Pentwater's first and (for a long time) only LP was originally released in 1977 on the band's own small Beef Records label, as was the CD reissue from 2003. The group took this opportunity to expand the original LP tracks with a few pieces recorded at the same time (tracks 7, 9, 11 and 12). Presumably these numbers were part of the original LP concept, but were omitted at the time for reasons of space. In any case, they fit into the album without any problems and bring it up to a good 50 minutes of playing time. The order of the tracks has also changed slightly on the CD reissue.
The album gets off to a rather wild start, with a woman shrieking and the rather bizarre, exalted vocals starting off with some rather crooked, weird prog that is vaguely reminiscent of Gentle Giant. “Frustration Mass” is a very promising start to the album, even if the vocals take some getting used to. Unfortunately, this level is not maintained, as “Living Room Displays” is an upbeat rocker that is only given a rudimentary prog factor by a short, tricky section after around 4 minutes. Even the beautiful, almost a little cheesy ballad "Memo" doesn't change much. It is only with "Orphan Girl" that prog realms are reached again. An elegiac flute, accompanied by echoing piano and subtle percussion, introduces this long track, of which the last few minutes in particular are really great, with their tumbling, polyphonic vocal lines, accompanied by a guitar that howls again and again.
The rest of the album is also quite a varied mixture of slightly symphonic, but mostly very guitar-heavy, mildly complex prog and more or less interesting, "normal" rock. The latter often has a somewhat affected glam rock character, or is strongly reminiscent of Queen ("Palendrome", "Gwen's Madrigal") due to the expressive choral passages, although interludes of Mellotron, flute and organ and occasional complex-fickle sections provide a certain progressive element.
Also worth mentioning is the instrumental trilogy of "Prelude to War", "War" and "Death". After the short, somewhat shaky viola-violin duet of the prelude, "War" is an exciting jazz rocker that shines with Ken Kappel's intricate organ playing. "Death", on the other hand, consists of elegiac, sombre, slowly striding keyboard pads and long, drawn-out bass and guitar tones. All in all, Pentwater make quite independent, entertaining music on their first album, which occasionally shows certain influences of Gentle Giant, Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Genesis.
by Achim Breiling
Tracks
1. Frustration Mass (Ronnie Fuchs, Tom Orsi) - 3:37
2. Living Room Displays (Mike Konopka) - 4:58
3. Memo (Tom Orsi) - 4:10
4. Orphan Girl (Tom Orsi) - 8:33
5. AM (Ronnie Fuchs, Tom Orsi) - 2:47
6. Palendrone (Ken Kappel, Tom Orsi) - 3:57
7. Prelude To War - 1:12
8. War (Ken Kappel) - 5:05
9. Death - 2:48
10.Gwen's Madrigal (Ken Kappel, Tom Orsi) - 4:00
11.Wave - 3:04
12.Radioactive - 5:43
Pentwater
*Tom Orsi - Percussion, Vocals
*Mike Konopka - Guitar, Flute, Violin, Vocals Percussion
*Ken Kappel - Keyboards, Vocals
*Ron LeSaar - Bass, Vocals
*Ron Fox - Guitar, Oboe
*Phil Goldman - Guitar, Vocals
