Octopus - Boat Of Thought 1976

Strong debut album by this German quintet, one of the better items on the Sky label. In the continuum of female-fronted prog bands, this one does follow on in the tradition of Frumpy, Ruphus, Joy Unlimited, Earth & Fire and the like.

Lead vocalist Jennifer Hensel does have a rather gruff alto voice that won't be to all tastes, but which is definitely unique, and which suits the music well. This is high-energy prog with a bit of a hard-rock edge. Instrumentally, this relies on heavy interplay from guitarist Pit Hensel (no relation) and keyboardist Werner Littau. Littau's organ work is the primary force, he also adds lots of spacey Moog synthesizer and a few layers of Mellotron. Of course, the nine-minute title suite is the apex of the music here, but not the only game in town. "The First Flight Of The Owl", "If You Ask Me" and "We're Losing Touch" all feature superb stop-on-a-dime changes.

Incidentally, the line-up provided above is wrong. Winfried Kowallik and Sepp Niemeyer were NOT in the band yet! Pit Hensel is the guitarist on this album, Frank Eule is the drummer.ProgArchives.com

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