Tuesday, April 2, 2019

Eela Craig - 1988 - Hit Or Miss

Eela Craig
Hit Or Miss

01. Safer Sex (3:40)
02. 2004 (4:48)
03. Million Tears (3:42)
04. Angel (4:58)
05. Hit or Miss (4:15)
06. Lord's Prayer (3:31)
07. Japanese World (4:05)
08. Lonely Days'n Night (3:50)
09. You're gonna Leave Me (4:07)
10. Passion (4:08)
11. Rien ne va Plus (2:03)
12. Vater Unser (4:15)

- Orthofer Wil / vocals, sax, drums
- Schnauer Hubert / flute, keyboard, vibraphone
- Hueber Frank / drums

Eela Craig was already history for a few years by the time Hit or Miss came out. It simply turns out that two former Eela Craig members, Wil Orthofer and Hubert Schauer decided to run off with the name and recorded this allegedly forgettable pop album in the late 1980s. Since I hadn't heard it, I am willing to believe it's your typical digital synth/drum machine pop album you expect from a 1988 recording. This really isn't an Eela Craig album, especially since Hubert Bognermayr and Harald Zuschrader had nothing to do with this.

Eela Craig - 1980 - Virgin Oiland

Eela Craig 
Virgin Oiland

01. The first minute (0:40)
02. Beecher's brook (6:40)
03. How it started (3:50)
04. Carry on (3:50)
05. Birds on a feather (4:14)
06. Still... (4:00)
07. Pig city (3:35)
08. Lions covering the beaches (3:20)
09. Love to hate you, baby (4:26)
10. We shall overcome (0:10)
11. All you need is love (0:10)
12. The seven minutes (5:05)

- Gerhard Englisch / bass, synthesizer
- Alois Janetschko / live mixing
- Will Orthofer / drums, vocals
- Fritz Riedelberger / guitar, piano, vocals
- Hubert Schnauer / keyboards, flute, guitar
- Harald Zuschrader / keyboards, flute , guitar
Borg Choir conducted by Professor Wolfgang Mayerhofer.



Eela Craig - 1978 - Missa Universalis

Eela Craig
Missa Universalis

01. Kyrie (11:50)
02. Gloria (5:57)
03. Credo Part 1 (4:14)
04. Credo Part 2 (3:33)
05. Sanctus (8:27)
06. Agnus Dei (5:20)
07. Amen (2:00)

- Hubert Bognermayr / keyboards, electronics, vocals (1-5)
- Gerhard Englisch / bass, keyboards
- Frank Hueber / drums
- Alois Janetschko / live mixing
- Wil Orthofer / lead & back vocals
- Fritz Riedelberger / lead guitar, lead vocals (5), backnig vocals
- Hubert Schnauer / keyboards, flute.
- Harald Zuschrader / keyboards, electronics, guitar


Eela Craig - 1978 - Hats of Glass

Eela Craig
Hats of Glass

01. A spaceman came travelling (4:49)
02. Hats of glass (10:25)
03. Chances are (5:26)
04. Heaven sales (2:53)
05. Holstenwall Fair (8:10)
06. Caught on the air (3:52)
07. Remove another hat of glass and you could easily find assorted kinds of Cheese (3:30)

- Hubert Bognermayr / keyboards, vocals
- Gerhard Englisch / bass
- Frank Hueber / drums
- Alois Janetschko / live mixing
- Will Orthofer / lead & back vocals
- Fritz Riedelberger / guitars, piano, lead vocals
- Hubert Schnauer / keyboards, flute
- Harald Zuschrader / keyboards, flute, guitar

Not entirely too surprising that "Hats of Glass" is not as good as "One Niter", but then this is the late '70s where quality prog rock albums were starting to become more few and far between. But hey, this is still a fine album.
Released at the beginning of 1978 (recorded August to November 1977), there was one minor change in the EELA CRAIG lineup. And that was the return of vocalist Wil Orthofer, apparently because the band he was in between his absence with EELA CRAIG, called ICE PLANET (a blues outfit that never recorded, that also featured two other ex-EELA CRAIG members, Heinz Gerstmair and Horst Waber) broke up due to the deaths from two non-EELA CRAIG members from two separate automobile accidents.

Now let's get with the music. The funk has more or less disappeared, going for a more conventional late '70s symphonic prog rock sound. The album opens up with an unlikely song: a cover of Chris de BURGH's "A Spaceman Came Travelling" (yes, the same guy who gave us that awful '80s hit "Lady in Red", but his career goes back to the mid 1970s). This version, of course, is given the prog rock treatment, with vocoder, spacy synthesizers, and great vocal harmonies. The next song is the title track, starts off with flute, before going in to PINK FLOYD-like guitars. After some bizarre electronic noodling, it kicks in to "Grover's Mill" (mentioned on the Symphonic Rock CD, but not the original LP, but it's there on the LP), which is basically a re-recording of their 1974 single "Stories", with changed lyrics, less Mellotron, and more string synths (and guitarist Fritz Riedelberger still handling the vocals). "Chances Are" points to their following album, except without the religious themes. "Heaven Sales" is a short number that sounds very '70s, with lyrics that seem to criticize religious groups who state that you won't go to heaven if you don't give them your money (sounds a whole lot like those greedy televangelists you find right here in AMERICA). The album's high point, without a doubt is "Holstenwall Fair". I especially love that synth solo, before the music kicks in to an intense jam that's reminiscent of "One Niter". Then there's the ballad "Caught on the Air" (which you can only find on LP, not the Symphonic Rock CD). I never was too fond of this song, just a rather sappy ballad that the band could've used for a better piece. The final song is a reworking of their 1974 single "Cheese" (flip side of "Stories"), this time, the vocals are taken out, complete with a nice Moog solo in the middle. I'm in a minority here, but I wasn't too fond of the vocals of the original "Cheese", so this reworking had that plus of being all instrumental.

