King

Legendary double album inspired by the last book of the Bible (Revelation of John). A classic example of a concept where progressive, psychedelic, rock, and folk blend perfectly. Vangelis (keyboards), Koulouris (guitars), Roussos (voice, bass), Sideras (drums) at their best.

This album is among the most superb prog records of all time. It was a strange move for Aphrodite’s Child, since all of their previous releases had been straight forward 60s pop with romantic lyrics. They had huge success in Europe in the late 60s, and it laid the foundation for both Vangelis and Demis Roussos solo careers. At the time of working on this album, the relationship between the band members had completely fallen apart, so Vangelis took the task of composing and producing the album himself, only getting the rest of the band in when he needed their services. Frustrated after prostituting himself for several years doing commercial pop music, Vangelis went for a full scale double album, based on a concept by Costas Ferris, who also wrote a concept book and all the lyrics, based on Saint John’s Revelation.
The concept is firmly rooted in the 60s, and it’s about a circus troupe performing a show based on the Acopalypse, while the real Apocalypse is happening outside. The record company was shocked when they heard the album, and Vangelis had to fight for two years before they agreed to release it, and only after he had done serious editing on the track “[Infinty Symbol]”. The album was outlawed in several Catholic countries, but it was well received critically, and the album is very often on lists of best prog albums of all time, both in magazines and among other artists. Oh btw, Enigma sampled half their debut album from this record.
The Good
The playfulness of this album is amazing. The music is a combination of progressive rock, jazz, psychedelia, pop and even traditional Greek music. With track lengths varying from 10 seconds to 19 minutes, you would think the album is disjointed. Nothing could be further from the truth. From the opener “The system,” where the lyrics literally tell us that we got the system to fuck the system, we jump straight into the tour de force rock track “Babylon,” where Roussos’ voice soars over the powerful backing track. From there on it’s a journey through a wonderful tune that will stick in your head for days (“the Four Horsemen”), ambient soundscapes (“Aegian Sea”), instrumental jams (“the Battle of the Locust”) and wild jazzy moments (“Tribulation”). And that’s only the first CD!
The two major moments on CD2 are a track which takes its title from the mathematical symbol for infinity and “All the Seats Were Occupied.” The first one is a track where the Greek actress Irene Papas fakes an orgasm for five minutes (the unedited version was 39 minutes!), while Vangelis walks around the room banging a drum. It’s a track that’s interesting, to say the least, and it’s not the kind of track you would bother your neighbors with. The latter is 19 minutes with rock, Latino, Indian music and loads of guitar and percussion, spiced up with the occasional outburst of horns and saxophones. It’s a full-on jam session, but what really makes the track is that it quotes sections from the entire album, and it all portrays the vision of the end of the world beautifully. It ends in a cacophony of an explosion, and the album ends on a calm note, which comes as a relief at this point, with the track “Break.”
The bad
This is among my favorite albums of all time, so there’s not really anything bad to say about it musically. The music has not dated in style; in fact, it sounds more relevant these days than ever, but the sound quality is bad at times. This is probably due to bad CD mastering. The album comes on two CDs, and that is unnecessary since the album doesn’t last more than 73 minutes. A remaster would be most welcome, but until then, get this album and devour it.
You can trace Pink Floyd's "The Wall" double concept album to a great number of influences, just as you could "Dark Side Of The Moon". Alongside the usual suspects, such as Genesis's "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway", Aphrodite's Child's "666" (1971) is a rarely recognized ur-text which undoubtedly had a hand in the conception of both Floyd's

