EGG

Egg certainly does sound Emerson, Lake and Palmer-ish but with the benefit of underexposure. The similarity is chiefly based on the organ sound, and since both bands issued their debut album in that same 1970, one must consider the likelihood of common ancestry rather than copycat syndrome. Egg also contains ample Canterbury elements beneath the Hammond domination.

In the end, like ELP, Egg did not age well, although they did not rot, and a certain jazzy aspects in the more vocal dominated pieces suits the band well and elevates their legacy somewhat. This is especially true in "While Growing my Hair" and "I will be absorbed", both well sung, played and improvised in approximately equal measure. But the short filler pieces serve little discernible purpose and the lengthy symphony is hopelessly retrograde even if it contains some toe-tapping moments.

It's an album with some fine but even more mind wandering aspects. I recommend this newly hatched Egg chiefly to hard boiled veterans of the Canterbury scene and ELP, and, while that actually covers quite a large audience here in the archives, I cannot really count myself among them.