Troll “Turned To Stone” UK 1981 Prog Psych

An English group on a German label, mainly consisting of famous session players.Troll were bassist Mo Foster (formerly of Affinity), drummer Simon Phillips (he played also with Chopyn and Mike Rutherford), guitarists Alan Parker (ex-Rumplestiltskin and Ugly Custard), Phil Palmer and Ray Russell (ex-Chopyn and Running Man) and keyboardist Mike Moran, who had collaborated with Ian Gillan and Roger Clover.Their debut “Turned to stone” was recorded at the Abbey Road Studios in London, engineered by Tony Clarke, and it was released in 1981 on the Bavarian Intersound label.

“Turned to stone” is a weird period product and sort of a mixed bag of sounds and sights, which stands as commercially accesible, but at the same time has a deep musical background.Entirely instrumental, this one goes from New Wave marching paces to melancholic Jazz Rock and from late-70’s GENTLE GIANT funky/horn acoustics to balanced Fusion, offering a rather uneven album, which however shows a comfort on changing styles.The tracks are rather short and contain jazzy interludes, bluesy touches, even some mid-70’s PINK FLOYD-ian atmospheres and lots of positive energy in the fast-paced tracks.All of them are short (none exceeds the 5-min. mark), combining Rock music with a variety of influences and period keyboards, the bulk of the guitar work is great with some nice leads and solos and the result is pretty balanced.A couple of the displayed tracks sound rather dull with a cheesy sound, the rest though are pretty efficient, offering good instrumental passages and a wide range of musical explorations.

For fans of period Fusion, an album containg vibes from Classic Rock, Jazz, Blues, New Wave and even Prog Rock.Succesful, ambitious and recommended mixture, albeit a bit incosistent…….