LPCDreissues: Looking forward to the past

1 - A Succulent Anachronic Pastiche (2'19)2 - Fuzzy Concept (6'50)3 - By The River (2'08)4 - Xenophobia (6'31)5 - Introvenus (0'55)6 - Intravenus (10'57)7 - Lunar Doubts (7'56)8 - Join My Soul (2'44)9 - Race On A Pseudo Flying Carpet (2'52)10 - Nothing Left To Hide (4'11)11 - Ambulance (0'58)12 - The Awakening (I. Camel Ride Dream/II. A Bubble Burst/III. Prisonnier Du Temps/IV. The Preacher In The Desert Quicksand/V. The Mad Tryst/VI. A New Reality/VII. So Divine) (20'59)13 - Strange Days (3'04)

Even though VISIBLE WIND is less famous than SPOCK'S BEARD or THE FLOWER KINGS, it's still an undeniable success of Eighties Progressive rock. This quartet deserves at least as much attention as the two above mentioned references, something of a success ! Singer Steffen GEYSENS multiplies keyboards interventions that alternate with vocal parts both in French and in English. The Moog solos as well as the 70's sounds evoke GENESIS (mainly), YES (the Rickenbacker bass of Luc ROY still has a very peculiar sound), CAMEL (a lyrical flute), or even KING CRIMSON (Claude RAINVILLE's melodic guitar can be heavily tortured while we have a worthy heir of John WETTON at the vocals...). Without showing any trouble in his style, drummer Luc HEBERT astonishes the listener thanks to a truly unique style, full of subtleties and invention. In 1998, “Catharsis” was the first and very good album of their discography, before two excellent issues were released (“A Moment Beyond Time” in 1991 & “Emergence” in 1994), even though they still showed a style that wasn’t very defined yet. Then “Narcissus Goes to the Moon” came from nowhere, with a very different production to all that had been done before, and that made its content immediately identifiable. Anyway, this epic work of more than 70 minutes flaws effortlessly, and succeeds in not making the listener bored before the end. Here is then one of the essential albums of 1996, if not of the decade… Four years later, those Canadians did it again, with a very different album (not to say revolutionary), but however as indispensable and necessary. The enigmatic “Barb-A-Baal-A-Loo” is a perfectly splendid album.