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This is probably the most unlikely thing you'll ever expect from the Police: them playing full-on prog rock complete with Mellotron. OK, so the idea is actually coming from electronic keyboardist/symphony conducter Eberhard Schoener, but he released two albums with Police members in it in 1978, Flashback and Video Magic (the German original, not the compilation featuring tracks from both). Sting and Andy Summers are on both, but Stewart Copeland only appeared on Flashback, while Evert Fraterman filled in Copeland's shoes on Video Magic. Andy Summers had already appeared on several Eberhard Schoener albums as far back as 1975, when The Police had yet to exist and Stewart Copeland was with Curved Air. This 1980s release contains all the material from the original Video-Magic except for the instrumental "Octagon", replaced by "Rhine Bow" from Flashback. Of course if you want "Octagon" get the original Video-Magic or the 1981 compilation Video-Magic (it's a great instrumental piece with a Pink Floyd-like feel, especially from Andy Summers' guitar work).

The Police is regarded as one of the finest bands to emerge in the post-punk era, and they were able to receive a ton of mainstream success as well. I have to admit I'm not much of a Police fan, but am still very familiar with their albums and songs (my parents owned their albums so I heard them throughout childhood), and I can still understand their appeal. I guess my feeling towards the Police is similar to the Talking Heads, not exactly my kind of music, but I can understand their appeal and popularity.

Listening to this, you know right away this is coming from the ideas of Eberhard Schoener, where he guides the Police guys to prog rock. It's so strange to hear Sting's unmistakable high-pitched voice on "Speech Behind Speech" with just Mellotron just plastered all over it. This is much closer to the Moody Blues than anything the Police would ever come up with, so if you're a Police fan, you might not find much of interest here, but if you happen to like prog, be prepared to be tripped out. It's almost as out of character as Pat Boone doing covers of heavy metal songs (OK, maybe not as out of character as what Pat Boone done, and even what Pat Boone did was in a big band/swing style, which I'm sure he'd find a lot less offensive in his conservative mindset than the hard rock/metal originals, while The Police with Eberhard Schoener, it was simply prog rock, in which the musicians of the Police were more of the age of prog rock musicians than they were of most punk/post-punk musicians). "Natural High" is the most Police-like this album is going to be like, more rocking, but there's still that unmistakable prog feel, with more unbelievably great use of Mellotron! "San Francisco Waitress" has a jazzy feel, with Sting's vocals and sax from Olaf Kubler, sounding, strangely, like a precursor to Sting's Dream of the Blue Turtles. Much of the rest of the album flirts with minimalism, electronic, and classical, which comes as no surprise given the kinds of music that Schoener was into. Unsurprisingly it's not the most even albums out there. Police fans would probably find this boring, prog fans would find it amusing to see The Police do something like this. I seriously doubt Sting and the boys would let you know they ever collaborated with Eberhard Schoener. It also needs to be pointed out that the original Video-Magic was completed in November 1978, just as the Police released their first real LP in the UK, Outlandos D'Amour (which spawned the big hit "Roxanne") (the American release of Outlandos had to wait until 1979). Not a bad album, but I wouldn't call these lost Police gems, and I wouldn't call this a lost gem of progressive rock, but is a nice historical curiosity.