Hi. I would like to share my little review on Symphonic Prog album by Texan band "Hands". This band was doing warm ups with Gentle Giant back in the days and mostly performed compositions by popular prog groups under name of Prism. They later renamed to Hands after they started creating their own music. Hands recorded some tracks in 1977, 1978 and 1980, but material was only released on CD in 1996 as a Hands album (compilation).
Album itself feels light and is quite accessible compared to works by classic prog giants. Each track has a distinctive leitmotif and easily stuck in mind. Sadly, I can't provide any commentaries on lyrics, because of my language knowledge.
- Zombieroch - Instrumental with rich set of instruments, I could recognize: harpiscord, piano, violin, percussion, woodwind, bass and distorted guitar. It consists of several energetic parts. Pace is frequently changing in speed, but mostly it's a fast paced track.
- Prelude #2 - Second instrumental. Calm piano, flute, acoustic guitar, violin track.
- Triangle of New Flight - Another instrumental, it transitions of calm mood of 2nd track to energetic guitar, violin, bass similar to track 1. Would like to note fascinating tuned guitar part at 4:48.
- Mutineer's Panorama - Repetitive dreamy track, mostly flute with support of bass, mellotron and others.
- World's Apart - in my opinion first strong prog composition in the list, also first one to include lyrics. Medium speed, more serious mood. Would like to note nice guitar, flute, bass part at 2:17.
- Dreamsearch - One of the best tracks in the album. Being so long and quite complex contains superset of instruments from previous tracks. Starts with iconic acoustic guitar, flute and vocal part. At 3:07 starts epic instrumental parts. Slow deep bass and organ part, then multiple fast parts with variety of instruments. Ends on the same note as the start with continuation of the lyrics.
- Left Behind - upbeat sandwich-alike track: vocal, long instrumental and vocal parts. Similar set of instruments.
- Mindgrind - cheerful fast paced track. Special thing about it is the violin parts. It starts with 2 awkward violin parts, followed by solid violin part. And later by another great violin play at 3:31. I think this detail contributes to the cheerful atmosphere of the track.
9-10. Greensoap and I Want One of Those - simple instrumental tracks. They are nice, but I don't know what interesting can I say about them.
- Antarctica - the longest one here. Mostly occupied by vocals. There is repeating verse saying about "the final blow", characterized by repeating wind samples throughout the song and grim part starting at 6:07-9:11.
- The Tiburon Treasure - simple melancholic instrumental.
I think it's a great album. Maybe it isn't innovational or super sophisticated, but I was interesting to listen it once again to provide another review, it doesn't get boring.
YT link: https://youtu.be/2BT3BeJ067k (has comments of some of the authors btw)
Progarchives: https://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=548
If anyone could find lyrics for this album, I will be very grateful, if you share it!