MAINSTREAM

This album, as amazing as it is, was very hard for me to find in the seventies, even in Cambridge Massachusetts, where there was as many record stores back then as there are coffee shops now. But find it I did. And it was well worth the effort.

I'm sure the title of this album, "Mainstream" was meant as something of a joke. The music on it is anything but mainstream. Yes, it has a lot of that Canterbury sound, but it is every bit as much a symphonic album as it is a Canterbury styled one.

Sol Caliente begins with Manzanera's famous Lagrima solo, but then extends through sections that are familiar to "Diamond Head" fans as parts of Frontera and East Of Echo. But in fact, this piece out shines all of those.

Another favorite track of mine is the well titled Mummy Was An Asteroid, Daddy Was A Small Non-Stick Kitchen Utensil. This great Bill MacCormick composition is still one of my all- time favorite prog pieces.

In fact, there is not a bad track on the album.