INDIAN SUMMER

One of those forgotten nuggets from England. Your basic quartet playing average sized numbers (around the six min lenght but full of energy and all of the things an old proghead like loves dearly. Everyone of those tracks are fairly strong , upbeat and full of good interplay. This album came out on the Neon label (quite collectible nowadays) along with other small pearls among which Spring , Tonton Macoute - both worth seeking out - but you do not need to dish out major cash because this has been released on Repertoire record for a while now.

Fan of early 70's acid prog aka GRAVY TRAIN will drool over Coventry's "Indian Summer". This album is loaded will lots of driving rhythms and "psychy" musical passages with emphasis on keyboards and guitars. Vocals (Bob Jackson) are quite good and have a certain wildness about them which either you will love or hate. Although fairly heavy musically speaking, "Indian Summer" do resonate with a cetain Cantebury leanings actually and at times remind me of a heavier version of CARAVAN. Songs are well written and do carry a certain dark atmosphere to them which I do enjoy. The fine folks at Repertoire have done a wonderful job of enhancing the recording and speaker seperation is actually quite good. Most importantly, "Indian Summer" have a very original and professional sound quality to their music and they were clearly one of the better bands who had far too short an existence. This is one of those albums which once you get into, you will cherish fondly forever... full of lots of razzle & dazzle.

INDIAN SUMMER was a little known one-shot British prog rock band that released this self-entitled album and disappeared. The album was originally released on RCA's Neon subdivision, the same label that brought us acts like SPRING, Mike WESTBROOK, RAW MATERIAL, The RUNNING MAN, and TOUTON MACOUTE. INDIAN SUMMER's music is typical early '70s prog rock dominated by Hammond organ with some Mellotron. The opening song, "God is the Dog" is obviously the band's protest against religion, and despite that, it's actually one of the better songs on the album. But the album also has its flaws: the album gets bogged down by several pointless solos that go nowhere, specifically on the final cut, "Another Tree Will Grow". The band needed to either cut off the excess fat, or made the solos more interesting for me to regard it as a classic.

Other interesting things of note: the cover artwork is by Keef, same guy responsible for Rod Stewart's Gasoline Alley, BLACK SABBATH's debut album, COLOSSEUM's "Valentyne Suite", CRESSIDA's "Asylum", MANFRED MANN's "Chapter III's Vol. 2", and many others. Also INDIAN SUMMER's debut was one of only two Neon titles released in America (the other being "Centipede's Septober Energy", but it didn't surface in America until 1974, three years after its original UK release, and by which point, Neon ceased to exist, so it was released in the US on the standard RCA/Victor label). The American version of the Indian Summer label was also Neon (uses the same label), but I suggest you avoid buying the American LP because by that time, RCA in America was printing their albums on the crap Dynaflex (that was their silly company trademark of ridiculously flimsy vinyl - supposedly to help stop warping - at the expense of sound quality, which of course, RCA failed to mentioned, and started ripping people off in the process), which means crappy sound quality, so go for either the British LP, or the CD reissue on Repertoire.

Anyway, because of the excess baggage on some of the cuts, this album fulls short of a classic for me, but it's still not bad, especially if you like early British prog.

An intriguing album made in the early 70s. Its very psych oriented and the tracks are fairly short but heavy/energetic as well. I would give this a 4.5/5 star rating but the album overall is a little redundent/not much variety among the songs. Still, if you are into the more rare albums in the prog world, this is a good find!

As a hugh fan from the Early British Progressive Movement I should have bought this album much earlier but due to many different reasons, ranging from out of stock to out of money, I purchased this 'cult album' recently after reading all those many four - and five star ratings on this site. My general impression of the music is OK: Hammond organ-based (along some violin-Mellotron waves) prog that sounds typical early Seventies, pleasant songs, some nice guitar soli and good vocals. Although I enjoyed this album, I prefer similar bands like Beggar's Opera, Gracious, Spring, Julian's Treatment and Fantasy because their compositions sound more compelling and refined. Nonetheless, I rate this CD for a well deserved three stars. THIS IS A VERY PLEASANT HAMMOND DRENCHED EARLY PROGROCK SESSION!

An unremarkable Rock album.

Unfortunately "Indian Summer" sounds like so many other bands around at this time, except they lack the 'X' factor so important to make them stand out from the crowd - many great bands had it but not here, the musicianship is excellent as is the sound quality of the album, but the "songs" are forgettable, unstructured, they all really sound like thrown together jam sessions with extended solos, and like some other bands of this period is let down by poor vocals - I wish this band had taken their project more seriously and found a proper songwriter and singer,they could have done better than this and it would have lifted their fine musicianship into classic status. Few musicians can sing and play well at the same time, here the vocals are flat, tuneless and strained, like a very tired Steve Winwood meets Arthur Brown.

The music is all standard rock music of the period, not really Psyche or Prog rock, a few cliches with the odd mellotron passage thrown in may have swung their inclusion in PA, the playing is brilliant and is a shame this could have been a good album and not consigned to the bargain bin of history.

Indian Summer from 1971 is among the most underrated from early'70's hevy prog, with a lot to offer, from keyboard driving interplays to soaring guitars and good vocal parts. When i discovered this band i was really impressed by their structures and exellent musicianship. While they never hit the big time with this album, being under the same management as Black Sabbath, they also manage to creat something of real intrest for prog listners, with some very fine moments. Indian Summer plays that typical early '70 heavy prog with long instrumental passages, keyboard meets guitar interplays and a solid bass lines over it. I really like this underrated album for two reasons: one is among the best heavy prog i've heared from early '70, and second because thy don't really sound as anything from that period, haveing a sound of their own, not really heavy like Sabbath for example but not really symphonic like Genesis, they manage to be in the middle. Any single piece stands as good as can get from a heavy prog band with no boring moments. Anyway great discovery for me and a damn good album from golden era of prog. Recommended 4 star for sure.

