Carnival In Babylon (1972)
1. C.I.D. in Uruk (A) – right out of the gate something weird happens: the AD vocalists are singing la-la-la and harmonizing like they’re auditioning for the Johnny Mann Singers. This is fair warning that this is the album that many bands have in their discographies: The Appeal to the Wider Audience, aka The Killing of the Golden Goose. Rather bland folk prog song.
2. All the Years 'Round (A) – Just Renata singing seems like an improvement, until you notice that she’s singing some hippie fable:“…and they went into a rainbow…” Even the excellent guitar breaks can’t redeem the song, from lyrics like these, imo.
3. Shimmering Sand (A) – fine musicianship, great guitar fills, but with a guy singing, “Running to the edge of Fairy Town”, the cringe factor remains high.
4. Kronwinkl 12 (S) – a strong almost funky start soon descends into the unexceptional prog that AD seemed to want on this album.
5. Tables Are Turned (S) – not bad; quite poppy by AD standards
6.Hawknose Harlequin (A) – this song of 3 sections has two good instrumental sections, the last being an extended mellow outro with elec guitar like something by David Gilmore. Apparently what we have here are remnants of a 40 min original, which hints at what this album might’ve been.
That’s why, on this occasion, I checked out some of the bonus material now offered:
7. Skylight (A) – a multi-layered instrumental of the kind usually described as hypnotic. This is AD meets late-era Soft Machine and is better than what ended up on the album imo.
8. Tatzelwurmloch (L) – sitar and swirling electronic modifications lead us into another fascinating instrumental tapestry, but with little variation of that hypnotic pace, little by little this turns from pleasure into an endurance test.