I have just listened to Inside~1973 and Floating~1974 for the first time and I've enjoyed both very much. Which album should I visit next?
I suggest continuing in chronological order, as you can enjoy following their development. It just gets better until their magnum opus, Ocean.
I am currently on my Eloy kick and gosh, isn't 'Silent Cries and Mighty Echoes' all the way terrific??
Well, I'm new to the forum, so you can make it four. But im also kind of new to Eloy as well, so I'll largely be a spectator here.
I really like Eloy. Funny to see others prefer Inside and Floating. I suppose that makes sense if you prefer hard rock to spacey prog, but those albums are not really indicative of what Eloy did through most of their career. Anyone using those as a guide for what comes next is best to sample other albums online before buying. The guy who sold me Silent Cries and Mighty Echoes, the first Eloy CD I ever owned, told me the sound reminded him of Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here. The synths are indeed similar, and I took to that album immediately. Hard to say if that's my favorite, but my impression is that they stayed "good" long after the major UK prog bands went commercial. Metromania, for example, is a really good album. I picked up Ocean II - The Answer and thought that was pretty decent too. That is to say even if it was not as great as their '70s albums, it wasn't so far off as one would typically expect.
BTW, Eloy "The Classic Years Trilogy" is now price $84 shipped on grooves.land shipped, which is an excellent price for US (it includes shipping of very heavy box). Remember that it was way over 100 euros when released. I got it, but not opened yet. I care only about vinyl releases, as I expected CDs to be a little compressed, in tune with Eroc's recent tendencies.
I'm deeply disappointed by the sound of the CDs, see <a href="Which boxset was the biggest disappointment to you? ">Which boxset was the biggest disappointment to you?</a> The pressing quality of the vinyl seems to be very good (can't play them myself - and don't care about this). I had hoped for the ultimate remasters - what a disaster instead. Still prefer the EMI remasters by far.
I found that recent vinyl remasters can sound much better then their digital counterparts.. Emphasis on "can", as some are identically poor as digital versions. On Eroc's Grobschnitt remasters it definetely can be the case, as "B&W edition" Ballerman sounds to my ears better, then 1st press. Will play "The Classic years Trilogy" this weekend and compare with 1st press. At least Dawn have to be improved, it was not recorded that well at all.
I have the two "Planets" albums, the two "Oceans" albums and both of the "Jean D'Arc" sets. may hunt out more at some stage, but they keep me happy for now.
The Grobschnitt remasters by Eroc seem to be really "good" - i cannot tell, as i'm not a fan of them musically (apart from the Solar Music live album @Rockpalast; and i've listened to many of their albums for curiosity). I'm not happy with his remastering of the Novalis - "Schmetterlinge" box set, too. My opinion on the Eloy box set (CDs only, ripped and played digitally the same way as any other Eloy album): Volume is a bit lowered to the EMI remasters, yes, nevertheless it seems very, very loud, extremely "dense", too "dark"/muffled and, imho even too narrow/speaker-centric(?). When listening rather quiet or on "modern" equipment, that may be ok or even good, but when listening really loud the charisma of the music gets lost completely… Here the EMI remasters sound open, airy and wide, "musical". The differences between both remasters are immediately evident - and Eroc loses by far. I've also read Eroc's comments on remastering and equipment on his homepage; also listened to the examples and comparisons he did for clients => all that appears to be so competent and skillful - but the examples sound terrible to me. It's his way/style of creating the final product. Either my ears are wrong, or his ears are. Listening to approved stuff on my equipment, errr…, i'm sure his ears are wrong
Just get the original '80s CDs of these albums. You won't be sorry. Most of them are Harvest, EMI Electrola CDP 538-7 ....
I heard about Novalis disaster, shame. Especially considering that original vinyl pressings are very well made and not much had to be done IMHO.
I started with Eloy on Vinyl (very simple equipment back then), copied these on Cassette and listened a lot - the music itself was the key thing. So, the first release on CD was a big plus in any aspect. Nevertheless, the EMI remasters are not bad at all to me. E.g. Floating improved significantly. Especially the remaster guy for Ocean did a very fine job imho. To be honest, i did rarely listen to the first CD edition for years now. Only with Eroc i took some time to compare all three CD editions esp. for Ocean. Eroc is closer to the first CD edition of Ocean, but the EMI remaster really improved it imho. It's significantly louder than the original, but without additional distortion. It's not overcompressed to my ears, it offers a much better stage and a clearer, overall improved representation of the music. Last but not least, these are not my impressions after listening and comparing for hours and hours. Eroc destroyed my hopes within a few minutes. BTW as Ocean will be my all time Eloy favourite, i will take the vinyl version to a friend of mine for cleaning and digitizing. Really curious about the results, as it caught me immediately on even very poor stereo back then.
