Prog Britannia - Album Reviews

 

Album Review #82:- TRADER HORNE were a short-lived British Prog-Folk duo consisting of Jackie McAuley (formerly of Them) on vocals, keyboards and guitars, and Judy Dyble (ex-Fairport Convention) on vocals, electric autoharp, recorder and glockenspiel. Their one and only album "Morning Way" was released on Pye Records in 1970 but didn't make much of an impact on the record-buying public at the time, but the album has since become a legendary lost classic and a real collectors item. The original LP album has been known to fetch incredibly high prices. It was subsequently re-issued on CD in 2008 with two bonus tracks added to the original thirteen songs on the album.

The album opens with "Jenny May", a lovely acoustic Folk ballad with Judy Dyble's gorgeous honeyed vocals floating like a warm summer breeze over the gentle bucolic melody. Altogether now, "Summer breeze, makes me feel fine, blowing through the jasmine in my mind." ..... This quaint sunny Folk tune does indeed make you feel fine and it sounds as quintessentially English as a game of cricket on the village green. The next song sounds very reminiscent of the old Christmas carol, "We Three Kings of Orient Are", which just happens to rhyme with the song title, "Children Of Oare". One of the charming things about this album is each song concludes with a brief but beautiful pastoral flute melody to interlink all of the songs together. The next exquisite piece of music "Three Rings for Elven Kings" is a soft and gentle instrumental number for flute and autoharp, with the autoharp resembling the sound of a harpsichord. Next up is "Growing Man", featuring Judy Dyble's delightful vocals right at the forefront with Jackie McAuley on backing vocals. The music sounds semi-classical, featuring a mini woodwind orchestra, and it's a song that could have had pride of place on an early Fairport Convention album, especially bearing in mind that Judy Dyble was the lead singer on their debut album. It's time now for some "Down and Out Blues", which is just what it says on the label - a mournful bluesy number where Judy Dyble does indeed sound down and out and penniless with these heart-felt lyrics:- "No nobody wants you, When you're down and out, In your pocket's not one penny, And all your pretty friends, You haven't any." ..... Cheer up Judy because the next song "The Mixed-Up Kind" is an altogether jollier tune which sounds like a lost classic which could have come right off Fairport Convention's illustrious first album. It's a truly beautiful melody carried along by the mellifluous strings of the autoharp with Judy Dyble's crystal-clear vocals sounding at their absolute best here. This tremendously appealing song represents the stunning highlight of the album so far and it's also by far the longest song on the album at over six minutes in duration. This song is six minutes of sheer beauty and joyous delight. It's as good as, if not better than anything Fairport Convention have ever done.

Side Two opens cheerfully with "Better Than Today", and what could be better than listening to this charming pastoral Folk melody today, or any day come to that. There's some truly beautiful harmonising between Judy Dyble and Jackie McAuley on this lovely Folk song. The next song "In My Loneliness" is a mournful ballad (just as the song title implies) featuring weeping violins and with Judy Dyble sounding at her most imploringly passionate best here. There's a change of pace for "Sheena", an up-tempo and uplifting melody that swings along exuberantly on a wave of eternal optimism, in the style of some of the best music from the sunshine state of California. In contrast to Side One, where all of the songs concluded with a brief pastoral flute melody, all of the songs on Side Two conclude with a brief tinkling of the ivories. The next song "The Mutant" is a doleful melancholy ballad with Jackie McAuley taking lead vocal duties for a change. And now we come to the title track "Morning Way", a song with trippy lyrics which probably comes closest to the Psych-Folk that Trader Horne are sometimes labelled as. Again, there's some gorgeous multi-tracked harmonising to be heard on this four and a half minutes of musical magic. It's time now for "Velvet to Atone", a solo piano piece with Judy Dyble's crystal-clear vocals gleaming with all of the sparkling beauty of a crystal chandelier. The album concludes with "Luke That Never Was", which opens to the sound of a solemn church organ, although this is just a prelude to a good old-fashioned happy-clappy tambourine song to sing along to in church. If only they really DID sing rousing spiritual songs as good as this in the local parish church, the vicar would surely approve.

