FOOLS PARADISE

This Aussie teacher-pupil pairing started playing in the early 1970s and released a single some time before their sole album "Fools Paradise" in 1975. Unfortunately, the re-release to which I am privy does not include the original single as bonus tracks, but, apart from nods to the Canterbury scene and parallels to the Basque movement, this sounds like it emanates from the earlier phase. It's mostly an appealing if undistinguished mixture of British Isles folk with the prog of its day, with an array of primarily acoustic instruments, requisite vocal harmonies, and Gothic atmospheres. Bands like MAGNA CARTA, TIR NA NOG, and FAIRPORT CONVENTION come to mind, but, in the more progressive moments I recall CARAVAN or PINK FLOYD. The album peters out after several solid psych pieces in the early going though, and even the partially achieved ambitions of the title suite don't fully resurrect it, heartening lead guitar and bass lines notwithstanding. For all its legendary status,"Fools Paradise" is little more than another decent garden variety prog folk album of its era