Madison Dyke - Zeitmaschine 1977 (G.O.D. Remaster) - Germ.
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Artist: Madison Dyke
Album: Zeitmaschine
Released: 1977
Garden of Delights (CD106 (2004))
Genre: Prog-Germania
CD reissue of one and only album by this Hannover band from 1977. A complex progressive hardrock similar to Jane and Harlis and with a dash of Genesis or Pink Floyd with mellotrons and flute. This offical version includes the 2 tracks from their NON-LP single plus a booklet with detailed information.
What appears to be Madison Dyke's sole release, Zeitmaschine (Time Machine, of course), is a bit of a mish-mash of styles, veering between hard rock, prog and ambient German stuff, often within the same track. It's difficult to pick out any one track as particularly superior to any other, although the side-long title track may just have the edge over the rest, with some nice flute work from vocalist Burkard Rittler. Actually, a passable comparison, at least in their more drifting moments, would be Novalis, although they're by no means a clone.
Now, both Rittler and guitarist Jürgen Baumann are credited with 'Mellotron', but all I can hear is swathes of string synth; the only thing that stops me dumping the album straight into Mistaken ID is the two credited players. Maybe it's just buried in the mix? Maybe they had some custom string synth tapes made up? Maybe they thought it would sell more records to prog fans?
Despite the German title of Madison Dyke's only album, all their lyrics were sung in English by flutist Burkhard Rittler who also was credited with Mellotron, although I personally can't hear any of it on the record. What you sure can hear plenty of is lots of those very typical German-sounding string-synths that were one of the most important trademarks for many German symphonic progressive rock bands. Their main keyboardist Jürgen Baumann (apparently no connection with the Baumann of Tangerine Dream fame) also handled guitars and vocals, but the band also included a main guitarist in Andreas Nedde. "Zeitmaschine" means "time machine", and with a title like that, the strong sci-fi feel of the water colour cover art and lots of the earlier mentioned German arrangements you would probably expect some progressive rock of the spacey kind. And sure enough, such tendencies are present here, especially on the opening of "First Step" that is loaded with string-synths reminiscent of Novalis' "Sommerabend" and the beautiful keyboard-theme at the ending of the 16-minute title-track. But Madison Dyke also took influences from outside their country too, as Rittler's flute often adds a Jethro Tull feel, and some of the heavier parts can actually remind slightly of Black Sabbath, although the band definitively remained a symphonic progressive rock group. The material is quite complex and ambitious, and "First Step" is probably the one that best demonstrates all the different sides of the band. By the way, Burkard Engel's bass drum on the opening is more or less identical to Jürgen Rostenhal's from Eloy's "Lost!??!", but more or less every German progressive rock band who sprung up around this time were, in a way or another, influenced by Eloy, so that's not meant as a criticism from my side. The acoustic "Cooking Time of an Egg" has a nice flute-melody, and "Next Conceptions" is best described as complex and sophisticated hard rock with lots of synths and flute. But it's the earlier mentioned "First Step" and the side-long title-track that are the most progressive tracks here, both being well-written and arranged with enough chord-changes and good themes to keep me satisfied.
compositionally, "Zeitmaschine" is a thoroughly solid effort.
Track List:
01. First step (10:06)
02. Cooking time of an egg (4:09)
03. Next conceptions (6:18)
04. Zeitmaschine (16:40)
05. Walkin' (5:22)
06. Dice-Box (5:11)
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