MIDNIGHT MUSHRUMPS

Bringing forth the more mediæval side of folk music, Richard Harvey's Gryphon could almost be given their own category for the more ancient, traditional instrumentation and typcially totally acoustic arrangements of their songs. 1973 brought forth two albums, Midnight Mushrumps and Red Queen to Gryphon Three, which are their most highly acclaimed--at least by prog rock aficionados. I find myself enjoying the collection of older folk-feeling songs of Mushrumps--and, even more, its 18-minute epic--more than the four cold, Änglagård-like instrumental pieces of the Red Queen. I have a private theory that Midnight Mushrumps' title song had quite a little effect on former Genesis guitarist Anthony PHILLIPS, for his debut album, The Geese and The Ghost, released four years later in 1977, displays quite a mediæval flavour of its own--both topically and stylistically as well as instrumentally. I wonder if either David BEDFORD or Mike OLDFIELD had heard their music before they embarked upon their own careers--and especially their collaboration for the very medieval-sounding Hergest Ridge.

1. "Midnight Mushrumps" (18:58) opens with harmonium and bassoon in a pretty duet until crumhorns and "distant" piano join in during the second minute. In the third minute the bass crumhorn and acoustic guitar take over while bass and drums/percussives join in. At 3:20 a 12-string guitar joins in while horns and recorders take their turns at the fore. The royal processional feeling of this music strengthens in the fifth minute until at 5:05 a bouncing piano chord introduces another section, this one more receptive to the participation of louder and electric instruments--bass, harpsichord, electric piano, electric guitar, and pipe organ. At 6:20 everything quiets down for a pipe organ solo before bass joins in and takes the lead. Organ takes over again in the second half of hte eighth minute before acoustic steel stringed guitar takes a turn (with calming pipe organ in the background). At the 9:00 mark everything switches again as a persistent electric piano arpeggio forms the baseline for a bunch of instruments to join in and take turns exposing the melody--horns, bass, crumhorm, mandolin, toy-piano, organ, bassoon, and then dropping away for classical guitar to have a turn (again, pipe organ supported, as in church service). A church-like organ solo follows in the twelfth minute before a carnivalesque section bursts forth at the 12:00 mark. Fun and frivolity seem the theme of the moment for the next minute as crumhorns, timpani, and harpsichord and, later, recorders share the lead in a kind of rondo weave of the main melody. At 13:40 things are brought together by the soprano recorder and pipe organ. But then, halfway through the fifteenth minute, things quiet down as pipe organ, bass, and timpani slowly build a blanket of sound until guitars, bass crumhorn, bass, harmonium and glockespiel merge into a festive crescendo which then falls away to leave an organ-supported echoed-soprano recorder and glockenspiel section as cymbals help out. Kind of an angelic entry into Heaven or sleep or out of the mystical reverie, it feels. How does mediæval-inspired music composed and played by modern musicians get any better than this? (38/40)

2. "The Ploughboy's Dream" (3:02) a wonderfully bucolic tale of the toils and tribulations of farm life. The song is particularly remarkable to me for its reminder of how similar the vocal approach of Gryphon can be to contemporaries GENTLE GIANT. (8.5/10)

3. "The Last Flash of Gaberdine Tailor" (3:58) more mischievous melodies worked out by these ancient-instrument-obsessed artists. So glad they found each other! (8/10)

4. "Gulland Rock" (5:21) the piano-based beginning gives this one a classical feeling until the ancient church organ and harpsichord take over at the 1:20 mark. The third minute is dominated by a recorder before the jarring entry of a guitar's strums at the 3:00 mark. Guitar softens and eventually takes over as the lead instrument before percussives and horns burst in. The song ends rather oddly with a less-than-resolute guitar and organ softness. Still, a pretty instrumental. (8.5/10)

5. "Dubbel Dutch" (5:36) opens with full band playing what sounds like an old dance song. The second section is speedier and different, but everything reverts back to the motifs of the opening section for another "stanza" of that before the second offshoot takes the instrumentalists into a little more noodling sort of weave. Then a slowed down, very melodic Mike Oldfield-like section takes ver for the third minute. The fourth switches to a very pretty melody brought forth by the horns over the wonderfully supportive strings beneath. All very staccato and woven from multiple layers throughout. At the 4:30 mark we move back toward the opening theme and style, though in a varied and more spirited form. My favorite song on the album. (10/10)

6. "Ethelion" (5:15) opens with wild human laughter with bass and bass drum in staccato accompaniment before crumhorn and toy piano join in. As usual, several themes are worked into the order of things with many instruments playing their supportive or integral parts to the weaves. (8.75/10)

Total Time: 42:10

Five stars; a minor-masterpiece of anachronistic music performed by dedicated virtuosi of period musics--all fitting into the Prog Folk and Progressive rock umbrellæ by virtue of the eclectic and electric nature of the artists' recording preferences.