Search - Pentwater :: Out of the Abyss

Unique American Proggers Can Play With the Best!

Prog Lover | Chicago, IL USA | 07/31/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Combining heavy helpings of Yes, Genesis and ELP with the some of the weirdness of Frank Zappa, Out of the Abyss, and Pentwater in general had some of the quirkiest and most unusual progressive rock ever created. This album is most likely one of those albums that you will not be all that sure of on the first few listenings, but will probably grow to be one of the most prized CD`s in your collection. The vocals are quite unique, and until one gets used to them, even a bit annoying at times, but actually they are very good. Having an almost psychotic sound occasionally, these songs contain some of the most creative arrangements that I have ever heard. The musicians (Ron Fox, Phil Goldman, Ken Kappel, Mike Konopka, Ron LeSaar, and Tom Orsi) play a wide variety of instruments, augmenting the typical guitar, bass, keyboards and drums with (among other things) anvil, oboe, tubular bells and theremin. Honestly, the theremin itself earns them some points in my book. Pentwater was a Chicago area band that were performing for about 9 years in the 1970`s and this album is a compilation of material that they recorded from 1973 to 1976. All of the material here is previously unreleased with the exception of Gwen`s Madrigal, and even that is an unreleased version. - Gary Hill of Music Street Journal"