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Solaris — Back to the Roots - Solaris Archive 1
(Periferic BGCD 059, 2000, CD)

by Roel Steverink, Published 2001-03-01

Back to the Roots - Solaris Archive 1 Cover art

Shot right out of the cosmos to earth by the stories of Asimov, Bradbury, and Clarke is the Hungarian formation Solaris. Hungary is not the friendliest of places to release music that tries to avoid the easy way out. Here is the first proof of existence of the band that saw the dawn of day back in 1980. This is one out of three. Of course this isn’t the Solaris from their masterpiece The Martian Chronicles (1983) yet, the absence of massive banks of synths is most striking, but still this is more than impressive stuff. The tracks on this CD are all taken from live gigs. The engineer did a wonderful job restoring the bad sounding tapes. Luckily the cheer of audience is still there, because it shows the appreciation of the Hungarian people for progressive rock at such a crucial point in time. Beautiful flute is already prominent, backed by fabulous ever-changing drum patterns and of course a lot of guitar riffs can be found here in spicy jams. Goblin fans pay attention! You can hear that typical upbeat drumming layered with organ arpeggios here too, which makes the crowd go mad. Already the organ creates a bit of the spacey atmosphere Solaris later became known for. What makes these recordings so special is not only the joy of playing, but the already amazing technical skills of such a young band. I can hardly wait for the follow up.

Filed under: Archives, Issue 21, 2000 releases

Related artist(s): Solaris

 

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