Miler72 This was the beginning of Klaus Doldinger's long running Passport, and it's a very different lineup to the 1973-1977 lineup that produced all the albums from Looking Thru up to Iguacu. Here he included Jimmy Jackson, Lothar Meid, Udo Lindenberg, and Olaf Kubler. Lothar Meid replaced Dave Anderson in Amon Duul II, and Jimmy Jackson had played on several Amon Duul II albums including Tanz der Lemminge and Wolf City, plus Embryo's Rache and Steig Aus, and even (uncredited) Tangerine Dream's Electronic Meditation. So you might think this might be more Krautrock with Doldinger's sax playing? No, it sounds very much like Passport, even this early on. This might be a bit more jazz-rock than full-on fusion, as organ, rather than electric piano more dominated. But it's a fantastic debut. "Uranus" features a bit of synthesizer and even a little Mellotron (no one is credited to it, so I probably think it was Jimmy Jackson as he used one on Embryo's Rache and Steig Aus, although it could be Doldinger himself, although he wouldn't be credited to one until Hand Made). "Nostalgia" is another great piece in the Passport style, with strange faint choir-like sounds, probably from the mysterious "choir organ" from Jimmy Jackson that was also featured on Amon Duul II's Tanz der Lemminge and Wolf City, as well as Popol Vuh's Aguirre (and probably In den Garten Pharoahs, although I don't believe Jimmy plays on those Popol Vuh albums, I'm sure it was his machine). "Continuation" is a favorite of mine, with that wah-wah effect and clavinet done in a trippy psychedelic nature until they get into the more typical Passport style, with Doldinger's sax playing.

Let me tell you if you enjoy all the albums they did from Looking Thru to Infinity Machine, you will want to try their pre-Looking Thru material, as they're all worth getting, and this is a great example!

seyo PASSPORT has been unjustly overlooked when talking about classic fusion style of the early seventies' music. Their debut album is however one of the better works of the genre.

Loaded with processed saxophones and flutes (sometimes similar in sound to VDGG's David Jaxon), stomping rhythm section and psyche/space passages of electric piano, organ and synthesizers, it is a very nice and enjoyable record. This line-up even features a Krautrock connection in Olaf Kuebler and Lothar Meid, once alumni of AMON DUUL II commune.

Beautiful melodies intermingle with fiery sax-laden heavy arrangements in the Crimsonesque style. This is not a light, easy first listen crossover, but a more experimental type of fusion. "Passport-Doldinger" should be considered as one of the better fusion albums together with other champions of the genre (Return To Forever, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Weather Report...).

Warthur The first Passport album is a hidden gem of the early fusion scene, which deserves to be considered along with the debuts of the Mahavishnu Orchestra and Weather Report in considerations of the genre's evolution. Although at points the band do play loud, hard, and fast - as on Lemuria's Dance and Madhouse Jam, the former of which seems to me to show a bit of influence from the sound achieved by Frank Zappa on Hot Rats. But by and large, the music here is a touch more gentle than the competition, with a spacey atmosphere often attained by bandleader Klaus Doldinger through his embrace of modern synthesisers, an innovation which sets the album apart from most other fusion albums from the same year. A great start to an extremely prolific project.