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Three Canterbury jazz-rock masterpieces.

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Poll Question: Which record do you like the most?
Poll Choice Votes Poll Statistics
9 [25.71%]
14 [40.00%]
12 [34.29%]
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Moyan View Drop Down
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    Posted: April 26 2024 at 18:01
These three are the most beautiful Canterbury jazz-rock albums from the 1970s, in my opinion.


Soft Machine "Third"

This 1970 masterpiece by Soft Machine is the first to start the long, cruel, and brutal transformation of a hallucinogenic imaginary into an incredible jazz-rock fantasy. Indeed, this four-track, primarily instrumental double LP acts as a bridge between the band's early, song-based psychedelic years and their later, progressive jazz years.
"Slightly All the Time" is a great tune with a riff-driven middle section and one of the most beautiful melodies you will ever hear. The vocal jazz-rock extravaganza "The Moon in June" is unquestionably exceptional. In general, "Third" is an album of crazy experiments, breathtaking beauty, delicate soundscapes, and eerie instrumentations, and it still feels brand new because of its outstanding musicianship, inventiveness, and unwavering position. 






Hatfield and the North "The Rotters’ Club"

Hatfield and the North combined jazz, rock, and whimsical elements on this 1975 album to create something truly original. Members included Pip Pyle (Gong), Dave Stewart (Arzachel, Khan, Egg), Richard Sinclair (Caravan), and Phil Miller (Caravan, Matching Mole).
"The Rotters’ Club" is surely one of the best representations of the extremely unique proggy jazz-rock thread of the Canterbury scene, whether it is through the acrobatic instrumental interplay of "Big John Wayne Socks Psychology On the Jaw" or the achingly beautiful "Didn't Matter Anyway, Fitter Stoke Has a Bath." 







National Health "National Health"

On National Health's 1978 debut, guitarist Phil Miller and keyboardist Dave Stewart once again knuckle down to plenty of head-spinning, high-flying instrumental excursions; there's some incredibly impressive, intricate long-form songwriting, and Amanda Parsons' intricate harmony singing without words on standout Tenemos Roads is genuinely delightful. If you enjoy Hatfield and the North, you'll probably enjoy National Health too. The band shares a lot of musical DNA with Hatfield and the North, with three quarters of the old group plus future Whitesnake (!) member Neil Murray on fretless bass.


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Mellotron Storm Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 26 2024 at 18:32
I can't think of a better excuse than to play these three, let you know tomorrow.
"The wind is slowly tearing her apart"

"Sad Rain" ANEKDOTEN
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Snikle Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 26 2024 at 18:37
When am I gonna be allowed to vote on polls already?

Anyway, love all three but my favorite has to go to Rotters' Club.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Grumpyprogfan Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 26 2024 at 18:55
Moon in June is a masterpiece. Facelift is dreadful, so a three star album for me. Hatfield and Health are both five star albums. I was lucky to see Health live in 1979, one of the best shows I've ever seen, so today they get my vote.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Frets N Worries Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 26 2024 at 19:00
All great. Voted Hatfield, love that album
The Wheel of Time Turns, and Ages come and pass. What was, what will be, and what is, may yet fall under the shadow.

Let the Dragon ride again on the winds of time...
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Nogbad_The_Bad Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 26 2024 at 19:02
All great, voted Hatfield
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Octopus II Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 27 2024 at 00:24
I like all three, but voted for National Health. Smile
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Psychedelic Paul Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 27 2024 at 00:37
It's a National Health prescription for me. Smile

4 stars 1978: National Health - National Health - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoIDt_C5y1Lu0nRyTGpqxRgBhsQ5fjoan

NATIONAL HEALTH were a Canterbury Scene outfit formed from the remnants of Hatfield & the North and Gilgamesh. The band featured Dave Stewart on keyboards (who later went on to form a duo with Barbara Gaskin in the 1980's), Phil Miller on electric guitar, Neil Murray on fretless bass, Pip Pyle on drums and percussion and Amanda Parsons on vocals. National Health recorded three albums during their brief time in the spotlight:- "National Health" (1977); Of Queues and Cures (1978); and "D.S. Al Coda" (1982). It's time now to take out a prescription for National Health's first album and find out if music really is the best medicine.

