ONE STEP ON [AKA: CONCEPTION]

Those early organ-dominated heavy proto-prog rockers from the late Sixties/early Seventies are always tasty listening, and another example of that addictive sound were Jody Grind, a British group driven by the sublime keyboard skills of vocalist Tim Hinkley. Similar to other bands of the era such as Uriah Deep, Chase, Raw Material and Nosferatu, Jody Grind presented a mix of heavy guitar rock with lavish smatterings of Hammond organ fusing with elements of R n'B, blues and jazz on their 1969 debut `One Step On'. Shorter compact tracks sat beside ambitious side-long multi-part suites of fully improvised soloing, with the addition of brass instruments worked in as well.

The group begin with the almost nineteen-minute four-part suite title-track `One Step On', and an energetic and confident opener it is. Sounding like a more frantic version of everything from Greenslade, The Web and Beggars Opera (Hinkley's voice actually not dissimilar to the singer of that band Martin Griffiths, just more prone to boisterous outbursts in a few spots!) and mostly comprised of an extended jam with breaks of vocal passages here and there, it's completely dominated by toasty-warm Hammond organ, Barry Wilson's lively and driving heavy drumming and Ivan Zagni's electric guitar effortlessly moving from heavy riffing, red-hot wailing to lighter jazzy licks. Horns blast in and out of the piece here and there before it finally culminates in a thrashing and break-neck crash through the Rolling Stone's `Paint it Black'.

The second side offers some shorter pieces, yet display plenty more variety and is probably the superior material. The catchy pop-rocker `Little Message' is bookended with plenty of Chase-like call-and-response horn bursts answering the vocals and some dirty guitar mangling in between, `Night Today' is smoothly jazzily foot-tapping with a romantic vocal and plenty of soloing, and `U.S.A' is a smouldering heavy bluesy plodder. Sadly `Rock n Roll Man' is filler and nothing but a throwaway cover of old rock n' roll standard `Johnny B Goode' with different lyrics, if still well played.

While it's very much of its time, and apparently the follow-up album (the immaturely titled `Far Canal' ? take that Caravan, gives your cheeky and smutty `Cunning Stunts' and `If I Could Do It All Over Again, I'd Do It All Over You' a run for their money!) is even more adventurous and `proggy', this is an addictive and hugely enjoyable album, caught somewhere between youthful naivety and growing sophisticated talent, crammed full of great playing and bold vocals. Fans of any of the above mentioned groups and heavy jazzy rock in general should have a blast with `One Step On', and once again Hammond organ freaks should definitely make it their next priority as well!

Four stars.