After an ugly departure from the prominent and popular 1970s German Hard Rock group The Scorpions, guitarist Uli Jon Roth set up Electric Sun, a power trio looking back to the heyday of late 1960s groups such as Cream and The Jimi Hendrix Experience. This group consisted of Uli Jon Roth (vocals and guitar), Ule Ritgen (bass guitar) and Clive Edwards (drums) at this point. Ultimately, this project was a failure due to the quality of the material and the timing of the band. Really, this sort of thing should have been done 10 years earlier on. In any case, Uli Jon Roth is an original and technically gifted guitarist, and it would be irrational to deny his input and influence in the music world. Uli Jon Roth notably was obsessed with Jimi Hendrix and emulated much of his many decades-long career in the spirit of what Jimi would have done. In any case, this is an album that needs to be explored today. Let’s take a listen to the first album by Electric Sun, and we shall hear where it goes.

Electric Sun begins with a fade-in of freaky guitar sounds and rolling drums, which sound different. This predates the screaming sounds of Slayer by quite some years. Soon enough, this piece launches into a decent Progressive Rock-sounding piece of music that is really cool to listen to. The drumming and other layered sounds are extremely delicious. Uli Jon Roth’s guitar work is insane here as well. Uli Jon Roth is not the greatest singer from the start, but if you can look past that, you have some gorgeous and awesome music to listen to. A really cool and spacey listening experience throughout, Uli Jon Roth showcases his shredding and musical abilities on guitar very well. A very good and interesting listen, and this music has a much longer shelf life than originally expected. This is a brilliant mixture of Psychedelic Rock, Progressive Rock and virtuosity. It sounds really brilliant, and Uli Jon Roth plays like a madman. An awesome listen, and something that is hugely underrated to this day. If you can look past the rather trashy singing, you have great music indeed. The end is truly awesome, and it has a great mash-up of guitars, rolling drumbeats and an epic finale fade-out. Awesome.

Lilac begins with some watery guitar parts and some singing about flowers and the simplicity of nature of said flowers. This is a bit weird, but it still sounds listenable. An odd tune, it quickly launches into some superb guitars that are multitracked and layered nicely on top of one another. There is a definite Hippie vibe on this album, and one can almost smell the marijuana and incense from the record itself. Still, a pleasant listen and something that is quite underrated to this very day. A nice devotion to flower power. It ends with some loud and heavy guitars. Nice.

Burning Wheels Turning is a six-minute-long piece with roaring guitars and a load of drum rolls to begin with. This sounds like a great musical mixture of most of the Rock Music that had been created to this point. In any case, this tune is another good listen, even if it is fairly clear that Uli Jon Roth isn’t the greatest vocalist ever. This is for those of you who prefer guitar-based music over singing, of which there are quite a few of you out there. Still, this sounds electric, loud and interesting throughout. The playing and musicality are really awesome, and is very much second to none in that aspect. There is a breakdown with some multitracked guitars that sound, quite frankly, really good. There is some awesome usage of playing, phrasing and some slight wah-wah affected guitar parts. This sounds really legendary and different and is genuine proof that some great music is being made here. A gloriously tremendous effort. It quickly launches back into the song section at hand after some time, and the guitar work is really mindblowing. Again, Uli Jon Roth does not have a really great singing voice, but perhaps that is the point. This music is designed to be heard mainly in a Rock context rather than a vocal piece. The outro is absolutely awesome, however, with some sweet playing and usage of guitar harmonics here. A very good listening experience overall, it ends with some decent pseudo-shred playing.

Japanese Dream begins with some strange slide guitar-styled melodies, followed by some violining on the electric guitar. This is likely using some Japanese guitar scales of some sort. It sounds very different to anything else that has been recorded, to this very day. Uli Jon Roth sings softly over the top of all this as well. This is an out-there, spacey and introspective listening experience that sounds completely different to most music recorded, before or since this release. In any case, this is quite nice to listen to. This is likely inspired by Psychedelic drug use, which was fairly easy to get in those days. Still, the music is a sweet and fine listening experience overall. A load of delay is on both the guitars and vocals on this tune. Even so, this sounds really beautiful. A good four-minute long piece of artistry, it ends with a prolonged fade out with some pleasant playing and harmonics throughout.