"Morning Way" is a charmingly beautiful, one-off gem of a Folk album that we can all treasure for posterity half a century on from it's initial release. Trader Horne's marvellous album is a very pleasant reminder of why we just love those bygone halcyon days of the 1970's, which often brings to mind the poignant refrain, "They don't make music like this any more." ..... which is a shame. Trader Horne are sometimes labelled as Prog-Folk and occasionally as Psych-Folk, but it's basically just an all-round good English Folk album with no strings (or labels) attached.

All good ones.....I'm a  fan of Web and Samurai....have both on cd...haven't seen the lp's anywhere near me.

Had Indian Summer on lp...sold it......should have kept it. Have the others on cd.

Pesky Gee is the only one I have not heard of...and I only have one or two Ghost tracks on an anthology.

Did I mention this one also...?

 

81. Titus Groan

82. Trader Horne

83. Spirogyra

84. Kaleidoscope

85. Julian's Treatment

86. Forest

87. Armageddon

88. Capability Brown

89. Trees

90. Alan White

I'll ck my music again tonight...right now I'm at the office.

 

 

Album Review #79:- NATIONAL HEALTH were a Canterbury Scene outfit formed from the remnants of Hatfield & the North and Gilgamesh. The band featured Dave Stewart on keyboards (who later went on to form a duo with Barbara Gaskin in the 1980's), Phil Miller on electric guitar, Neil Murray on fretless bass, Pip Pyle on drums and percussion and Amanda Parsons on vocals. National Health recorded three albums during their brief time in the spotlight:- "National Health" (1977); Of Queues and Cures (1978); and "D.S. Al Coda" (1982). It's time now to take out a prescription for National Health's first album and find out if music really is the best medicine.

The album opens with the bright and sparkling "Tenemos Roads". Running at over fourteen minutes long, it's a complex improvisational and uplifting piece of music with some truly dynamic keyboard virtuosity from Dave Stewart, with Amanda Parsons' lovely soprano vocals soaring up up and away into the wild blue yonder like a high-flying bird. It may be hard to discern the lyrics to discover what "Tenemos Roads" is all about, so here's a brief taster:- "From the cradle to the grave, There are roads for us all, That we'll find, and follow to the end, Leading upwards to a place in the stars, Ten million miles away, There's a path called Tenemos Roads" ..... This warm and inviting opening number is like a radiant sunburst of glowing rainbow colours that's guaranteed to brighten up the the dullest of days. It's All That Jazz and a lot more besides and just what the doctor ordered.

Next up is the 10-minute-long "Brujo" which transports us to calmer climes with a gorgeous pastoral woodwind opening, conjuring up images of gently rolling green pastures bathed in warm golden sunshine. This serves as a prelude to another sunburst session of wild improvisational Jazz-Rock with some ethereal vocalese ad-libbing from Amanda Parsons. The music is positively aglow with complex time signatures, dynamic changes of tempo and some delightful keyboard flights of fancy from Dave Stewart. In other words, it's everything we've come to expect in the best Canterbury Scene music. Apparently, "Brujo" is Spanish for sorcerer, so just lie back and let this music weave its magical spell on you.

The first two pieces of music on Side Two "Borogoves (Excerpt from Part Two)" followed by "Borogoves (Part One)" seem strangely back to front, but putting that minor detail aside, "Borogoves" is a complex and compelling 10-minute piece of music where the listener never quite knows what's coming next upon first hearing. To try and put such a dynamic improvisational piece of music into words would do it a disservice, other than to say it's intricate and invigorating Jazzy music with more than enough unexpected twists and turns to keep any Canterbury Scene fan happy, and just in case anyone's wondering what a "Borogove" is, it's a silly mythical bird invented by Lewis Carroll for his nonsense poem, "Jabberwocky".

There are "Elephants" in the room for the final piece of music, which turns out to be a 14-minute-long free-flight instrumental jam session. It's another complex Jazz-Rock composition containing undecipherable lyrics, with the music sounding as marvellously wild and unpredictable as a stampede of "Elephants". It's an endlessly entertaining combination of gentle pastoral flute and keyboard passages and wild uninhibited outbursts of unrestrained Canterbury Scene music.

