Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: Eloy
Label: EMI Records
Release: 1974
Rating: 4/5
By their third album, “Floating”, Eloy had further honed their experimental side and enriched their hard rock heritage, which was built mainly on fiery interplay between Bornemann’s scorching guitar riffs and the dramatic runs of Wieczorke’s Hammond organ, all propped up by a bouncing rhythm. On “Floating” (what a fitting title for an album packed with so many space rock/psychedelic instrumental “drifts”) Eloy put even more emphasis on longer instrumental sections, where the guitar and Hammond organ still play the central role. The direction stayed much the same as on its predecessor “Inside” (1973), but the individual players had clearly improved, the sound of the symphonic arrangements got noticeably more refined and less obscure, and Frank’s singing was a lot better too.
The band as a collective also sounds much tighter than before. Wieczorke was still completely devoted to the usually pretty punchy sound of his Hammonds. He hadn’t used any other keyboards yet, apart from a little mini Moog on “Plastic Girl”, and the band was still far from the symphonic subtlety of their later days. Original bassist Wolfgang Stöckers was replaced here by Luitjen Jansen, who didn’t bring any major progress to the spot, but kept up his predecessor’s solid approach of laying down strong yet artful bass guitar lines. Teamed up with Fritz Randow, a drumming legend of the German prog/metal scene, he formed an effective rhythmic beast that could also erupt into some seriously red-hot lines. Frank’s one-of-a-kind singing, with his heavy German accent, was certainly not for everybody, but even today it’s impossible to imagine their sonic identity without it. His vocal contribution on this album is only a taste, though, and often takes a back seat to the longer instrumental breakouts. The mostly sci-fi lyrics contain some futuristic visions, and on “Plastic Girl” they even had a hired British lyricist helping with the words. On “Floating” you can tell that Bornemann was also producing the heavy rockers Scorpions at the time, because the album is noticeably harder than “Inside” was, and although the influences of space rock bands like Pink Floyd or Hawkwind are audible throughout, the art rock/hard rock influences in the vein of Uriah Heep or Deep Purple are almost even more obvious. Frank’s guitar riffs are mostly set in heavy rock structures, and a lot less in the free-form space rock jams.
The opening title track “Floating”, an energetic charger, is a solid mix of razor-sharp heavy rock and esoteric space rock jamming. After an explosion on the Hammonds, a massive, building rhythm kicks in, with the guitar and organ passages blending beautifully into each other. They get cut up by all kinds of transitions on bongos and percussion, plus Frank’s dramatic vocal “o-o-o-yeahs”. The many unpredictable rhythmic shifts, swapping between energetic and calm stretches, show real progress compared to the previous album.
The space rock treat and centerpiece of the album, “The Light From Deep Darkness”, stands out from the rest not just for its epic length, but also for the best flow between its time shifts, the structure of its individual arrangements, and the resulting futuristic atmosphere. The opening build-up on organ, vocals and cymbals is a bit reminiscent of some early Pink Floyd, until a raw guitar riff, backed by massive organ, bouncing drums and furious vocals, cuts through it all. The dramatic multi-part vocal harmonies and Hammond lines occasionally veer toward Uriah Heep. A longer jazz-tinged instrumental section, where Jansen’s rattling bass takes the lead until swollen guitar riffs and a great Hammond solo deliver the final cataclysm, is on par with some of Hawkwind’s best out-in-space breakouts. After another invasion of a “Heep-like” motif amid drum fills, guitar riffing and enraged vocals, the piece swerves back into heavy rock territory. Frank also treats himself to a great guitar solo and a few guitar effects straight out of the astral school of Syd Barrett. The closing instrumental jam is a fine showcase of total togetherness, without turning into the boring technical noodling that happens to most of today’s bands that wear the “prog” label. “The Light From Deep Darkness” is, in my opinion, one of the best things they ever did.
“Castle In The Air” is another solid cross between heavy and space rock, opening with wah-wah effects on the guitar until a scorching guitar riff backed by massive drums kicks in. Every now and then an incredibly subtle melody on acoustic guitar and a narration appear, calming down the hard-hitting flow of this ever-shifting track. The drum fills are astonishingly fast for the time, and the use of melodic bass is no less superb. The multi-voice vocal harmonies build a hypnotic-psychedelic mood that can take the listener on a short space flight if they let themselves go enough. Brutal motifs, with erupting guitar riffs and a hellish rhythm, will quickly bring them back down to earth, though. The ending brings a dynamic Fritz drum solo, the kind you don’t find on a heavy rock drummer’s plate every day.
Suddenly the track flows without a break into the turbulent “Plastic Girl”, another one of the album’s best. Here Wieczorke, for a change, also uses the mini Moog in a few spots, which was still a prestigious and pretty hard-to-get instrument by the standards of the time. A juicy guitar riff and organ keep ramping up the drama while the vocals tell the story written by the hired British author. Eventually melodic passages on Hammond and guitar take over, until the piece drifts into a hypnotic-transcendental instrumental breakout that closes the track as calmly as it opened.
On the closing “Madhouse”, which is closer to classic 70s heavy rock than anything else on the album, the focus is on the interplay between Bornemann’s trademark hard-hitting riffing and lots of rhythmic shifts. After a rhythmic build-up comes a great instrumental section with plenty of guitar turning and a solo over thundering bass and drums. The vocals are once again pushed well into the background in the production. Another solid track with a punchy edge, a bit too un-astral for their usual standards, but no less convincing at creating a dramatic, high-voltage atmosphere.
Some prog rock fans rate “Floating” quite a bit lower than its predecessor, mainly because of its hard-to-pigeonhole heavy rock nature showing through on individual tracks, which surprises me a little, since I think the band’s progress compared to “Inside” is more than obvious, in the writing of the individual arrangements, the playing itself, and the structure of most of the five pieces on it. At this stage of their career, as far as prog rock elements go, the band’s sound put even more weight on lots of unpredictable time shifts that often morphed into longer space rock instrumental jams. Maybe in places there’s a bit too much emphasis on the heavy organ sound, which would start giving way to greater variety and subtlety from a wider range of keyboards on the very next album, the thing they’re usually better known for in the collective consciousness, but that takes nothing away from its other progressive rock qualities. With “Floating”, Eloy hadn’t yet fully broken away from the edges of our solar system, as far more ambitious releases followed, mostly conceptual in nature, and they increasingly began leaning toward symphonic sounds, but this album nevertheless remains among the finest achievements of German progressive rock, even when you factor in some of the more widely known and traditional krautrock scene’s achievements of the time.
Lineup
Frank Bornemann – vocals, guitar
Luitjen Jansen – bass guitar
Manfred Wieczorke – organ, acoustic guitar
Fritz Randow – drums
Production
Frank Bornemann
Tracklist
1. Floating (3:59)
2. The Light From Deep Darkness (14:37)
3. Castle In The Air (7:13)
4. Plastic Girl (9:05)
5. Madhouse (5:16)
Bonus tracks from the reissue:
6. Future City
7. Castle in the air
8. Flying high
Album length: 40:10
