QUIET WORLD

This one off band probably would've been completely forgotten about relegating its sole album at the very bottom of the obscurity bin if not for the fact it was the launching pad for future Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett who was quietly working in QUIET WORLD while his future band was cranking out "Trespass." Joined by his brother and fellow guitarist John Hackett, bassist Dick Driver, drummer Sean O'Maily, keyboardist and trumpeter Phil Henderson, acoustic guitarist John Heather and lead vocalists Lea Heather and Gill Gilberts, this large ensemble released its sole album THE ROAD in 1970 mostly failing on deaf ears although the album was preceded by the non-album single "Miss Whittington / There Is A Mountain."

Quite unlike anything Genesis ever released THE ROAD had one foot in orchestrated pop and another in the world of progressive rock and folk with a somewhat overblown religious concept inspired by the 1908 book "The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ" written by Levi H. Dowling who claimed the book was channeled by accessing the akashic records and featured a compendium of mystical knowledge. The book became the basis of many New Age philosophies and incorporated astrology into Christianity. Musically the album is quite diverse with lots of themes crammed into its 40 minute run with intricate lyrics rejoicing the life of Christ sounding somewhat like a mix of a Christian rock band trading off with a 60s cafe act albeit with sophisticated production engineering and heavy use of symphonic touches and array of instrumentation.

With a freaky album cover of an elderly man with an embryo seemingly growing out of his head, QUIET WORLD very well have crafted the world's first black metal album cover without knowing it as it belies the rather cheerful, uplifting and often whimsical transitions between Beatles-esque sing-songy choruses (think "Hey Jude" and its excessively long ending) and more serious even earnest folky passages making the album a little weird although for 1970 was probably not even remotely considered so. While not even remotely recognizable as having any connection to Genesis, careful listening will reveal some of Hackett's guitar techniques which would become his signature sound as chief axe grinder in one of prog's best known classic bands. The constant changing of themes including medieval segments gives the album an inconsistency with certain motifs sounding very serious and the rock opera segments sounding a bit whimsical.

For all its inconsistencies in keeping a uniform feel to the album's run, QUIET WORLD featured some excellent musical performances with interesting sections that rock out as well as tenderly beautiful folk sections however the spoken word dialogue towards the beginning of the album reveals the hilarious hippie dippy idealism and head in the clouds ethos of the era with overly earnest citations that make you question exactly how serious the entire project was as inevitable moments of humor insert themselves into the mix whether intended or not. Overall the album feels like a clash of two totally disparate musical scenarios namely a musical that was forced by a record company contract to work with a symphonic folk band and this was the result.

While Hackett would go on to international fame with Genesis and his solo career that followed, the Leah brothers on the other hand would go on to be successful composers of the musicals "A Slice Of Saturday Night," "Lust" and "Blood Money" which would find hundreds of various productions translated into many different languages as well as quite a few other film scores. While Phil Henderson also went on to compose film scores most of the other artists on board to disappear from the music biz altogether. While not an essential album by any means this isn't as bad as many make it out to be. It's quite pleasant actually although definitely a little goofy at times. Reminds me a little bit of the US band Touch's 1969 album as the musical meets prog and other styles is quite unique. Definitely worthy of checking out but needed to be a double album with better continuity to truly work in a captivating way.

Recently I was reading a Genesis biography called Turn It On and it mentioned this little band where Steve Hackett (and his brother john) had played before he joined Peter Gabriel & co. As everything Genesis related interests me - specially their 70`s stuff - I went out to get this CD to see what is all about. I guess it was one of Hackett´s first recordings and it shows, for you´ll probably will not recognize his style upon hearing The Road. Even his brother John i sonly playing acoustic guitar here (he would change to the flute after being introduced to King Crimson´s debut album). There are some nice guitar solos but they are few and far between.

As for the group itself, Quiet World is shows a very strong influence (almost copycats, in fact) of The Moody Blues around the time of their Days Of Future Past. they did thrown in a few sax solos and bits of King Crimson here and there to spice it up a little bit. It´s also a concept album. As most of you know, this kind of undertaking was a novelty at the time and soon everybody was doing it, even if very few bands were talented enough to pull it off, at least convincingly. And, you guess it, Quiet World was not really one of them. The concept is silly, the songwriting is only average and the lyrics will make you think The Moody Blues wrote deep philosophy in comparison. Not that the album is bad. In fact, if you like MB and don´t care much for originality, you should try to listen to this album (but I don´t recommend you to buy it). On the plus side, I should mentioned that the songs are well arranged and orchestrated, and some vocals are impressive (echoes of early Bee Gees too). Maybe with time and experience they could produce something more consistent and original, but they broke up soon after this album was out and the Hacketts were already flexing their muscles for much bigger things.

All in all I find out The Road to be a product of the time. Nice, but ultimately unimpressive. More a curio than anything else.

Rating: two stars.

With any concept album, in order to fully appreciate it not only do you need to have a basic understanding of the concept, but also feel an affinity with the message it conveys. Well, the message here is an head-in-the-clouds hippy ideal of "a journey of Love from an embryonic stage right the way through to Man" incorporating much religious [specifically - Christian] imagery along the way, with quasi-theological musings and new-age lyrics sometimes bordering on trite. I confess this sort of thing is not my cup-of-tea!

Musically, The Road is a curious mish-mash of styles from the mid to late 60s, notably early Bee Gees and some relics of psychedlia, but mostly it is akin to rock/pop musicals like Jesus Christ Superstar, played on a varying combination of orchestral and rock instrumentation with an emphasis on acoustic ones. Acoustic guitars are prevalent courtesy of the Hackett brothers Steve and John. For the pre-Genesis Steve this was his first experience of a recording studio, but it is curious to know how he got involved with this project which was the brainchild of otherwise unknown Heather brothers from South Africa.

Despite my aversion to the concept, I find there are some good songs: First Light, Loneliness And Grief and the shorter, simpler Bee Gees like Traveller and Love Is Walking can happily stand as good pop/rock songs of their age, though it seems to me they belong more to the mid-60s than to 1970. Though dated, The Road has a musical charm that might appeal to a child of the times or those attracted by its concept. Steve Hackett completists will also be interested but don't expect anything too sophisticated.

In general I have difficulty raising any enthusiasm for this music, and must suggest it is not worthy of a general recommendation.

If there was an album influenced by the MOODY BLUES "Day's Of Future Passed" then QUIET WORLD's "The Road" would take honours. However, let me be clear that this album is not a plastic replica nor does it come across as a rip off. In a similar fashion, "The Road" makes effective use of short narration and orchestration which is nicely juxtaposed with the 5 piece band. "The Road" features a very young Steve HACKETT on acoustic and electric guitars and for GENESIS fans is quite a collectible album to find. QUIET WORLD wrote some highly imaginative and memorable classic tunes here which are quite tasty. This is a wonderful concept album and sounds superb on a Sunday morning with your coffee and newspaper.