"National Health" is a playful and passionate avant-garde demonstration of evergreen Canterbury Scene music at its best, featuring an accomplished and experienced group of musicians who are really in their element with this eclectic and endlessly diverse album. Sometimes the Jazzy music is manic and unrestrained, and sometimes it's pleasant and pastoral, but it's always energetic and exhilarating. National Health is just the prescription you need for some lively Canterbury Scene Jazz.

I'll ck out my music again this weekend.

 

 

Album Review #77:- ANTHONY PHILLIPS (born 1951) is best-known as the original guitarist with GENESIS. He appeared on their first two albums "From Genesis to Revelation" (1969) and "Trespass" (1970), but decided to quit the band due to crippling bouts of stage fright when performing live. He took a long hiatus from recording music and studied classical music for awhile until 1977 when he embarked on his long and illustrious solo career with the release of "The Geese and the Ghost" album. Three further albums followed at the tail-end of the 1970's:- "Wise After the Event" (1978); "Private Parts & Pieces" (1978); and "Sides" (1979). Altogether, Anthony Phillips has recorded an incredible thirty-one albums, including eleven volumes of "Private Parts & Pieces" and four volumes of "Missing Links", consisting primarily of demos, out-takes, and previously unreleased material from his vast library of music recordings. He still continues to record to this day with his latest album "Strings of Light" released as recently as 2019. Anthony Phillips' first album "The Geese and the Ghost" is notable for including his Genesis bandmates Mike Rutherford on bass and Phil Collins on vocals on a couple of tracks, and Steve Hackett's brother John Hackett on flute. Ant Phillips played all of the guitar and keyboard parts on the album. The 2008 CD reissue included a bonus disc of unused material from the album.

The album opens with the brief prelude "Wind-Tales", featuring a light breeze of keyboards floating past the listener like a zephyr in a mellow wave of calming pastoral sound, which leads us into "Which Way the Wind Blows". This song is a gorgeous slice of melodic prog with the familiar voice of Phil Collins reminding us that this song would have fitted very nicely onto a classic Genesis album, although the music is altogether gentler and mellower than anything Genesis have ever recorded. We're travelling back in time to the royal court of Henry VIII now with "Henry: Portraits from Tudor Times", in the first of two long suites on the album. The six-piece "Henry" suite is a glorious 12-minute-long combination of gentle acoustic passages and marching battle themes and it also features a tremendously rousing chorus for the grand finale. The dynamic contrast between Ant Phillip's gentle acoustic guitar combined with his sonorous outbursts from the almighty keyboards are what really sets this long suite of music alight with passionate and powerful intensity. It's dramatic symphonic music imbued with all of the regal power and magnificent majesty of a King upon his throne. Phil Collins returns to vocal duties in a lovely duet with Vivienne McAuliffe for "God If I Saw Her Now". It's another beautiful piece of gentle melodic prog in an album that's positively overflowing with charming and enchanting English tunes.

Opening Side Two is "Chinese Mushroom Cloud" which sounds just as dramatic and doom-laden as the song title suggests. It's a short prelude featuring the rousing and resonant deep rumble of a cello, conjuring up a portentous and disturbing image of some cataclysmic disaster. This leads us into the two-part suite and title track "The Geese and the Ghost". Running at nearly sixteen minutes long, it's an epic masterpiece, combining orchestral, pastoral folk and proggy themes in a timeless timbre of tuneful melodies, which also includes some rousing grand symphonic keyboard flourishes too for our delectation and delight. We get to hear Anthony Phillip's voice for the first time on "Collections", and a very fine singer he is too. The music is a gorgeous flute and guitar melody floating on a sea of sensational strings. The final piece of music "Sleepfall: The Geese Fly West" is as gentle and peaceful as the gentlest of lullabies and it's a perfect dream-like melody to bring a marvellous and masterful album to a close.

"The Geese and the Ghost" is a timeless album full of reverberant refrains and mellifluous melodies combined together in a magnificent melange of pastoral folk, classical compositions and melodic prog symphonies. It's a superb album that should appeal equally to Genesis fans and non-Genesis fans alike. The music has been described as sounding like a "mixture of Vaughan Williams and Mike Oldfield" which sums it up rather well I think.

There's a part 2 called 'Waiters On The Dance'....by Savarin.

Julians Treatment