JUST LIKE MASTER BATES

Another British band caught between its love of proggy art rock and the punk/techno trends of contemporary pop music. Somewhere along the way this band was errantly assigned to the Canterbury Scene by many reviewers while I hear absolutely no commonality to those psych-jazz experimentalists of the first half of the decade.

SIDE 1 1. "Gravity Brings You Down" (4:32) innocuous 60s PINK FLOYD-influenced techno pop proto prog. More like ABC than Genesis. (8.25/10)

2. "Long Gone Song" More ABC. Or 10CC. Not proggy at all though nice jazzy Fender Rhodes keyboard play. The violin section at the end is quite nice. (8/10)

3. "Storyteller" opens with some emotionally potent soft jazz sounds over which David Radford sings. A winning chordal and melodic structure. Slightly proggy after the first chorus in a CAMEL/STRAWBS way. (8.75/10)

4. "Those Lying Eyes" acoustic guitars (12-string!) set up this EAGLES-like sound until the tempo shifts and we are in poppy GLEN CAMPBELL or NENA terrain. Some quirky instrumental and structural sounds used but, otherwise, not really proggy. Could've been a hit from one of the 1960s West Coast psych bands. (8.5/10)

SIDE 2 5. "Kismet / Hour Glass / Not That Far To Go" presents a more dramatic side of the band, at least for the opening and first verse, more in the realm of FAMILY and early GENESIS, before the odd SAGA-like chorus. The C section in the third minute could be from Peter Gabriel's debut solo album ("Moribund the Burgermeister") or The Lamb. The more artsy, creative side of the band as expressed in a multi-song suite. (13.125/15)

6. "Come The Day" violin backed by strummed acoustic 12-string guitar opens before vocals supplant violin and keys eventually join in. Nice violin and keyboard work in the instrumental sections between the vocals. Nice vocals and lyrics. Solid song. (9/10)

9. "Dance Of The Emmets" a discofied instrumental that could come from an ALAN PARSONS, STYX, or CAMEL album. (8.5/10)

10. "One And One Is Two" reminds me of the mid-1970s band PILOT (members of which later became studio musicians for Kate Bush [David Paton, Andrew Powell, Ian Bairnson], Alan Parsons [Ian Bairnson, Stuart Tosh, David Paton], and 10cc [Stuart Tosh].) (7.75/10)

I chose not to review or rate the two bonus songs included in the 2007 CD reissue as they don't really fit, to my mind, with the original music.

Total time (with two bonus songs): 48:20

B/four stars; an excellent addition of proto-NeoProg to the lexicon of Progressive Rock music.