CACTUS CHOIR

The band GREENSLADE ceased to exist by 1976, but main instigator and namesake Dave Greenslade put together another project and released 'Cactus Choir', his first 'solo' LP. Again, lovingly presented in a stupendous Roger Dean artwork (Titled 'The Jade Sea', from memory). To be honest, there's not much difference with the compositions here from his previous band, and his core 'backing' band consisted of Tony Reeves once again (on Bass Guitar, who had ventured into a line-up of CURVED AIR), the mightily impressive session-ace Simon Phillips on Drums/Percussion, and various guests helping out, most notably Bassist John G Perry (on the track 'Country Dance') and lead-vocals on 2 tracks by ex-RARE BIRD singer Steve Gould. The production is very warm and professional indeed. I'm puzzled as to why this is lumped in with the 'Crossover Prog' sub-genre ?? It fits in well with Symphonic Prog. Anyways, the album is made up of mostly instrumental material, with Gould singing beautifully in the catchy Prog-Pop song 'Gettysburg', and the middle section of the excellent title-song, and Greenslade himself handling the mic for the bluesy 'Time Takes my Time', which may have been a slight mistake, but the soprano backing vox of Lissa Gray raises the quality of the tune up a bit. As you would expect, Greenslade utilises no less than 10 Keyboards, and the prowess of the tight rhythm section calls for attention. Best tracks would have to be Cactus Choir (6.14) and Finale (8.36), but overall it is a highly recommended album. 4 stars.