The album opens with the bright and sparkling "Tenemos Roads". Running at over fourteen minutes long, it's a complex improvisational and uplifting piece of music with some truly dynamic keyboard virtuosity from Dave Stewart, with Amanda Parsons' lovely soprano vocals soaring up up and away into the wild blue yonder like a high-flying bird. It may be hard to discern the lyrics to discover what "Tenemos Roads" is all about, so here's a brief taster:- "From the cradle to the grave, There are roads for us all, That we'll find, and follow to the end, Leading upwards to a place in the stars, Ten million miles away, There's a path called Tenemos Roads" ..... This warm and inviting opening number is like a radiant sunburst of glowing rainbow colours that's guaranteed to brighten up the the dullest of days. It's All That Jazz and a lot more besides and just what the doctor ordered.

Next up is the 10-minute-long "Brujo" which transports us to calmer climes with a gorgeous pastoral woodwind opening, conjuring up images of gently rolling green pastures bathed in warm golden sunshine. This serves as a prelude to another sunburst session of wild improvisational Jazz-Rock with some ethereal vocalese ad-libbing from Amanda Parsons. The music is positively aglow with complex time signatures, dynamic changes of tempo and some delightful keyboard flights of fancy from Dave Stewart. In other words, it's everything we've come to expect in the best Canterbury Scene music. Apparently, "Brujo" is Spanish for sorcerer, so just lie back and let this music weave its magical spell on you.

The first two pieces of music on Side Two "Borogoves (Excerpt from Part Two)" followed by "Borogoves (Part One)" seem strangely back to front, but putting that minor detail aside, "Borogoves" is a complex and compelling 10-minute piece of music where the listener never quite knows what's coming next upon first hearing. To try and put such a dynamic improvisational piece of music into words would do it a disservice, other than to say it's intricate and invigorating Jazzy music with more than enough unexpected twists and turns to keep any Canterbury Scene fan happy, and just in case anyone's wondering what a "Borogove" is, it's a silly mythical bird invented by Lewis Carroll for his nonsense poem, "Jabberwocky".

There are "Elephants" in the room for the final piece of music, which turns out to be a 14-minute-long free-flight instrumental jam session. It's another complex Jazz-Rock composition containing undecipherable lyrics, with the music sounding as marvellously wild and unpredictable as a stampede of "Elephants". It's an endlessly entertaining combination of gentle pastoral flute and keyboard passages and wild uninhibited outbursts of unrestrained Canterbury Scene music.

"National Health" is a playful and passionate avant-garde demonstration of evergreen Canterbury Scene music at its best, featuring an accomplished and experienced group of musicians who are really in their element with this eclectic and endlessly diverse album. Sometimes the Jazzy music is manic and unrestrained, and sometimes it's pleasant and pastoral, but it's always energetic and exhilarating. National Health is just the prescription you need for some lively Canterbury Scene Jazz.



Edited by Psychedelic Paul - April 27 2024 at 00:42
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Manuel Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 27 2024 at 05:46
I love all three, and couldn't choose one over the others.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Cristi Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 27 2024 at 06:24
Hatfield and the North
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Mellotron Storm Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 27 2024 at 15:21
Originally posted by Grumpyprogfan Grumpyprogfan wrote:

Moon in June is a masterpiece. Facelift is dreadful, so a three star album for me. Hatfield and Health are both five star albums. I was lucky to see Health live in 1979, one of the best shows I've ever seen, so today they get my vote.


The production on Facelift is terrible so I've cheated and burned myself a copy with the Facelift track from the live "Backwards" cd. Same length pretty much and 2 months earlier but man it's awesome. My own personal Third.
"The wind is slowly tearing her apart"

"Sad Rain" ANEKDOTEN
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Mellotron Storm Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 27 2024 at 18:01
Hatfield And The North gets it, love all three and it was good to have a fresh listen of each of these.
"The wind is slowly tearing her apart"

"Sad Rain" ANEKDOTEN
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Mormegil Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 27 2024 at 19:03
National Health by a nose. 
Welcome to the middle of the film.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Saperlipopette! Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 28 2024 at 09:13
Third, but all three are fantastic. 