Socrates will probably never get inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But while other groups were becoming well known in the free world, this Hendrix-style blues band was playing to standing-room-only crowds in a small club in Athens, during Greece's military dictatorship, a period when even Rolling Stone albums were hard to find, and for a time illegal.
by Matt Barrett
Socrates was Yannis Spathas and Antonis Tourkoyorgis on guitar and bass respectively. During the period that they were playing in the Kitarro Club they went through several drummers including George Trantalidis, all of them terrific. In Athens during the early seventies, when the 1967 military dictatorship was still in control, there were a number of rock clubs in the area around Victoria Square and in the Plaka. Poll and Morka played at the Elaterion. Socrates and Exidaktilo played at the Kitarro. As Dorian Kokas, the founder and leader of Morka told us one night "We used to race through our set and play everything fast so we could get out early and go to the Kittaro and catch the last set of Socrates." Musicians loved Socrates.
Socrates sounded like several bands that were popular at the time, Jimi Hendrix Experience, Deep Purple, Blue Cheer, and Black Sabbath come to mind now when I hear their music from that early period, though the majority of their material was original. There were songs that were crowd favorites such as "Close the Door and Lay Down", "Starvation" and "Underground", but often the highlight of the evening was when they did their Hendrix songs like "Voodoo Chile", "Message of Love" and "Red House" or jammed on songs like "Kansas City" with singer Jimi Quidd (later of the NY Dots) and Greek-American blues guitarist John Kronis.
Spathas played a Fender Strat, long straight hair hanging down almost to the guitar, he was motionless except for his hands which effortlessly ripped out the most fluid solos and riffs. He always hooked the chord to his amp over the bottom cutaway so he would not step on it and pull it out during a solo, I suppose. It was sort of his trademark in a way and we would watch him tune up and wait for him to do it which meant to us that the music was about to begin. He would play some mind-boggling riff to make sure the volume was right or the guitar was in tune and they would be off. Antonis Tourkoyorgis played bass and sang and if Spathas gave the appearance of being introverted he was the complete opposite. He was also a great bass player. The powerful sound this little three-piece band with their stacks of Marshalls put out in the Kittaro kept us coming back night after night. In all honesty I have to say that to this day I have not heard any band, three-piece or more, fill as much musical space. Seeing the Who in 1976 I found myself comparing them to Socrates. OK, the Who is the Who. But apart from the personalities, the songs I knew and the flamboyance, were Townshend, Entwhistle and Moon as good a band as Socrates? No way. Led Zeppelin? Nope. You'd have to ask someone who had seen Hendrix or Cream to make the judgment about those bands but I can't imagine anyone being better than Socrates on a good night and as far as those nights in the Kittaro went I don't think they ever had a bad night. They were too good to have a bad night.
What made them so remarkable was the guitar playing of Spathas. Even today listening to the solos he played in 1972 I still can't believe the music he was making. Brent Lambert of Kitchen Mastering, quite a guitar player himself, after hearing several Spathas solos from thirty years ago said "If this guy had come to America he would be a guitar hero and everyone would know his name." If you liked the way Hendrix, Ritchie Blackmore, Jimmy Page and Eddie Van Halen play you will love Spathas and if you play guitar yourself you will wonder "If this was thirty years ago and he is still playing how good must he be now?"
Socrates made two albums as a three-piece, both pretty awful be

www.athensguide.com/socrates

The album opens with STARVATION, which, while maintaining a solid rock blues foundation, becomes quite intriguing thanks to the keyboard wall reminiscent of VANGELIS, giving a medieval touch to the piece. I find some similarities with YES's TORMATO from 1978. It's also worth noting that this work predates the release of TORMATO by two years. We continue with QUEEN OF THE UNIVERSE, which opens with an acoustic guitar progression, accompanied by a calm vocal that then interacts with excellent spacey keyboard sounds, which after a few transitions culminate in a remarkable cosmic solo worthy of the best German school (see ELOY and similar). Again, I find the blend of acoustic and symphonic elements very interesting. Intriguing. EVERY DREAM COME TO AN END is probably one of the highlights of the work; everything sounds perfect, no sound is out of place. It begins with simple but effective piano notes, then the band joins in, and the keyboards take us even higher when JOHN SPATHAS weaves a legendary guitar solo... it's impossible not to dream and feel emotions in the face of such artistic sensitivity. In this case, however, VANGELIS's presence is crucial for the success of the piece. This should be included in the history of global progressive music! Acoustic ballad atmospheres, reminiscent of several centuries ago, characterize THE BRIDE; it feels like being amidst a court celebration. Excellent track. The brief KILLER presents itself immediately as a solid, robust rock song; I find some similarities with the LED ZEPPELIN of the PRESENCE/PHYSICAL GRAFFITI period. A DAY IN HEAVEN makes me dream of lost or yet-to-be-discovered worlds with its electro-acoustic flow that provides a lot of tranquility; again, VANGELIS's keyboard tapestry is crucial. Another great piece. TIME OF PAIN again combines the acoustic element in a rock song form. The album concludes with MOUNTAINS, which starts off rocking, always with strong folkloric influences (our MAURO PAGANI knows something about this), but after just a couple of minutes, the band completely changes direction and elevates us to a decidedly mystical dimension, where Greek tradition seems to merge with Indian. The electric guitar takes the lead in this remarkable sonic jam, sprinkled with some keyboard and percussive notes. Music that frees the mind, purifies it. Another great track, and at this point, there are many. A great work by these SOCRATES, very close to a masterpiece, recommended for those who want to diversify their discography while including Greece among musically interesting countries.