WALRUS

Interesting obscure band from which has released a single, self titled LP, in 1970 and quickly disappeared without trace soon after that. Their sound was a curious mix of brass rock a la Blood, Sweat & Tears or Chicago with psychedelic rock, jazz and even some acid-folk bits (like in Why). The music of this octet is quite appealing and certainly the band was promising: bassist Steve Hawthorn shows up as a viable songwriter of good material, while the players are obviously skilled enough. Singer Noel Greenaway is another great find, with a fine voice that handles well all styles of music. With time they probably could produce a personal and outstanding sound. Unfortunately this was not to be. I guess at the time there were enough good brass bands riding the charts and their psychedelic takes were already dated by 1970. Even the cover was not that original for the period:it looks like several others I´ve seen then.

Anyway, if you like the above mentioned styles you should give this album a chance. I was quite surprised by the strong performances and the overall good songwriting and arrangements. Nothing spectacular or groundbreaking, but nice to listen to. The production is very good for the time and the CD release has a bonus track that was not included on the original LP. Nice find.

Rating: 2,5 stars rounded up. good, but clearly non essential in any way.