Very interesting obscure british heavy prog band of the early 70´s. If you enjoy lots of Hammond and some soulful vocals, don´t miss this one. Their sound reminds me of a cross between The Doors and Uriah Heep at the time (without the heavy guitars, though) with some Traffic percussion flavors thrown in for good measure. The guitar player is good but he is definitly more into 60´s jazz and psychodelia than to the 70´s heavy rock. There are some good interpley between guitar and keyboards. The songwriting department was a little green yet and it is the only flaw I could find in this album. Even the production and overall sound are above average for the time.

It´s a good album, but nothing more than that. Given time this could have been a great band, but somehow they just broke up after this one. Which I think it´s a shame. They had such potential...

Anyway, Indian Summer is an album worth buying, if you like early 70´s rock like Paladin. I liked it. 3 stars.

This album really sounds like your typical Proto-Prog album with lots of organ and some mellotron. Not a big fan of the vocalist who sounds like he's yelling the lyrics. These guys can certainly play, i'm just not digging the tunes that much.

"God Is The Dog" I guess is their anti-religion song. Drums and organ lead the way early, vocals a minute in. The focus becomes on the vocals the rest of the way.They do get passionate at times. "Emotions Of Men" sounds good once it kicks in. It sounds very 60's to me. Mostly organ, drum and vocal led although there is a guitar solo 2 minutes in. "Glimpse" is more of the same although I can hear the bass clearly as the guitar solos after 2 1/2 minutes. "Half Changed Again" kicks in before 3 minutes thankfully. Drums and vocals dominate. Organ takes the place of the vocals 4 minutes in.

"Black Sunshine" is one I just can't get into at all. "From The Film Of The Same Name" is an instrumental with some good drum work and prominant bass. Good song. "Secrets Reflected" is laid back with reserved vocals although they do get passionate later. "Another Tree Will Grow" features prominate drums and organ and the vocals are deeper.The tempo picks up 1 1/2 minutes in.The guitar comes in and lights it up until after 5 minutes. Nice. Organ and vocals return.

If you like Proto-Prog check this band out otherwise you might be a little disappointed like I was. Barely 3 stars.

Maybe it's because the voice of Malcolm Harker, very similar to David Byron but it looks like this is the early Uriah Heep missed album. This is good hard-rock with some hints of psychedelia.

The huge use of organ on all the tracks makes it a product of its time, Not bad at all and very promising as debut. Unfortunately without a follow-up.

In few words, a good-to-know album, highly enjoyable but that doesn't offer more than what Uriah Heep or Deep Purple offered at the same time. It's more psych oriented than the two mentioned bigs and this is its strenght.

It fits perfectly in the 3 stars definition, but people who likes the mixture of hard-rock and psych typical of the early 70s will really like it.

INDIAN SUMMER was one of the many one and done prog acts to emerge in the late 60s and stick it out for a few years before disbanding. In its three year existence after forming in 1969 in Coventry, UK, the band released one self-titled album in 1971 on the Neon Records label which hosted other up and coming acts like Spring, Tonton Macoute and Raw Material. The band consisted of lead vocalist / keyboardist Bob Jackson, guitarist / vocalist Colin Williams, drummer Paul Hooper and bassist Malcolm Harker who all made their mark on the college and university circuit which caught the attention of Jim Simpson who was the manager of various bands including Black Sabbath and Bakerloo.

The band performed a lighter version of progressive heavy rock with a strong emphasis on keyboard runs much in the vein of Deep Purple and Uriah Heep but delivered its recipe of organ-fueled rock with more restraint. The album featured eight tracks that added up to almost 50 minutes of playing time which surely must have been the upper limits of playing time on vinyl LPs at the time. INDIAN SUMMER's sound was sort of the light and fluffy version of heavier rock with a gentle melodic approach that offered there standard guitar, bass and drum blues-based grooves of the day fortified with hefty keyboard excursions that sounded a bit more like a late 60s act than something that would've emerged in the year 1971 when the world of progressive rock was going gangbuster with inventive freewheeling experimentalism.

While the music doesn't stand out as anything spectacular for the day, Bob Jackson's vocals certainly sounded unique with a passionate display of wide ranges of singing styles and enunciating his lyrics in a certain way. While the musicians on board are all competent with moments of virtuosic display inserting themselves into the mix, the composiitons themselves were fairly average and not something that really gets my juices flowing in the same way that Deep Purple, Atomic Rooster or Uriah Heep were able to master so elegantly. INDIAN SUMMER sounds more like a Deep Purple lite and delivered a delicate touch to the whole organ dominated heavy rock thing. The compositions are decent but personally i'm not sure why this album is as revered as it is when so many far more dynamic bands existed at the same time.

It didn't take long for the band to start falling apart. After the release of this album in March of 1971, bassist Malcolm Harper left the band to take over his father's engineering firm and although ex-The Sorrows bassist Wez Price continued with the band on the touring circuit the band basically went broke and realized their day would never come and like many others of the same era basically left their mark with a single album and disappeared from the scene. Overall INDIAN SUMMER delivered a nice listenable album but just lacks that extra bite that a heavier rock band needs to animate the music. I know this has its fans and it's become one of those sought after obscurities from the early 70s but for my tastes this band just didn't have enough pizazz to keep the album mesmerizing from beginning to end but there are certainly exhilarating moments such as at the end of the track "Black Sunshine." If you like the delicate touch with only occasional outbursts of instrumental heft then this one is for you!

3.5 stars rounded down