Ethos - 1976 - Ardour

Ethos 

1976

Ardour

01. Intrepid Traveller (6:20)

02. Space Brothers (6:14)

03. Everyman (5:00)

04. Atlanteans (7:11)

05. The Spirit Of Music (3:54)

06. Long Dancer (5:21)

07. The Dimension Man (7:58)

08. E'Mocean (4:35)

Duncan Hammond / organ, Moog, piano, Mellotron, clavinet, vocals

Michael Ponczek / organ, Moog, Chamberlin, Fx

Wils Sharpe / guitar, mandolin, vocals

Brad Stephenson / bass, bass pedals, vocals

Mark Richards / percussion, Fx

Greg Riker / Fx, mixing

Much like Klaatu in cover art but more progressive in style, this eponymous mid-'70s album by Ethos (Ardour) has plenty of great ideas and is well executed, though it fails to deliver a knockout punch. Despite the beautiful cover art front and back, what restrains Ethos (Ardour) is a distinct lack of personality. You won't expect to hear a "Long Distance Runaround" or "Heat of the Moment" from this group, but though it doesn't fly over the top, the LP still has its moments. Recorded toward the end of 1975 at the Hit Factory in New York, the eight songs on the debut are all from the pen of vocalist/guitarist/mandolin player Wils Sharpe, with percussionist Mark Richards helping out on "E'Mocean." Stuart Alan Love drops the ball on the production, which fails to reflect the heaviness of the lyrics or complex musicianship -- and which also allows the band to wallow in self-indulgence. Fans of progressive rock may eat this up as a forgotten appetizer that works better than Ethos contemporary Pavlov's Dog; the instrumentation is perfect, but melodies drift hither and yon. "Spaced Brothers" could be the group It's a Beautiful Day reinventing itself in another world while "Atlanteans" fuses wandering jazz riffs with guitar/keyboard interplay. This group really needed an Eddie Offord to pull it all together and find a "Lucky Man" or some focus, and not Jan Akkerman's Focus from three years earlier. "The Spirit of Music," "Longdancer," and "Dimension Man" all kind of blend together on side two, either intentionally or because the group couldn't clarify the music within each individual title. They include pictures of everyone from the business manager to road crew on the lyric sheet, lots of care going into the presentation when maybe more thought should have gone into crafting a hit record to promote this project. In the end, the group and album with the strange double title of Ethos (Ardour) is too serious for its own good, but interesting enough to offer some progressive rock enlightenment for those in the mood for something a little offbeat and out there.

ETHOS was one of the many late-to-the-party prog bands that emerged in the US after the European scene had peaked but somehow this band that started in Fort Wayne, Indiana crafted a clever tightrope act that balanced catchy melodic hooks with stellar virtuosic prog workouts and out of the box unorthodoxies with some of the left field hairpin turns. This band was not only amazingly clever but delivered excellent tight-knit instrumental interplay that included not just one but two adept keyboardists which caught the attention of Capital Records and despite the band emerging right at the birth pangs of punk and disco dethroning the prog gods, ETHOS still managed to sell around 50,000 copies of this debut album ARDOUR.

As was one of the many midwestern bands that was absolutely smitten with English bands like Yes, Genesis, Gentle Giant, King Crimson and Van Der Graaf Generator, ETHOS staunchly adhered to the fantasy prog that dominated the early 70s with chimerical cover art, sci-fi themes about Atlantis, space, ancient history and other thought provoking esoteric themes that somehow went out of fashion however it must be remembered that a few talented symphonic prog bands from the US were bucking the trend while swimming upstream with the prime example being the other Midwestern band Kansas releasing its multi-platinum album "Leftoverture" the same year as ARDOUR.

While its origins date back to the 60s the band that became ETHOS was formed in 1973 and released two albums, ARDOUR (1976) and "Open Up" (1977) before disbanding the following year in 1978. Unlike similarly minded bands like Starcastle, ETHOS exhibited a much more creative reinterpretation of its influences, some of which were startlingly unique with influences not only from the already mentioned bigwigs of prog but also showed a keen sense of crossover dynamism in the vein of Manfred Mann's Earth Band. The band entered the famous Hit Factory studio in New York City in 1975 to record ARDOUR and crafted eight tracks into true prog excellence. With instantly addictive melodic hooks in the vein of early 70s Yes led by the twin organ, Moog and mellotron attacks of Duncan Hammond and Michael Ponczek, ETHOS had plenty to work with from the getgo.

Another aspect that puts ETHOS over the top in the originality department is the outstanding variety of percussion sounds of Mark Richards who not only cranks out delicious drum rolls delicately spruced up with jazz and technical precision but also dished out bell sounds, glockenspiels and other tricks and trinkets to take the sounds into Neil Pert territory and while Wils Sharpe's guitar role is primarily limited to rhythmic accompaniment, when the band allows him off the leash he fires up some sizzling guitar riffs and soloing especially on "Atlanteans." While rooted in sing-songy hippie-dippy lyricism which can indeed enter the cheese zone from time to time (i mean just check out "Space Brothers" an anthem of power to the people space style!), the vocal harmonies themselves are actually quite beautifully done as are all the special effects that find creative time signature deviations and off the wall synth note bends and even a moment when the music drops and only beyond trippy electronic effects buzz around like a swarm of doped up bumblebees.

ARDOUR is nothing less than extremely consistent in its ability to craft solid classy prog composiitons and add totally off-kilter deviations that literally were quite forward thinking however once again the lyrics could have perhaps been a tad more cryptic as to allow the imagine to ponder the meaning of it all rather than engage in a galactic kumbaya moment. While the Yes influenced aspects often take a back seat to the more pastoral Genesis moments, when those crazy frenzied odd meters reminiscent of "Relayer" crank it out, they are no less than magical however they are used sparingly so the vocal oriented sections with full symphonic pomp are allowed to dominate. Still though there are enough of those moments to keep this album crackling with an electricity much in the vein of fellow USA-ans Yezdra Ufa.

While not exactly a true obscurity due to the fact ETHOS had its brief day in the sun albeit with slight overcast, ARDOUR was a surprising minor hit for a prog album given the year it was released. This may have been due to a delayed American response to the prog scene but i would bet that it was the high quality of the album that just hooks you in from the start that was the magic bullet. Had this been released five years earlier it possibly could've qualified as a true classic of the prog era but getting back to the vocals and lyrical content, some of the moments do reek a little too much AOR cheese but overall the album more than makes up for all that and personally i don't give a rat's ass about lyrics anyway so they could be lamented the grime on the kitchen sponge for all i care as long as the music hits all the g-spots and in that department it does quite competently. Overall, ARDOUR has enough flaws that this cannot be equated to the true masterpieces of the era but as a second rate prog album this is one that everyone should experience if for no other reason it's unique approach to crafting a beautiful symphonic prog album.