INDIAN SUMMER

INDIAN SUMMER was a little known one-shot British prog rock band that released this self-entitled album and disappeared. The album was originally released on RCA's Neon subdivision, the same label that brought us acts like SPRING, Mike WESTBROOK, RAW MATERIAL, The RUNNING MAN, and TOUTON MACOUTE. INDIAN SUMMER's music is typical early '70s prog rock dominated by Hammond organ with some Mellotron. The opening song, "God is the Dog" is obviously the band's protest against religion, and despite that, it's actually one of the better songs on the album. But the album also has its flaws: the album gets bogged down by several pointless solos that go nowhere, specifically on the final cut, "Another Tree Will Grow". The band needed to either cut off the excess fat, or made the solos more interesting for me to regard it as a classic.

Other interesting things of note: the cover artwork is by Keef, same guy responsible for Rod Stewart's Gasoline Alley, BLACK SABBATH's debut album, COLOSSEUM's "Valentyne Suite", CRESSIDA's "Asylum", MANFRED MANN's "Chapter III's Vol. 2", and many others. Also INDIAN SUMMER's debut was one of only two Neon titles released in America (the other being "Centipede's Septober Energy", but it didn't surface in America until 1974, three years after its original UK release, and by which point, Neon ceased to exist, so it was released in the US on the standard RCA/Victor label). The American version of the Indian Summer label was also Neon (uses the same label), but I suggest you avoid buying the American LP because by that time, RCA in America was printing their albums on the crap Dynaflex (that was their silly company trademark of ridiculously flimsy vinyl - supposedly to help stop warping - at the expense of sound quality, which of course, RCA failed to mentioned, and started ripping people off in the process), which means crappy sound quality, so go for either the British LP, or the CD reissue on Repertoire.

Anyway, because of the excess baggage on some of the cuts, this album fulls short of a classic for me, but it's still not bad, especially if you like early British prog.