Sundown launches straight into an upbeat and catchy piece of music that sounds really awesome and powerful. Uli Jon Roth gets soloing away very nicely, and he sounds like a great guitarist here, period. A really cool listening experience. Soon enough, some good singing enters, although again this is more about the music rather than the singing. Some gorgeous guitar soloing is present in this song, and this sounds like a powerful and interesting listen overall. The layers of music, instrumentation and expert playing are all absolutely fantastic to listen to here. There is some guitar playing that honestly Jimi Hendrix himself would have loved to hear. The song is a good one, and this music is relatively catchy as well. Just ignore the vocals and you can easily appreciate this song. Some insane soloing is at the end here, and Uli Jon Roth is an underrated guitarist, period. This fades out very nicely at the end of it all.

Winterdays is a short instrumental and is the most popular piece from this album. It begins with some moody arpeggio playing with multiple overdubs and only lasts for around a minute and a half. Still, it sounds good yet different. A good listen, but other moments on this album are notably better. Good but not great.

Still So Many Lives Away launches right into some awesome layers of guitars and drumming. The guitar playing here is really awesome. Uli Jon Roth sings well here, and this song is another straightforward and good listen. This is music that is quite clearly for those who never observed Punk and Disco at the time and instead preferred the Psychedelic/Progressive Rock of the 1970s. Even so, this is fairly original music, given the musical context of the time. The guitar solos in particular are really terrific here, and the layers of overdubs and genuinely good playing are surprising to listen to. All in all, a really cool and inspired tune to listen to. The music and playing are very, very good. This is a good song that proves that if you can ignore the odd singing, one can truly appreciate this superb Rock Music. It ends with some repeated singing, crunchy guitars and rolling drums to match. A good tune that sounds monstrous throughout.

Earthquake is the final track here, being the title track, and it runs for over 10 minutes in length. It begins with some heavily distorted and warped-sounding guitars, which are really different. This is a strange montage of Heavy Rock-styled playing. Very different, and honestly not that good, to be fair. Soon enough, after a minute, other melodies launch into the picture. This sounds quite appalling, to be fair. Shortly afterwards, this launches into a Neo-Classical Music-based tune. A really different listening experience, this is quite far out. An okay listen, but rather lengthy and off-putting as a result. Soon enough, this changes into a more mellow listening experience. Honestly, this sounds a bit like Progressive Rock noodling here, which is disappointing. In any case, the music and musicianship is good, even if it could have been bettered. This is good if you like Progressive Rock without structure or sense, and many out there would not dig this. Towards the midsection are some interesting keyboards, drumbeats and some interesting Electronic textures. The drumming here is very good, and it adds a unique and flavoursome feel throughout. This is followed by some superb bass guitar playing and various guitar overdubs to match. The music present is very cool after a while, and this is an inner and outer space jam for those who were still tripping on LSD in 1979. An okay listen, although lengthy really, the playing and layers of musicianship are different. It gets louder and louder in the second half, with some far-out guitar work that Jimi Hendrix would no doubt be very proud of. Some awesome whammy guitar work is here towards the end of this track, along with some insane wah-wah guitar shredding. Near the end, things become dramatic with some super shredding and nicely layered playing by Electric Sun. A good listen, it leads up to the ending with some really dramatic guitar playing and shredding. A decent finish to a good, but flawed album. Different, all right. It ends with some pounding and powerful guitars and drums, before finishing with the sound of a gong.

In retrospect, this is a good album, but definitely not a great album to listen to. This is a good example of a post-Progressive Rock band that needed to have their music edited somewhat, even after the album was released. The music itself is otherwise good, and the guitar work in particular is insanely powerful. However, the structure, and some of the playing and singing on these songs are by far not the best. Still, this is kind of groundbreaking in a way, as it was largely inspired by Classical Music and inspired the likes of Yngwie Malmsteen, who arrived later on in the Rock and Metal world. Should you listen to this album anyway? If you like Psychedelic/Progressive Rock with a touch of Shred, give it a go. Otherwise, this may disappoint you. Fans of this album may wish to check out re-releases with some extra songs on that as well.

A good album that needs to be edited better.

7/10