-It's not the main reason I treasure this album, but I don't mind Facelift. Not at all really. As a whole it's quite the trip . A great introduction of what's to come - which is almost an hour of my favorite musical space to just be inside of. I know many struggle with the production, or the sound, but it's part of what I love about it. One of the most 1970's sounding albums. Complex and sloppy, a perfect, hot mess. 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Mellotron Storm Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 28 2024 at 16:16
Originally posted by Saperlipopette! Saperlipopette! wrote:

Third, but all three are fantastic. 

-It's not the main reason I treasure this album, but I don't mind Facelift. Not at all really. As a whole it's quite the trip . A great introduction of what's to come - which is almost an hour of my favorite musical space to just be inside of. I know many struggle with the production, or the sound, but it's part of what I love about it. One of the most 1970's sounding albums. Complex and sloppy, a perfect, hot mess. 


I appreciate it warts and all, I mean I think it's the best album they made which is saying something. I also felt why not switch out Facelift with a better sounding version of the same length?
Vapor Trails is another with bad production that means so much to me and I like it warts and all but also jumped on the re-mixed version. Why not? It does sound better.
I have the Third release that came with a second cd that is live from 1970 at The Royal Albert Hall but the Facelift version here is only just over 11 minutes instead of 19 minutes. Also has Out Bloody Rageous and Esther's Nose Job on it.
"The wind is slowly tearing her apart"

"Sad Rain" ANEKDOTEN
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote omphaloskepsis Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 28 2024 at 16:20
Third
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote dr wu23 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 28 2024 at 16:30
Hatfield with Rotters Club


One does nothing yet nothing is left undone.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Moyan Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 28 2024 at 22:30
Originally posted by Grumpyprogfan Grumpyprogfan wrote:

Moon in June is a masterpiece. Facelift is dreadful,
"Facelift" is a fitting instrumental selection to open an album like "Third." The entire "Facelift" soundscape has an air of ethereality. There's also some really spacey saxophone in that instrumental. Ideal, in my opinion, for the album's opening track.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Saperlipopette! Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 28 2024 at 23:13
Originally posted by Mellotron Storm Mellotron Storm wrote:

Originally posted by Saperlipopette! Saperlipopette! wrote:

Third, but all three are fantastic. 

-It's not the main reason I treasure this album, but I don't mind Facelift. Not at all really. As a whole it's quite the trip . A great introduction of what's to come - which is almost an hour of my favorite musical space to just be inside of. I know many struggle with the production, or the sound, but it's part of what I love about it. One of the most 1970's sounding albums. Complex and sloppy, a perfect, hot mess. 

I appreciate it warts and all, I mean I think it's the best album they made which is saying something. I also felt why not switch out Facelift with a better sounding version of the same length?
Vapor Trails is another with bad production that means so much to me and I like it warts and all but also jumped on the re-mixed version. Why not? It does sound better.
I have the Third release that came with a second cd that is live from 1970 at The Royal Albert Hall but the Facelift version here is only just over 11 minutes instead of 19 minutes. Also has Out Bloody Rageous and Esther's Nose Job on it.
I haven't got (or listened to) Backwards and I might appreciate a better sounding version of Facelift myself. It's not like I'm against a potential improvement:) - I've not been bothered in the same way as you've been by the "studio-version", that's all.

-I used to have that Third 2CD btw. But I (burned it and) gave it to a friend as an introduction to Soft Machine. I usually just listen to my Third-LP anyway.  
Originally posted by Mellotron Storm Mellotron Storm wrote:

The production on Facelift is terrible so I've cheated and burned myself a copy with the Facelift track from the live "Backwards" cd. Same length pretty much and 2 months earlier but man it's awesome. My own personal Third.
If I manage to locate Backwards, I'll give your personal Third a try.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Saperlipopette! Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 28 2024 at 23:58
^ Found it. Omg, yes. Now I understand:)
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