Abacus - 1973 - Midway

Abacus
1973
Midway

01. Let's Face The Voice And Dance
02. Including Revelation
03. Me And You
04. 11 Garden
05. You Are Not The One I Love
06. For The Moment
07. Be Beholding
08. Hermann The German
09. Here We Go
10. Midway

 - Chris Williams / vocal
- Charlie Schade / guitar, sitar
- Chris Barutzky / keyboards
- Klaus Kohlhase / bass
- Allan Warren / drums, percussion



For my money, this is Abacus' most underrated album. True, beyond the excellent, lengthy, largely instrumental title track, there's not much prog, but it's definitely much more alive than EVERYTHING YOU NEED was. And much more of that Kinks-y charm that oozed through the better moments of said predecessor. Chris Williams is in fine voice throughout.
"11 Garden" is this particular album's "quirky tune". "Let's Face The Voices and Dance" and "Including Revelation" are virtually two parts of a whole, with the same fine guitar rhythm throughout. Nice synth work on "For The Moment", too.

Abacus - 1972 - Just A Day's Journey Away

Abacus
1972
Just A Day's Journey Away

01. Seasong (7:11)
02. Munchen 23 (5:12)
03. Hamm Spring 71 (3:59)
04. Ballad Of Lucky Luke (3:01)
05. Continued On Page 2 Col. 6 (5:10)
06. White House May Come - White House May Go (4:12)
07. What Else (8:51)

- Felix Hans / drums, percussion
- Charlie Schade / guitar, sitar
- Chris Barutzky / keyboards
- Chris Williams / vocal
- Klaus Kohlhase / drums, percussion


The band's second outing was rather more mainstream than the first, yet still offers much to like. The propulsive "Seasong" is the obvious attraction here for prog fans, but it's not the only game in town. "Continued On Page 2, Column 6" is one of those herky-jerky-quirky numbers that seem to crop up on all of Abacus' records, and moreover makes them so enjoyable. "White House May Come, White House May Go" is another one of those enchanting, sitar-laden numbers, with a chord progression and vocal harmonies that, oddly, remind me a lot of Chicago's "Wishing You Were Here"!
Most of the rest of the album is decent, but won't really rock your world. I daresay few proggers will appreciate the blues-folk numbers like "Ballad of Lucky Luke"!

Abacus - 1972 - Everything You Need

Abacus
1972 
Everything You Need

01. Anyway We Can
02. Slide Away
03. Ivan Hood The White Knight
04. Thing We Do
05. Everything You Need
06. What A Day
07. Paranoia Agency
08. Hold Up The Flag
09. Don't Worry
10. Everything You Need


- Chris Williams / vocals, acoustic guitar
- Hans Rolf Schade / guitar, vocals, moog
- Christoph Perutzky / piano, organ, synth
- Klaus Kohlhase / bass
- Konstantin H Bommerius / drums


None of Abacus' classic Polydor/Zebra-period albums is what I'd call "bad", but this one is pretty dull. At best, it's mediocre.
The five-part suite that covers the B-side is a bit of a canard, as it's really just five discrete songs strung together and "packaged" as a single unit. I doubt most proggers would be fooled. The quirky "Paranoia Agency" is easily the high point.
Elsewhere, "Ivan Hood The White Knight" is probably the thing that most resembles prog here, rather like a (very) peripheral Jethro Tull song perhaps. And "Things We Do" does have a winsome melody and a nice 70's Kinks-ish air about it.
Really, though, of the four 70's Abacus discs, this is easily the least essential. Get it only after you already have the other three.

Abacus - 1971 - Abacus

Abacus
1971
Abacus

01. Pipedream Revisited Part 1 & II
02. Cappucino
03. Don't Beat So On The Horses
04. Song For Brunhilde
05. Song For John And Yoko
06. Radbod Blues
07. Chestholder


- Felix Hans / drums, percussion
- Charlie Schade / guitar, sitar
- Chris Barutzky / keyboards
- Chris Williams / vocal
- Konstantin Bommarius / drums, percussion


ABACUS is surely a big name for everyone interested in rock music. The band formed in 1971 made their breakthrough at the Germersheim rock festival, where ABACUS drew not less applause from the 300,000 visitors than PINK FLOYD, SANTANA or ELP which appeared on stage as well. Jürgen Wimpelberg takes on himself to play keyboards, guitars, drum programming as well as vocals.

I was pleasantly surprised when I recently heard the album "Abacus", given the relative obscurity of this German prog act of the early 1970s. It contains all typical elements of symphonic style: long compositions, change of tempo and dynamics, multi-part suite-like themes and certain "grandeur" feeling.
The best example for this is the opener 9,5-minutes "Pipedream Revisited". Excellent melodies, interesting instrumental passages of organ, guitars and above all bass and effective vocals. Indeed, it is almost impossible to hear any bad music produced back in the year 1971, but "Abacus" is definitely above average. Another personal highlight is acid- folksy "Song for Brunhilde" with beautiful atmosphere underlined with sitar drone sounds, giving it a slight psych touch, which is quite captivating. "Song for John and Yoko" is of course an ode to the pop icon with slight cynical approach. Excellent Hammond and acoustic guitar leads into the song while later fast-stomping part has a healthy dose of pop irresistability.
"Radbod Blues" presents a deformed voice patterns and some drums solo acrobatics, while heavy Hammond sounds a bit like ELP or ATOMIC ROOSTER. There are also improvisational jazzy parts on piano followed by bombastic mechanical laughter device. "Chestholder" invokes bits of SWEET SMOKE laid back jazz jamming and similar vocals, strenghtened by nice Hammond solo.
The outro contains typical symphonic approach with re-cycling the previous themes of the album but also there are signs of experimentation with noise, loops and electronics. This portion reminds us of the current Krautrock scene in Germany from which ABACUS naturally took some elements. All in all, this is a fine, unpretentious album that should be listened to many times. The one deserving much more attention.