Customer Reviews

Flying

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Marvellous music ist the stuff you love to hear for years again and again. 30 years ago I heard the first time UFO 2 and it was a revolution for my mind. Now - in 2001 - 30 years later - I think UFO 2 is great and modern stuff. It is like Psychedelic Trance with guitars (instead synthesizers) - a true feeling of psychedelic tunes. The only band you can compare with the early UFO is HAWKWIND (specially the albums DoReMiFaSoLaTiDo ans Space Ritual). In 1972 or 1973 Mick Bolton left the band. Michael Schenker came from the Scorpions and UFO became more mainstream rock - better for the US taste and better for economical success. But real Space Rock and Psychedelic Rock friends will never forget the legendary Mick Bolton in the early UFO days.
Check the track Flying and you know what I mean ...

I'm surprised no one has mentioned that this record seems to form a literal sonic bridge between the Krautrock/British Psych Underground of the late '60s and the Hard Rock/Proto-Heavy Metal of the '70s. You can actually hear the transition between the two eras as the disc plays.

This sounds nothing like the subsequent recordings by this band and will probably not appeal to fans of their later, more famous work. However, fans of Hawkwind, Blue Cheer, Ash Ra Tempel, Black Sabbath and the Stooges need to give it a spin.

If you like this, also check out the first record by the Scorpions 'Lonesome Crow' for a similarly uncharacteristic record by a famous band.

Myself am an UFO fan from way back when-for the era this was released this defined progressive space rock as it should be-it is easy to become highly involved within the confines of this recording-it has a quasi-chameleon effect as it goes along-quite original and expansive.The mainstream albums etched in stone are of course-Phenomenon-No Heavy Petting-Lights Out-and Force It;;ok so people it aint got that Schenkar sound then again what does-saw them in Atlanta more than once-personally i would have loved more UFO albums along this format in the later years but it is not exactly a comercial product-it is well worth a listen-a downside if any the bass can be a bit overpowering at moments otherwise a wild ecclectic ride to a cosmic dimension..

The first UFO album I bought was Force It in 1975, and this became the start of my UFO obsession (sorry, not a pun). Schenker was God, and they were the ultimate, live band.
But the first three albums (with Mick Bolton) soon followed with Flying leading the pack, and it quickly became my all-time favourite. Something that still holds up to this day.
Apparently Mogg and Way hate this album, deeming it too psychedelic and hippy-drippy, but for someone like me it's the real thing (and note,I'm also very into Black Metal, Hardcore, Punk so I aint no softy).
It's just that the music grows on you, and keeps growing. Something that I have a theory about being a lot to do with this music being blues-based in character. Well, the guitar playing at least.(even though I hate straight blues with a vengeance.)
If we just talk guitar for a moment,I would have to say now that in the UFO stakes Bolton beats Schenker hands down.
And that's a pretty hard thing for a former Schenker fanatic to say. It's nothing to do with speed or dexterity - widdly widdly if you will. It's about feel and heart. Pure and simple. The way it should be.
I think especially from the late 70's onwards, you could definitely hear Schenkers guitar solos being dropped into UFO songs, and not seeming to have much connection or feel with the tracks at all. Although, as ProEvil also rightly points out, check out Lonesome Crow by the Scorpions. (Don't laugh. Not the spandex and power ballad Scorpions of later.) A great album and maybe a distant relative to Flying. I think this is Schenkers best guitar work by far as it is, like Bolton's work, an integral part of the music. (And I think he was only 16 at the time!)
Anyway, if you like your rock very noisy and riffy and very weird and you want it to stay in your head for decades, get Flying, and get it now.
Oh, and check out Guru Guru's "Kanguru" and all of Amon Düül II's early stuff for more in the same classic spaced-out vein.
P.S. The scary backward talking on the end of the album the right way round is, if I remember correctly,
"You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din!" from the 1939 film. I know 'cause I played the vinyl backwards back then to find out!

the title is catchy for any progressive rocker. the disc has its own excursion to lengthy instrumental epics such as star storm (19 mins.) and flying with 27 mins. of rock variation and improvisations. the music itself transcends into different dimensions, the only disappointing part (though not gravely) is its reversion to what UFO as a hard rock band was known for in several outakes in the disc. the guitar soars like a ferociuos jet fighter and attempts succesfully to emulate what a synthesizer can do considering the album was released in 1970. I only rate it 3 stars not that the disc was average in its overall content but it just didnt get into my standards of what progressive music should be. I have to accept that the album was not to join the fray of prog rock but more as an experimental effort by the entire band to ride on with the infectious 20 minute epic of the 1970's. nevertheless I have sincere admiration with this disc for its trippy instrumentals and rockin compositions. for those who are into lengthy epics and no dull moment instrumentals this may be the disc for you. After this album, the group was back to its 10 track listing albums and heavy metal.

