Japanese progressive rock band. The group was originally formed by keyboardist Tsutomu Izumi in 1968 in Nagoya, under the name The Silencer. They changed their name to Cosmos Factory in 1973 when they released their debut album. The group split up following the release of their fourth album in 1977. The starting line-up of this unique Japanese progrock band is: Tsutomu Izumi (keyboards, Moog synthesizer, vocals), Hisashi Mizutani (guitar, vocals), Toshkazu Taki (bass, vocals), Kazuo Okamoto (drums & percussion) and Misao on violin. They made a serie of albums in the Seventies with every time another sound: the debut album "An Old Castle of Transylvania" ('73) sounds like early FLOYD/VANILLA FUDGE, the third album "Black Hole" (75) is more in the vein of complex KING CRIMSON (nerve-racking FRIPPERIAN play), the second LP "The journey.." sound rather weird and freaky and their fourth entitled "Metal Reflection" is, as the title suggests, pure hardrock/metal.
Amon Düül ll's extraordinary 1973 album finds the influential German art rock band working surprisingly well in a short song format while still stamping the music with their unique sound. "Fly United," "Trap," and "Ladies Mimikry" show diverse styles of pop and rock running happily into each other with memorably quirky results. The instrumentation here is as quirky as ever,too – perhaps even more so than usual, with Chris Karrer's violin and sax playing now in the fore. The melodies are often shimmering. Unfortunately, the band never again sustained the excellence displayed on Viva la Trance again.
The original Who's Better, Who's Best: The Videos was a handy laserdisc consisting of 17 videos, an inordinate number of them overlapping at least in part with material from the movie The Kids Are Alright – which was OK, as the latter was never widely available as a laserdisc…
Balance of Power is the eleventh studio album by the Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) released in 1986. It is the final album by the band to feature co-founder Bev Bevan on drums, as well as the last album to feature keyboardist Richard Tandy in an official capacity. Balance of Power was the last studio album by the Electric Light Orchestra before their disbanding (the band would later reform in 2000). By this time Kelly Groucutt had departed and the group was pared down to a trio of Jeff Lynne, Richard Tandy, and Bev Bevan.