review by thomas

Although this double album has some good stuff in the amusing ”Sahara” and the long, progressive ”Nickel-odeon” it’s the over 30 minutes space-rock of “Solar Music” that really brings the album to life. The singer has this voice that is perfect for the space-rock type music but not so good on other occasions. Some songs are not very good, like “Morning Song” and “Drummer’s Dream”, the latter is a try to sound beautiful and it actually works occasionally but it isn’t really that exciting, not even when it works. The former is just annoying; from the singing to the music it’s so annoying. The long “Magic Train” (13 minutes) has about 6 minutes of good stuff and 6 minutes of bad, so a beheading would be in place. Overall the sound can be very symphonic but not overly so, progressive and space-rock always lurk in the dark.

Doubtless then, “Ballermann” is really “Solar Music”. This composition is in reality one of the finest space-rock songs to be found, so that song alone is more than worth the album. Add to that some other good stuff too and you in the end get a good album, and if you like space-rock you know you must have this one, no matter what.