I discovered this along with UFO and UFO LIVE. Extremely good. More adventurous and Progressive than the Michael Schenker years, but still very cool. "Star Storm" is especially cool.

Hey, I'm disappointed! The album says "One Hour of Space Rock" and instead it's 1 hour and 2 seconds!

I'm kidding of course. Even though this album is MUCH different from what UFO would become a couple years later, I have to admit I really enjoy all the guitar jams. And trust me, if you don't like guitar jams, you're going to be in a world of trouble because that's the main thing that dominates the album. A few vocal melodies aside, and the rest of the album is all about guitar jamming.

The album isn't really space rock. Or at least, not my definition of space rock. It's more like lengthy blues pieces, similar to that one 15-minute jam on Black Sabbath's debut, but stretched out for an entire album.

"Silver Bird" starts off the album with a really nice groove and later, some really good guitar work. It's a great opener. It sounds like it should have been a hit. Why wasn't it? I don't know. "Star Storm" is nearly 20 minutes of really exciting Jimi Hendrix-like guitar playing and a really catchy and groovy chorus. Enjoy this song, because if you like hard rock at least a *little* bit, you won't be disappointed.

"Prince Kajuku" is a really fast-paced little rocker that reminds me of a song the Scorpions would do a few years later. "Coming of Prince Kajuku" continues the fast-paced rocking theme for a few more minutes. Then comes "Flying" the ULTIMATE example of emotional guitar playing. There's a funky guitar jam that appears somewhere about 7 minutes into the song. After hearing Phenomenon, I had no idea UFO could play guitar like that. The vocal melodies remind me of early Grand Funk Railroad, too. It's just hard to believe this album hasn't become a classic.

At the end of the album, something extremely scary happens. You will be reminded that the band is called UFO because the final 30 seconds of the album features some really strange voices and weird flying saucer-type sound effects. It is really strange. It reminds me of that record collection Kate Hudson found in the attic of that movie "the Skeleton Key".

Overall, if you're a fan of the blues, lengthy guitar jams and hard rock, here it is ladies and gentlemen- your album.

UPDATE- July 1, 2007

Man, I can't get enough of the lengthy guitar jams featured on this UFO album. Hearing this Flying album over and over reveals little bursts of catchy melodies throughout each of the lengthy guitar sections. This is truly a 5-star rock album. Anyone who appreciates guitar playing and enjoys searching for some melodies in a guitar jam will surely fall in love with this album.

The song "Flying" is enough reason to get this release. Guitarist Mick Bolton's tone grows further into Heavy Blues/Metal from UFO's 1st release. You can hear some serious vibrato and wah-wah during the "Flying" track; you will actually hear the guitar tone bleed with pain. A MUST for those of you who want to hear what a Rock guitar sounds like when a Rock guitarist has talent and soul.

in the late 60's and early 70's the protometal scene was sometimes refered to as acid rock. In that format anything went and superlong songs with wierd effects and strange guitar work and spacey lyrics were the norm. This type of music could be fun to wierd to strange to sort of mindless and long. This is why acid metal became hard rock or metal. But even the animals and other bands were doing long songs that meandered along. THis was made for people on lsd to sit there and space out to. THankfully lsd is mainly seen today as a destructive force of mindnumbing damaging. But in spite of this , this psych rock (acid rocker) has some great songs on it, silverbird. prince kajuku and others are great , then they meander away into space out stuff. The musicianship is fine , it's the style of spaceout that modern audiences may have trouble with. If you edited some of these songs , then you could see how good they are , so fans of acid rock should like this one. And metal fans less so unless they enjoy abit of acid rock. However I think the first one is alot better and more accessible , as the songs are not long and are typical acid metal rock. Ufo was just mirroring the acid rock scene here which would die off and be replaced with metal soon. Lsd is better off left alone but this is a worth owning for acid rock fans and early metal fans. And a must for UFO fans , so that you can have it all.

This is one of the most boring albums ever produced. I don't care what fans say. There is no excitement. No development or change. It is just the same progressions repeated and repeated- all drearily plodding along in a haze of smoke. and, some of the most rediculous lyrics ever. "Lost my self in a starry storm/had to find my way out" always gets me to chuckle. This is an prime example of a competent bar-band having too much drugs.