the less inspired new age pieces by Mike Oldfield can imagine what I’m talking about (and even those are better and more inspired than these pale Folberth experiments). The remaining tracks, such as “Juke-Box”, “Cha-Shoen”, “On The Edge”, “Face To Face” and “Revenge”, are slow, repetitive, electronics-soaked synthetic (in places even pop) pieces that at best could serve as background for the weaker work of the likes of Duran Duran or Frankie Goes To Hollywood. At best, they’re ideal for falling asleep out of sheer boredom. Things don’t get any better at the close, “Hong Kong Theme 2”, which is just a short repeat of the synthetic oriental motif from its opening “brother”.
“Codename Wildgeese” is a thoroughly anachronistic and uninspired piece of sound-recording aimed only at the band’s biggest fans, the ones who have to own everything that came out under the band’s name, even though their longtime chief, absent here, stubbornly rejects it as an official release. Truth be told, with a few exceptions there haven’t been many truly good rock albums with film scores in music history, and “Codename” is by no means one of the bright exceptions, though I’ve heard some worse film attempts even from more internationally known bands. Sadly, this release will forever remain best known among music fans as the only Eloy release without Frank Bornemann (the fact that he didn’t sue them says he has a rather different temperament from, say, Roger Waters) and as their worst album. So if you haven’t heard it yet, don’t expect any mighty guitar solos, rich rhythmic variations, dramatic symphonic arrangements or the other space rock/metal Eloy goodies, because you’ll look for them in vain. The only ones who could find anything interesting here are fans of ambient electronica in the Tangerine Dream mold, and even they will be left pretty unsatisfied by the overall lack of inspiration and polish. At best, this album is an average soundtrack for an average 80s action movie (I haven’t seen the film (yet), so I can’t comment on its content, though I’ve mostly heard rather unflattering opinions about it, and even though Klaus Kinski has always been one of my favorite European actors). “Codename Wildegeese” is a release that undoubtedly shouldn’t have come out under the band’s name, but as an Arkona/Matziol/Folberth project, but the desire for more visibility was too strong and the damage was already done. The real Eloy, Bornemann’s Eloy, were meanwhile already preparing the album that secured the band’s continued credibility and with which they successfully wrapped up the 80s, a pretty rough decade for progressive rock.
Lineup
Hannes Arkona – guitar, keyboards, vocals (4)
Hannes Folberth – keyboards
Klaus-Peter Matziol – bass guitar
J. Nemec-Bolek – drums
Production
Eloy
Track list
1. Patrol (2:47)
2. Hongkong Theme I (3:32)
3. Hit And Run (1:38)
4. Queen Of Rock’n’Roll (2:36)
5. Destiny (4:34)
6. Discovery (0:50)
7. Juke-Box (1:58)
8. Deadlock (1:30)
9. Cha-Shoen (3:35)
10. Sabotage (1:20)
11. On The Edge (3:30)
12. A Long Goodbye (2:13)
13. Face To Face (1:47)
14. A Moment Decides (2:07)
15. Revenge (1:13)
16. Hongkong Theme II (1:07)
Album length: 33:30
