Flyte - Dawn Dancer

Year of Release: 1993
Label: Musea Records
Catalog Number: FGBG 4096.AR
Format: CD
Total Time: 39:52:00

As far as my knowledge goes this is the only Dutch-Belgian progressive outfit that ever existed. After winning the much acclaimed contest for amateur bands in 1976 at the well known Bilzen festival in Belgium, Flyte were able to open the festi-val comprising the Steve Miller Band, Steeleye Span and Rick Wakeman. Originally called Grace, they changed their name to Flyte when they found out there already was a Grace in Britain (not the boys from Pulling Strings... ). At the time they played covers by King Crimson, Wishbone Ash and Camel. Especially the sound of the latter is to be heard throughout the fairly melodic album Dawn Dancer.

"You're Free, I Guess" is almost an outtake of Camel's own Mirage album. In opener "Woman" the band goes on to copy The Who's "Pinball Wizard" whilst in "Aim At The Head" (and also some of the other trac-ks) they come very close to what Kayak was doing. If they are using so many well known themes, is the band's music original enough, I hear you ask. Rest assured it does, as the band's singer has a very unique voice which carries half of the band's sound. He's helped out by two keyboard players who combine a fair use of mellotron and Fender Rhodes piano. On the other hand there's guitarist Ruud Wortman who doesn't try to imitate the bigger names in progland. However his style comes close to that of Kayak member Johan Slager! The main result is that you don't get the typical sympho album here with long tracks and neverending solos. Each of the eight tracks clocks in at around five minutes and most of them have a nice rock structure which was fairly new when the album was recorded in 1979.

Flyte unfortunately didn't have the chance to sign with a major company. They signed to a label which went bust after they only had pressed 2000 copies of the album. Without any promo-tion and distribution, the release of the album went unnoticed even if most of the album's tracks got some airplay. This is probably the main reason why Dawn Dancer remained the band's only album. It is however one of the best melodic, symphonic albums to emerge this side of the water!

Tracklisting:
Woman (4:47) / Heavy Like A Child (5:28) / Grace (5:08) / You:Re Free I Guess (5:59) / Aim At The Head (4:29) / Your Breath Enjoyer (4:14) / King Of Clouds (4:43) / Brain Damage (4:50)

Musicians:
Lu Rousseau - lead vocals, percussion
Ruud Worthman - acoustic and electric guitars
Jack van Liesdonck - acoustic and electric piano, clavinet, synthesizer
Leo Cornelissens - electric organ, mellotron, string ensemble, vocals
Hans Boeye - drums, percussion
Hans Marynissen - percussion
Peter Dekeersmaeker - bass, vocals

Discography:
Dawn Dancer (1979/1993)

Genre: Progressive Rock

Origin VA

Added: March 27th 2001
Reviewer: John "Bobo" Bollenberg

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Language: english