FOR YOU THE OLD WOMEN

Mirthrandir (their name seems to be a misspelling or pun based on "Mithrandir", one of Gandalf's various pseudonyms in The Lord of the Rings) were one of those one-album wonder bands that 1970s prog was littered with, and to my ears the reason for that is sadly a little obvious: namely, they put their album out just a shade too late, unleashing it on the world after the prog wave had peaked and audiences were already looking to new sounds.

For You the Old Women is an album steeped in the sort of sounds that Yes and Genesis were exploring in the early 1970s, and most prog fans will enjoy rediscovering this stuff and find it decidedly pleasing - but what for us in 2016 is a lost treasure ripe for a new appraisal must have felt in 1976 like a band trying desperately to climb onto a bandwagon that had already driven off without them. It's a shame, because John Vislocky III's capable vocals and interesting use of trumpet adds a novel spin to the symphonic-leaning prog sound of the group which could have nicely set them apart, had they not come into a music scene already cluttered with the wreckage of risen and fallen bands.