Search - Eloy :: Floating

The most intense Eloy album

George M. | Vancouver Island | 03/11/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Four stars for the compositions and five for a truly astonishing performance! I must confess, I like the spacey side of Eloy better and this CD is really heavy staff... There are similarities with 'Inside', of course (see my review), since both albums belong to the same period of Eloy's career. The overall feeling, though, here is different. 'Inside' is mostly introvert, dreamy and outworldly. 'Floating' has its dreamy parts, too, but overall it's a very intense, high-energy project. Those who are looking for the more spacey side of Eloy might get a bit disappointed, because there isn't much of it here. There is, however, one song, the fourteen-and-a-half minute 'The Light From Deep Darkness' which contains all the elements of Eloy's music. This is a brilliant composition, with excellent organ solos, and, like in the whole album, a very tight and precise drum-bass section. The intensity and amount of music in this early Eloy album is trully staggering. 'Plastic Girl' is not as long as 'The Light...', but long enough to allow space for improvisation. And there are synthesizer sounds here! The instrumental parts in this CD outweigh the vocal ones, yet Frank Bornemann's vocals are excellent and nicely blending with the music. Long guitar jams are quite abundant here. 'Floating' is quite adventurous; not as well 'defined' as most other Eloy albums, but with short themes and expanded jams than often have little to do with the main theme. This CD centers on hard rock, but it is by no means static. The two guitar-based songs 'Castle in the Air', and 'Madhouse', for instance, change themes and style a few times. The closing guitar solo in 'Madhouse' is great. The opening title track song immediately introduces the listener to the hard, distorted sound of the CD, so you have a fairly good idea what to expect afterwards. I cannot comment on the added live tracks, because I own the original CD version. As is, this is a very good work and if you are looking for hard rock with imagination, you need look no further."

Mesmerising...

George M. | 04/28/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This album is a vehicle that carries you to places of the imagination; to dream-like places, that you only get a momentary glimpse of at sundown; to places where the Moment becomes eternal.
With Eloy's powerful psychedelic/prog music at the height of its intensity and maturity (more recent Eloy albums fail to recapture the magic), "Floating" is the absolute Eloy masterpiece, and belongs -together with "Inside" and, perhaps, "The Power and the Passion"- to their finest era. The music is unsurpassed, totally mesmerising, hypnotic, erotic, at times sad, but always powerful. And "Plastic Girl" sounds like the soundtrack of fated meetings..."

Hard-edged psychedelic/space rock

Jeffrey J.Park | Massachusetts, USA | 05/20/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Released in 1974 this recording is more or less representative of the hard psychedelic/space rock phase of Eloy (the other being Inside from 1973).



The lineup at this point consisted of Frank Bornemann (vocals, electric guitar); Manfred Weiczorke (Hammond organ, electric guitar); Luitjen Jansen (electric bass); and Fritz Randow (drums). Although the musicians are all good, Fritz Randow is a great drummer and his thunderous playing really makes the album work for me. One other note - people have complained about lead singer Frank Bornemann's thick Teutonic accent and his vocal style (although neither bothers me much).



Overall, this album is pretty heavy and there are some spirited jam sessions. Stylistically, hard rock is used quite a lot, although psychedelic and space rock styles are present too. In my opinion, the different styles are balanced nicely. My favorite tracks include The Light from Deep Darkness (14'35") and Plastic Girl (9'07"). The Light from Deep Darkness is an especially effective blend of space rock, psychedelic, and hard rock - of course, the fact that it is nearly 15 minutes long does not hurt either. I guess it is worth noting that although Hammond organ is used exclusively on this album, a tiny bit of mini-moog synthesizer is used on Plastic Girl, although synths would not really come into play until their 1975 album The Power and the Passion.



The EMI remastered version is pretty good (love the cover art) and features excellent sound quality - in spite of the copy control technology, I have not experienced any playback problems. There are three bonus tracks including live versions of Future City (from Inside, 1973); Castle in the Air; and Flying High (I think this is a single from 1973). The sound quality of the live tracks is pretty rough and they all sound as if they were taken from the same concert. Unfortunately, although the liner notes are abundant, they are in German. The lyrics however, are in English (as are the vocals).



All in all, this is a good album from this early period of Eloy. Although I prefer later, synth heavy works such as Dawn (1976), Ocean (1977), Silent Cries and Mighty Echoes (1979), and Planets (1981), this album still receives pretty heavy rotation. For folks that love this style of music more than life itself, the German band Jane practiced a similar blending of styles on their eponymous debut (1972), although they are not as effective at the style as Eloy."