Octopus ~ Germany

The Boat Of Thoughts (1977)

The Sky label was originally founded by a former Brain label executive, and their early roster of bands focused just as much on progressive rock as it did electronic music. The latter more representative of the label in future years, and its overall legacy. Octopus were one of those early prog rock signings.

With history on our side, we can hear that Octopus were very much part of the German prog rock scene of the mid to late 1970s, most of them released on private or small labels. In this scenario, Octopus would have been one of the more successful bands by the sheer fact they were on a label with some marketing muscle. The bigger prog names of the day, many of them on the aforementioned Brain label, included Jane, Birth Control, Eloy, Grobschnitt, Amon Duul II, with up-and-comers like Anyone's Daughter on the horizon. Within these parameters, the music of The Boat Of Thoughts becomes familiar. The two distinguishing traits of the album would be: 1) The decidedly melodic approach, including some beautiful guitar and synthesizer work. It's here that we notice more of a Camel-like approach rather than the expected Pink Floyd. And 2) the vocals of Jennifer Hensel. Generally female vocals were only heard on the folk rock or Christian oriented albums. Hensel's approach is more from an aggressive earlier era, like Tomorrow's Gift or Frumpy. If the music was drenched in early 70s instrumentation, then this could be considered a late era addition to my "Post Psychedelic, Proto Progressive With Female Vocals" RYM list. Take her out of the mix, and the band Trilogy of Here It Is fame comes to the fore.

If one were to absorb the reviews out there, you could be forgiven to think of The Boat Of Thoughts as a mediocre to poor effort. I cannot agree with that whatsoever. Highly melodic progressive rock always has a place here with Genius Hans.

Ownership: 2009 Sireena (CD). Booklet with historical liner notes in English and German. Acquired in 2010.

Former ownership: 1977 Sky (LP). Acquired in 2000.

2000; 5/19/09; 3/7/10; 2/16/26 (review)

At one point I owned An Ocean Of Rocks. I need to hear it again. Also intrigued by the archival The Lost Tapes (1974) that came out a few years ago.

2/16/26 (new entry)