DANCING MADLY BACKWARDS

This is actually a pretty bland album, and the few reviews I’ve read all seem to come either from former members of the band, family members, or other close friends. Axcraft clearly never made much of an inroad to the music community outside their immediate area.

This is also their only album as far as I know, and I don’t believe the band was in existence for very long either. There is very little information to be found about these guys, which leads me to believe they were a local band that made whatever living they managed by playing small venues and as an opening act.

The keyboards are not complex, but they are played in a typical seventies American style – i.e., fast, spirited, and pretty much in synch with the electric guitars. The drum work is decent at best, and the lyrics are mostly light and vaguely spacey in nature and theme.

There are some decent piano passages, notably at the beginning of “Astral Love” and a little bit on the title track. Otherwise this is a mediocre album, and pretty forgettable in the spectrum of seventies music.

There are a couple live tracks at the end that actually sound like they are open-air recordings, not even from the soundboard. I’m not sure if this is accurate, but in any case the recording quality is quite muddled and a definite distraction from the music.

I don’t know much about these guys, and frankly haven’t spent much time trying to find out much. Akarma released this on CD for some reason, but you probably won’t find it except by accident. Or if you make a real attempt to locate it, but don’t bother. Two stars.

peace

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Posted Thursday, May 17, 2007 | Review this album | Report (Review #122654)

Axcraft from USA with one album released in 1974 named Dancing madly backwords is an ok album to me, noting really impressive nothing is bad aswell. Symphonic prog melted with heavy prog sections al in all pretty decent. Akarma label re release the album both on vinyl and as digipack in 1999, the cd version with 2 bonus live tunes recorded in same 1974 before disbanding one year later and gone unnoticed to larger public. As some reviewers said this abum got mix reviews from bad to excellent, I'm somewher in between and saying that this is not bad at all, Astral ove is a killer track with beautiful piano intro and then tranformed in some mid tempo giant prog piece, really great. The opening track is a fair one So fgar away, heavy prog with pleasent parts and fine keybords solo, the rest of the pieces are ok, title track is another worthy one. All in all a good album, nothing really impressive as other mentioned, I can't find that brilliant segments some praised with aplomb, it's only fairly good. 3 stars for sure no more no less. The bonus tracks are totaly usless and by far the worst on the CD re issue, totaly forgetable pieces. Worth some spins, but not exactly one of the gems of prog from mid '70's.

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Posted Sunday, December 18, 2011 | Review this album | Report (Review #590809)

Keep it Symphonic guys, that's where you shine! Here's my track-by-track opinion: So Far Away: If you imagine it with violin and a different arrangement, it could be a Kansas song. It's quite interesting, since it starts as a mainstream rocker and in the middle it changes structure significantly, ... (read more)

Report this review (#3103278) | Posted by BigDaddyAEL1964 | Wednesday, September 25, 2024 | Review Permanlink

This exceptionally obscure and rare release from United States based Axcraft is not without merit but certainly isn't that lost diamond in the rough you've been searching for. Like its namesake, Captain Beyond's debut, this is a heavy rock album with prog fringes. Apparently it was never prope ... (read more)

Report this review (#2024594) | Posted by WFV | Wednesday, September 12, 2018 | Review Permanlink

Here's a review from a person who just discovered the band, since being a former member of a band means you can't give a balanced review. So with that said, I think this album is very under rated and just great. The sound quality may not be top notch but considering this was most likely a local b ... (read more)

Report this review (#183961) | Posted by AmericanProgster | Sunday, September 28, 2008 | Review Permanlink

Even though I was the lead singer for Axcraft, I can truthfully say that the album is nowhere near great. But that does not mean that it's not worth owning or at least listening. The group has never been paid any royalties, even though it's being sold worldwide on the AKARMA album label which ... (read more)

Report this review (#51854) | Posted by Lanny westbrook | Friday, October 14, 2005 | Review Permanlink

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