Eloy: Floating (1974)

Eloy has went through so many different lineups and changes in sound that it’s not even funny, but despite that, they stayed pretty much progressive throughout their whole career. 1974’s Floating was Eloy’s third album and finds them pretty much in the same territory as their previous offering, Inside (1973), that is sticking to a more or less heavy guitar/Hammond organ-dominated prog sound typical of the early 1970s.

At this time, the band consisted of vocalist/guitarist Frank Bornemann, bassist Luitjen Janssen, organist Manfred Wieczorke, and drummer Fritz Randow. If you’re familiar with Eloy’s late ’70s efforts like Dawn, Ocean or Silent Cries & Mighty Echoes, or their early ’80s efforts like Colours, Planets, Time to Turn, Performance or Metromania, this earlier album would be quite a shock, because it sounds downright primitive compared to those later albums, but it’s pretty much the style you expect from early ’70s prog: a rough production and heavy use of guitar and spacy Hammond organ.

The highlight to Floating is “The Light From Deep Darkness”. It’s an incredible spacey piece with some killer jams. The lyrics have sci-fi overtones, as common on just about any given Eloy album. “Castle in the Air” features some spoken dialog, but basically, consists of further jams.

“Plastic Girl” was the first time a synthesizer appeared on an Eloy album, just some Mini Moog that Manfred Wieczorke used, it isn’t all that impressive (apparently he just bought the thing as the album was being finished, luckily he’ll put his new toys to real work on the band’s 1975 followup Power and the Passion).

The album ends with “Madhouse” in pretty much the same aggressive fashion as the rest of the album. By the way, Floating was released at a time when Frank Bornemann was still trying to sing just like Ian Anderson, so the best way you can describe this era of Eloy as sounding like Pink Floyd fronted by Ian Anderson. Only the music is more energetic than what Pink Floyd usually does.

If you’re not a big fan of Bornemann’s singing, I can easily recommend Floating, as it’s the album he does the least singing on (other than their self-entitled 1971 debut, in which original member Erich Schriever did the singing, but the album is said to be not particularly progressive), simply because the band spent more time jamming this time around.

I also dig the surrealistic sci-fi artwork on the cover. The artwork was done by Frenchman Jacques Wyrs (he also did the cover to Klaus Schulze’s Picture Music) and it looks like a scene that should belong on the 1973 movie Fantastic Planet. Eloy might not be the most original band on the face of the planet, but if you like agressive guitar and Hammond organ-dominated prog rock, you might enjoy Floating.
– Frank Bornemann: vocals, guitar
– Luitjen Janssen: bass
– Manfred Wieczorke: organ
– Fritz Randow: drums