CZAR

CZAR had an all-too-brief reign in the prog kingdom as they only existed long enough to record one self-titled album in 1970. The London-based group were originally formed as a Pop group back in 1966 when they were known as Tuesday's Children. The band changed their name to Czar for this one-off moody Mellotron album. A 2007 CD remastered edition more than doubled the original seven songs on the album by adding eight bonus tracks. The silly album cover pictures a bear wearing a crown (presumably a Russian Tsarist bear) tearing into a picture of a startled-looking man. You can't judge an album by its cover though, so let's hope the music contained within is better than the bizarre Czar album cover.

The album opens with the proggy-titled song "Tread Softly on My Dreams", but there's no chance of falling asleep and dreaming your way through this stormy album opener. There's a dreamy Mellotron to be heard in the background, but right at the forefront is a powerful horn section, so we're in for a good solid dose of some mean and moody blues with a bold and brassy Jazz-Rock attitude. The music of Czar has the same pounding intensity as those other kings of prog, King Crimson, and this tremendous opening song has obvious parallels with "21st Century Schizoid Man". Both songs represent a dramatic and unforgettable storm and thunder entry into the wonderful world of Progressive Rock. Just when you thought it can't get any better, it does!! The second sensational song "Cecelia" is a Mellotron-drenched classic. This Symphonic Prog epic is guaranteed to send any self-respecting prog fan into paroxysms of ecstasy and delight. If music be the food of love, then this is delicious manna from heaven sent down to Earth from the Prog Gods above in all of their infinite glory and wisdom. Heavens above! How on Earth did Czar not come to rule over the prog kingdom, forever and ever, amen, instead of disappearing without trace after just one awesome album!?? Such are the vagaries of the music business, where incredible talent doesn't always guarantee enduring success. Oh well, back to the music at hand after that minor digression. The third song on what's turning out to be a pretty amazing album is "Follow Me". This is another exhilarating artillery barrage of pounding percussive energy that Czar have unleashed from their impressive arsenal. It's a sonic boom of invigorating keyboard-driven prog that barrels along relentlessly for three and a half incredible minutes. It's also a very commercially appealing tune with "Hit Song" written all over it and would have no doubt gone storming up the charts if the song had ever been released as a single. The wonderfully uplifting harmonies on this album deserve a mention too, because they quite simply have to be heard to be believed, as no words can possibly do justice to how magnificent they are.

With the dawning of Side Two comes "Dawning of a New Day", and what a day it's turning out to be! The mighty Czar rules again over the prog empire with another terrific song! The stupendous songs on this album are so outstanding that almost every sentence deserves an exclamation mark!! This is one of those sensational Prog-Rock songs that opens deceptively gently, but gradually builds up in intensity, emerging into a rousing and anthemic, full-blown symphonic epic that will send you up into prog heaven on a soaring crescendo of sound! Space: the final frontier! It's time to boldly go where no man has gone before, because Czar are ascending up into the heavens now with "Beyond the Moon". The marvellous long-lost legends of prog are taking us on a wondrous journey far beyond the dark side of the Moon and out into the realms of deep space for some stellar Prog-Rock that's quite literally out of this world. This dazzling song shines as brilliantly as an exploding supernova for a few brief awesome minutes. It's not just the fabulous music that's awe-inspiring though, the stellar lyrics are gloriously cosmic too:- "Under the stars that we have traveled afar, Without song in our eyes and the rain and the wind in our hair, Starry-eyed faces from deep in the nigh, Without food without thought without even a glimpse of a life." ..... It's prog, Jim, but not as we know it. Drifting gently back down to Earth now, we arrive just in time for "Today", a gorgeous symphony of sound floating on topographic oceanic waves of Mellotron-drenched melodic prog. This truly beautiful Mellotronic epic has all of the magnificent Moody Blues majesty and symphonic splendour of "Nights in White Satin". Yes, it really IS that good! After "Today" it's mostly autumn now for "A Day in September", a radiant song which is positively abounding with joy and optimistic hope for the future, so one presumes it's an indian summer on this particular day in September. This glorious closing number is like a brilliant burst of sunshine on what is an altogether stellar album of fantastic songs.

The Czars were once the awesome rulers of the mighty Russian empire up until the Russian Revolution in 1917, and the band Czar were the rulers of the once mighty kingdom of prog for their one brief shining moment in the spotlight in 1970, or at least, they should have been..... The history of prog is littered with unique one-off album treasures that have become lost in the mists of time, and Czar were to suffer the same fate as many short-lived one-album bands of the late 60's and early 70's era. Thanks to the modern wonder of the Internet though, the band Czar are set to rise again and take the prog kingdom by storm, hopefully. Czar is an absolute must-have album that's worthy of a hallowed place in every Prog-Rock collector's treasure chest.