Customer Reviews

Rock Puzzle

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I have to admit that this 1979 album was not as bad as I expected, although the overall quality is far below the excellent L'Araignee Mal (1975) and the very good Tertio (1977). Unfortunately, Atoll caved in to record company pressures to embrace the musical mainstream and elements of disco and other popular styles turn up. As can be imagined, the mix of progressive and mainstream pop styles did not work very well.

Although there are some nice moments here and there, particularly with the spacey synthesizer pads played on the Eminent and the occasional haunting melody, there is an uneven feel to the album. Evidently, some of the guys in the group were unhappy about the watering down of the prog rock aspects and apparently felt compelled to play more notes to compensate for it. A great example of this is provided by Christian Beya; while a great guitarist (heavily influenced by Steve Howe), he overplays at points - sometimes to the point of distraction. The vocals (in French) are also a bit off at times and sometimes sound strained and ragged.

Although this may not sound very appealing, there are a few tunes that nicely balance the prog and pop aspects and actually work fairly well. The technical abilities of the players are also quite high (sometimes too high) and that can not be denied either. Unfortunately, the lack of a clear musical direction took its toll and this album is ultimately neither here nor there; not quite prog enough or pop enough to satisfy either audience. Indeed, the group would disband after the release of Rock Puzzle, with some of the guys leaving the music business entirely.

This remastered effort by Musea is pretty good and features loads of informative liner notes and good sound quality. The bonus tracks include a few outtakes from the Rock Puzzle sessions and three tunes written in 1981 with none other than John Wetton (King Crimson, U.K. etc). Asia fans may want to take note of the fact that the three bonus tracks include an early version of Here Comes the Feeling, which was recorded with the remaining Atoll members and is easily the finest of the tracks written in 1981 (the other two are not very good).

All in all, this is yet another regrettable example of a fantastic prog rock band succumbing to the mainstream. While I was able to find a few things that I liked about the album, I would only recommend it to hardcore prog freaks and Atoll "completists".