Overall, an excellent album.

Waify late 70s Prog by one of the more well known Austrian bands of the era.  The production is very light weight (man those fucking drums), but I tend to like synth-heavy/light-weight Prog from the late 70s, since many of these bands were attempting to straddle the line between dense composition and radio accessEela Craig - 1978 - Hats of Glassibility.  "Space Pop", might be a more appropriate genre descriptor, as they lay it on thick with 3 keyboarists (damn!) but the overall delivery is pretty gentle and unimposing.  Aside from a few parts, it doesn't really "rock" even though I think they are trying in a few parts, but that effete production just softens up any edge this might have had.  This album is a good once in a while reminder of both the good's and bad's of late 70s Prog Rock.  But once again, I do like ensconcing myself in the warm, shimmery keyboard tones and the super-soft, comforting vocal lines; the "innocence" I get from albums like these is a nice contrast to muh daily diet of Slamz...   The album art is also very eye catching, I had to get the vinyl of this, specifically cause of the neato art work!

Eela Craig - 1976 - One Niter

Eela Craig 
One Niter

01. Circles: (13:59)
    a) The mighty (5:41)
    b) The nude (2:00)
    c) The curse (5:05)
    d) The blessed (1:13)
02. Loner's rhyme (9:23)
03. Oneniter medley: (11:03)
    a) Benedictus (1:54)
    b) Fuge (0:47)
    c) U.A.T (3:17)
    d) Morning (1:47)
    e) One Niter (3:18)
04. Venezuela (3:30)
05. Way Down (7:16)

- Hubert Bognermayr / keyboards, vocals
- Raoul Burnet / congas (2-4)
- Gerhard Englisch / bass, percussion
- Frank Hueber / drums, percussion
- Alois Janetschko / live mixing
- Fritz Riedelberger / guitars, piano, vocals
- Hubert Schnauer / keyboards, flute
- Harald Zuschrader / keyboards, flute, guitar




Eela Craig - 1971 - Eela Craig

Eela Craig
Eela Craig

01. New born Child (7:45)
02. Selfmade Trip (10:29)
03. A New Way (7:04)
04. Indra Elegy (11:43)
05. Irminsul (2:10)
06. Yggdrasil (3:40)
07. Stories (4:39)
08. Cheese (4:38)

- Horst Waber / drums
- Harald Zuschrader / organ, flute, guitar, sax
- Hubert Bognermayer / keyboards
- Gerhard English / bass
- Heinz Gerstenmair / guitar, organ, vocals
- Will Orthofer / vocals, sax

Hailing from Austria's second city, Linz, this sextet 's debut album came at a time (71) when not much was happening on the progressive front. As a matter of fact until 75 and their next album and Kyrie Eylison's debut, there was only Paternoster who put out a heavy hard-prog the following year of this release. The six-man line-up had the two guitarist also twiddling the keys, and one of them blowing wind inside all sorts of hollow instruments, while the leader also blew horns.
While their later albums will be in the symphonic-type prog, this debut album is much more experimental somehow close to the Krautrock scene with moments of proto-psych-prog, as their opening track two-part New Born Child (with its primal screams) and jazz-rock (still NBC), but they were sometimes patchy or sloppy (ie: the NBC's abrupt end of one riff into the final riff break is very clumsy). The self-explanatory Selfmade Trip is an incredible 10-min+ voyage into heavy psychedelic-spacey expansion-minded trip, which will simply ravish early 70's experimental progheads. Not completely flawless, this track is pure prog. The second side is also made up of two lengthy tracks with the aptly-titled heavily flute-induced A New Way where they share their absolute enthusiasm with us. But the other lengthy (almost 12-min), Indra Elegy, is a keyboard fest mixed with dramatic saturated guitars, heavenly flutes, constant drumming fury, abrupt (but this time well-designed) tempo changes, good bass lines,

The bonus tracks on this album are essential to the band's history and help explain what these guys did for four years between albums. However, they do not sound anything alike their first record and can become annoying if you do not appreciate the experimental nature of them. Funny thing is that no-one would expect such experimental music to be issued on isolated 45 RPM singles, but we now know that the early 70's allowed for all kinds of surprises. By the time of the first bonus tracks (72) the group was down to a quartet and had a different drummer, the others forming a blues rock group that will never record. This "single" was a commissioned work where they participated in a project depicting "Dimenssions between pop and classical" including an orchestra. The two tracks were slightly reworked, but remained highluy experimental between trafficked drums, electronics space noises for the first track and the next one being a sort of easy instrumental prog improv. As their "single" came out (74), only the bassist and keyboardist remained from the original sextet, but they were back to a quintet. Heavy mellotrons greet you rioght from the beginning and you are definitely closer to their second One Nighter album with the heavy symphonic sounds: both Stories and Cheese are excellent tracks although I find the latter's singing extremely well-titled Cheeeeesy!!!

Certainly one those legendary albums that merits its reputation, but not the the extreme prices for the vinyl, and the bonus tracks are a little out of context. Definitely worth looking for the Garden Of Delight Cd release.