THE CIVIL SURFACE

This album was my introduction to the compositional genius of Dave Stewart and Mont Campbell--how they managed to create works that managed to be both avant-garde and accessible--tossing around wacky meters and dense, gnarly chords with apparently utter nonchalance, bridging the old psychedelic world with the evolving Canterbury sound of Hatfield and the North. "Germ Patrol," "Enneagram," and "Wring Out the Ground" are the winners here--each one of these pieces is a monster of shifting tonalities, surprising and twisty turns, and great interplay between the instruments--and it all seems effortless. Much can be done with a simple organ trio, as this album abundantly demonstrates.

Compared to the heavy organ onslaughts that ELP and Le Orme were doing at the time, people have told me Egg's music sounds a bit clinical and detached. For the wind quartets, I'd agree. But Stewart's and Campbell's wry quirkiness is stamped all over this music, and not just in the ridiculous titles. This is killer stuff for any Canterbury aficionado!