A TIME BEFORE THIS

Julian Jay Savarin was a British author who wrote his share of music. In the early '70s, he also involved himself in music, by applying his sci-fi know-how to lyrics and playing organ. He assembled a band called JULIAN'S TREATMENT, with him on organ, Australian-born Cathy Pruden on vocals, and a couple other guys handling the usual (guitar, bass, drums, flute). "A Time Before This" originally released in 1970 on the Youngblood label, is an interesting combination of prog and late '60s psychedelia, with spacy organ, and of course, sci-fi oriented lyrics. I've heard this band compared with everything from EARTH & FIRE to SANDROSE to The United States of America (the late '60s psychedelic electronic rock act with Joe Byrd and Dorothy Moskowitz).

"The Coming of the Mule" is an instrumental piece with guitar that sounds like it came off a FOCUS album, as well as classically-influenced organ. "Phantom City" has more of that late '60s psychedelic vibe, complete with phasing (like you hear from the Small Faces' "Itchycoo Park" or the BEATLES' "I Am the Walrus"). "The Black Tower" is a bit more laid back, showing that Cathy Pruden was truly the lady for this album. "Alda, Dark Lady of the Outer Worlds" has Pruden singing like an evil lady. "Altarra, Princess of the Blue Women" is another mellow piece, with that cosmic atmosphere. "Fourth From the Sun" has a somewhat more jazzy-bent, especially from the drum department.

Anyways, original LPs of "A Time Before This" don't exactly grow on trees, but recently, Akarma had reissued this on CD with the original artwork, in a wonderful digipak (that is, featuring miniaturized LP-type packaging), but unfortunately they forgot to give us information on who was in the band, or the lyrics to the songs. Also they wrongly give the album a 1972 copyright (perhaps 1972 was the year of the album's American release, which was released here on Decca, with a totally different cover - 1970 was the original British release on Youngblood). Anyway, this is truly a wonderful, forgotten prog/psych gem worth looking for.