Peter Banks was the original guitarist for Yes. After getting the boot from that band (to make room for Steve Howe), Banks went through a series of projects. First there was the band Flash, formed with fellow Yes boot-victim Tony Kaye. After three albums with that band (only the first of which featured Kaye), Banks recorded a great solo album called Two Sides of Peter Banks. After that, he seemed to fall off the face of the earth, finally reappearing in the 90s with a string of decent-to-great solo albums.
What was he doing in the second half of the 70s? Turns out he was jamming with Phil Collins and others in a band called "ZOX and the Radar Boys". Banks tried to form a second version of Flash using musicians from that band and featuring his wife Sydney Foxx on vocals. This ended up changing into Empire (with some of the musicians going off to form Brand X).
Empire recorded two full albums and a group of demos intended for a third album. None of this material got released until One Way records put out these archival discs in the mid 90s. The first album was recorded in late 1974 in London and was all ready to go, but the band couldn't find a record company interested in releasing it. So Banks and Foxx moved to L.A. in an attempt to form an American version of Empire. This band recorded an album in 1977 (re-using some material from the first album), but was also unsuccessful in getting it released. Finally, in 1978 a last attempt at getting Empire off the ground resulted in series of demo recordings, but that was all the further things got. So Banks finally called it a day and gave up on the band.
Unsurprisingly, the Empire recordings sound somewhat similar to early Yes and Flash, although having a female vocalist certainly gave the band a sound unlike too many other prog bands of the time. She has a good voice (I prefer her singing to the guy from Flash), but her vocals seem like they would have been better suited to disco music or straight pop.
Musically, these albums are closer to mainstream than anything Banks had done before, but they still contain a few proggy gems. Mark I (the London recordings) features two lengthy prog pieces, "Shooting Star" (probably the best thing the band ever did) and "Sky at Night". The former is divided up into four sections and features parts that sound like they could have been lifted straight off _The Yes Album_, as well as a couple minutes of surprisingly harsh and dissonant noises. The latter song starts with a nice acoustic guitar and piano intro, then goes through a mellow vocal section and an upbeat instrumental jam section, a return of the acoustic guitar and finally culminates in multilayered vocals from Foxx and a sound sample of a NASA official counting down a rocket launch. Another good track.
The other half of the Mark I album is all over the map. "Out of Our Hands" sounds like an attempt to do a radio single in the style of Flash, resulting in a fairly catchy song with a strong bass presence and some nice organ playing. "More Than Words" is mostly a ballad, which begins a string of what I think was the weakest aspect of this band - their tendency to try to do prog love songs. The next two tracks are more of the same, although "Someone Who Cares" is OK in a bluesy sort of way, and "For a Lifetime" features some pretty piano work. "Hear My Voice on the Radio" is a real oddity - a prog band trying to do a country song. The strangest part is - it works. Foxx's voice is made for that style of music, and Banks' steel guitar playing sounds surprisingly natural. Of course, if you hate country music you're going to hate this track anyway.
Empire Mark II features the recordings made by the first American incarnation of the band. Since the first album never got released, this one features reworkings of two tracks from Mark I. "Still Out of Our Hands" is similar to the original, but with a slightly slower tempo and some extended jamming making it run an extra three minutes. This is the only volume for which Banks himself wrote the liner notes - he calls the next song, "Destiny", the band's attempt at a hit single, and says he's rather proud of it. I'm not sure why - it's a fairly nondescript pop track with some really bad backing vocals. "Sky at Night" is almost exactly the same as the previous version, even down to the astronaut voice at the end. Somehow it's a minute shorter though - I think the middle instrumental section is shorter. "Do What You Want" mixes some upbeat instrumental sections that seem half way between symphonic prog and jazz fusion with sections containing more love song lyrics. Of the proglove songs though, this is easily Empire's best one.
The closing track, "Everything Changes", is probably the strongest song on the disc. The lyrics are about changing relationships, but the title could also be about the music's shifting time signatures. The track begins with a very laid-back, atmospheric section of floating guitar notes. This goes into a 4/4 ballad with lyrics about a recently ended romantic relationship. The song picks up a little steam over the next few minutes, and eventually launches into a rambling instrumental which alternates between 5/4 and 3/4 and features some jazzy guitar leads. After five minutes of this, the rest of the band fades away leaving just a short acoustic guitar coda.
Empire Mark III isn't really an album. It was intended to be, but was never finished. The liner notes mention this, but it would have been nice if some indication had been given on the outside packaging. Oh well. These demos from the third attempt at Empire show the band going mostly pop, although the final track had the potential to be a great prog song.
The disc starts off with "Ain't That Peculiar", which is a high-energy rock song with more love lyrics. Not bad though. Next is a remake of the attempted single from Mark II, "Destiny". Pretty similar to the previous version, but much longer due to an extended instrumental ending featuring some nice electric guitar work. "Faraway" is a drifting, dreamy track with yet more love song lyrics - one of the band's better proglove songs. "Goodbye" is an upbeat poppish track with a strong bass line and...you guessed it, more love song lyrics - this time about loving a travelling man. The next track, "Dancing Man", is the nadir of the Empire catalog - a full-fledged disco song. Banks' liner notes to Mark II stated that the band had to keep fighting expectations that they should be a disco band (since they had a female vocalist), but it seems like they had finally given in at the end.
The last track, "Foundation", is the most unfinished sounding piece of the series. It's an instrumental, and a fairly repetitive one that seems like it was still in the early stages of construction. There are a few stumbles here and there, but there's also some very strong playing, particularly from Banks' guitar. What really surprises me is how much this track sounds like the demos I've heard for Yes' album _Drama_, which were actually recorded over a year later. This song makes me think that Banks might have been on to something, and it's kind of a shame that Empire broke up before he could finish this. But break up they did, and these demos sat on the shelf of a record company executive for 16 years until One Way announced plans to release all of Empire's recordings.
Overall, I think three discs is more Empire than anyone really needed. Especially considering that all of this music would have easily fit on two CDs. With the elimination of the duplicate titles and some of the weaker tracks, this could even have been narrowed down to one really good CD that would appeal to most prog fans.
As it is, you'll need a high tolerance for love song lyrics and somewhat emotional female vocals, plus pop music and the occasional odd country or disco song to really enjoy all three albums. But if you can filter out the parts that you don't like, there is at least one album's worth of good prog music here. And considering that I only paid about $35 for all three discs (One Way's prices are usually very reasonable), I definitely feel I got my money's worth.
Source: http://members.nbci.com/ProgAndOther/reviews/eichler/empire.htm
