NATIONAL HEALTH

If you like keyboard dominated prog you will surely love this album. Much of the album's focal point is the intricate interplay between keyboard players Dave Stewart and Allen Gowen. The music is highly structured, with an inventive use of constantly shifting time signatures à la Stravinsky. There's even some great tunes, too; 'Tenemos Roads' for example, which is beautifully sung by Amanda Parsons who navigates the wide intervalic leaps and asymmetric rhythms with grace and finesse. There's some nice solos from Stewart, Gowen and guitarist Phil Miller; the latter lending a jazzy tinge to the proceedings. The album might be a bit too long for its own good, but I can forgive it that. Released in 1977, it was a refreshing antidote (as it still is today)to Britain's short- lived and somewhat tedious "Summer of Punk". I give it ****. A real Scooby Doo of an album this one! What the f. . . ?