Minotaurus (Germany) - Fly Away, 1978 [2002, GoD]

The Crack in the Cosmic Egg

An obscure late-1970's progressive, Minotaurus hailed from Oberhausen (west of Essen) consisting of self-taught musicians, all in their late-teens or early 20's. In 1978 they decided they had an albums worth of material ready, and booked sessions at the local Langendreer Studio, home of Epidaurus, making use of their studio Mellotron and drummer as engineer.

Highly rated by some, I personally think that FLY AWAY shows a band that were just starting to find their feet (i.e. they needed to rehearse a lot more). As a lightweight and melodic prog album it's not bad, with that quaintly new-wave type edge typical of many German bands from the era. They aspired for greater things, but when compared to similar bands of the era: Madison Dyke, Second Movement, Neuschwanstein, et al., they paled as nothing remarkable, but pleasant. During their history, Minotaurus played some 100 gigs, then eventually disbanded in late-1979.

These are not to be confused with the Greek similarly named Minotauros!