Well, had couple of hours and decided not to wait for a weekend and opened the box. Surprised how little extra information was in it compare with some other recent "deluxe boxes", oh well. Record jackets are not laminated and look a bit "cheap" compared to original. But pressing looks perfect. Only interested in vinyl remasters. Started with "Mighty Echoes". Not greatly recorded originally, according to notes on original first press 1978 mix was then remixed again for release in 1979, so not sure how happy Frank was with a sound. I had pretty low expectation after all critique on this site, but I really liked new remaster, which sounds almost like a new mix. Frank voice, so loud on original release, moved back. Bass sounds louder, but sometimes a little less punchy. And kick drums finally moved into appropriate place in band image(wish i can say about new Phisical Graffity disaster). Scorching keyboards, which sounded probably good at the time, but way too aggressive nowadays, now much more polite and ambient. Frank's guitar is probably the only thing which sounds close to identical. There is a compression of course, but bearable, and probably mostly due to moving voice more on a back. I am very happy so far with this release. Will finish Ocean and Dawn later (I think Ocean was originally recorded well, and Dawn was not). We will see. My equipment in my profile. Of course it is just my personal opinion, you can look at it very differently.
Now Dawn. Well, Dawn let us down, pun intended )). I actually expected improvements, but not. Compression often unnecessary, and additional bass kind of changed mood of the record from melancholic to outright sinister. That is a poor remaster, and huge let down after "Mighty Echoes". While certain parts I like (very natural drum sound, with kick-drum slumming just like in small club), in general it is worse sounding then original version, very disappointing. So far score is 1:1 Ocean will decide, I left it to last ))
Finally Ocean. As I said IMHO Ocean was recorded better of the 3, and it shows - changes are way more subtle. I can understand why people complain that CD version sounds way more compressed and exciting - but on vinyl, at least with my equipment, compression is not that pronounced and again, like with "Mighty Echoes", voice distortions are much lower, as well as voice a little more on a back. Overall it now sounded more like Pink Floyd (if it even was possible), especially recent remasters. A little less aggressive, and yet detailed and a touch kinder mood. Drums sounds even more impressive then original, image is rock solid and so 3D (which never a case with overly compressed records), bass a touch more (but not terribly more as on Dawn), and voice is much, much smoother sounded. So Ocean is thumbs up from me. And score is 2:1. ))) For new price of $84 it is well worth it in my opinion. I wish Dawn was remastered much less heavy handed, but who knows in what condition master tape was to begin with... And I wish for more supplemental material, as information about Eloy, at least in English, is fairly scarce. At the end one small anecdote from my youth, which I spent in Moscow, USSR (at the time). Imported records were very expensive, we all mostly listened to tape copy of a tape copy )). If you wanted to by original record, you'll have to pay a pretty penny. In average records were 60-80 rubles, which (for example) was half of my mother monthly salary. I started to make some money even when I was 14 (tutoring math to kids often older then me), often making more then my mother. And 1978 I met a guy who had Eloy "Ocean". I listened to a tape copy and it was so great to my ears I decided to buy it. Will be my first "real" foreign (not from socialist country) record. And immediately discovered, that Eloy records were more expensive then Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin, and he wanted 80 rubles for it. I worked extra hours for a month and bought it. Well, it was 40 years ago, I left Moscow 30 years ago and this record was "lost" (I gave it to a friend much later) But as you can guess I am a huge Eloy fan ever since )).
Does anyone have the DVD NTSC for the US of Eloy - Reincarnation On Stage? I just bought what said was the 2 CD's and the DVD from Amazon only to find out it is only the 2 CDs. I cannot find any place to purchase the DVD.
I do not believe it exists. I got Reincarnation from band store, signed by Frank himself. Only 2 CDs, no DVD. All video content of reasonable quality in existence is probably on Eloy- Legacy. And it is not a lot. There is another bootleg-quality dvd from 2013 in existence, not sure about it legitimacy.
There are only two official DVD releases by Eloy: ELOY Legacy The Live Impression DVD is PAL (not NTSC) and for the majority of songs not filmed professionally. Have a look at Youtube for a lot of visual Eloy Performances...
Never heard of this band before a few days ago when I found this thread (don't recall how or why) and checked out a few tracks on youtube. Really didn't care for the vocals. FFW several days. Listening to "Ocean" right now...trying my best to listen past the vox...why hadn't I heard of this band before? I started a thread over a decade ago "new to prog, point me...". I got suggestions for Camel (whom I came to adore), Genesis, Yes, etc., but I've no recollection of Eloy being mentioned. Perhaps someone did, and I simply don't recall, however, I think I'd have delved deeper into these sublime sonics regardless of vox. Heck, I couldn't get past Camel and Yes' annoying keyboard noodling initially, but grew to not only abide, but rather occasionally enjoy it. So, I'm probably down to pick up "Ocean" in the near future...where next for Eloy? The sonicscapes of Ocean have me mesmerized. I'm not interested too much in pop (a-la Camel's later offerings) nor cacophony (one of the big barriers to me plumbing the depths of jazz and prog...avant-garde nonsense is aural nuisance). Ocean seems right in the pocket musically, I'm thinking now I can make it past the vocals, what should I check out next!?
You'll probably enjoy anything from the middle period, '75 to '79. Dawn is a favorite of mine I go back to more than other albums although they are a very consistent band all the way through to Metromania. The vocals are what they are, but you get used to them after a while.
And then also try Grobschnitt, starting with 3 classics - Jumbo, Rockpommel's Land and of course Solar Music - Live. ))) And then "middle" Jane - Fire, Water, Earth and Air, as well as "Heaven and Hell" and "Age of Madness". And of course Live. And then... German Rock is addictive, there are many great bands in seventies..
