Jan Dukes De Grey

Prog Folk
(Studio Album, 1970)

   4,5 stars really!!!!

An absolutely flamboyant debut album from folk duo Jan Dukes De Grey (originally from Yorkshire) that leans heavily on the progressive side with the kind of typical madness that you might find in some Jethro Tull album or even the wild Comus. The tracks are composed on 12-string guitar and sung by Derek Noy and he is accompanied on a wide variety of wind instruments and percussions by Michael Bairstow. They are absolutely complementary and there is great deal of complicity. Noy’s voice is comparable to Van Morrison (of Astral Weeks) cross with the superb vocalizings that Tim Buckley and John Martyn have gotten us used to two years later and in the stronger and wilder moments he might even sound a bit like Audience’s Howard Werth.

The tracks are almost entirely acoustic (a few organs here and there) and have a very pastoral feel, but the lyrics are anything but bland or conventional. Although a very calm album, every ounce of lunacy of their following album is already present here and put to great use on every track on this album. 18 tracks for a total time of almost 49 minutes, this is an incredibly long record for the times, and believe me, everyone of those minutes is loaded with the interesting accounts of Mister Noy’s endeavours, in a very convincing Troubadour style. Not all that progressive per se, the album is very entertaining for all those freaks loving hippy ideals and great but troubling tales of watching the sunrise and love encounters: High Priced Rooms may mean he will die a virgin, and two minutes later he praises the courage of schoolgirls. The tracks are noticeably longer on the second side but remain under the four-minute mark except for the finale. The overall insane but tranquil feeling can also be likened to Tea And Symphony’s debut album titled Asylum For The Musically Insane.

Although quite brilliant and entertaining, the album is not flawless and can be tedious to harder music freaks, but David Hitchcock (well known to progheads) manages to pull a superb production job on a real lost gem. But this album might pale in comparison with the following (and aptly titled) Mice And Rats In The Loft, but still remains a minor gem.