NO PICTURES

For true prog lovers there comes a day when that person discovers that the original prog era consisted of many onion layers of bands that enjoyed various degrees of success. Bands like ELP, Yes and Pink Floyd were quite the exception in achieving worldwide fame while still together but there were countless other bands that were well known in small circles but never really found success during their existence. Many of these bands though inspired other bands who in turn inspired others and so forth and so on. This band named LADY LAKE was indeed named after the album from the English band Gnidrolog.

This band was not English at all but Dutch and arose from the city of Deventer after the owner of a local record store solicited the members to create a prog album. The band consisted of Leendert Korstanje (keyboards), Jan Dubbe (drums), Fred Rosenkamp (guitar) and Eddy Baker. After establishing a stylistic approach the band went to the small village of Wijhe to record its sole album of the classic prog era titled NO PICTURES which became the title due to the fact that the photographer who was supposed to do a photo shoot for the local newspaper was a no show and so the joke ended up as the title of the album.

While only initially releasing one albums that resulted in roughly 1200 copies, the band has since reformed and released a second album in 2005 and now a third in 2022. Nice to see these old timer one shots find their way in the modern world! Although the first album was released in 1977, the band formed as early as 1973 with various lineups spending a few years learning the prog ropes so to speak but once NO PICTURES arrived it was received with a better than expected interest and supposedly found copies having been exported to Italy and Scandinavia. Apparently there were still some stalwart prog fans out there keeping the underground humming along. The album was finally released in 1997 on CD with alternate cover art and six unreleased bonus tracks.

NO PICTURES is a mostly instrumental affair sounding nothing like the Gnidrolog album from where the band took its name. This is a mellow album that technically exists in the realms of the symphonic prog world but with its reliance on acoustic guitars and jazzy keyboard runs, it's actually a bit difficult to describe. The band was adept at crafting knotty even angular tunes that were steeped in rich chords and distinct melodies that sounded like distant relatives of Camel, early 70s Genesis and to a lesser extent fellow countrymen Focus. The album actually sounds very unique and nothing is really comparable. Perhaps the album 'Red Queen to Gryphon Three' by the UK band Gryphon comes to mind at times with a light airy folk fueled basis for complex prog.

While the vast majority of the album is instrumental, the track 'You Make Me Feel So Fine' offers a fine vocal track that sounded like the perfect crossover hit in the vein of Kansas, Styx or many other crossover prog acts of the same era. The highlight and most proggy aspect of the album comes with the final three part 'Between Bremen And Hamburg' which offered an interesting array of prog workouts and shifting melodies, tempos and stylistic approaches. 'Part 1' features a bluesy vocal segment followed by acoustic guitar workouts. 'Part 2' features some beautiful piano rolls and arpeggiated guitar sequences. 'Part 3' continues the basic melody with more jazzy chord progressions and a bit more rock heft.

LADY LAKE may not have had the hardcore chops of bands like Yes or the mass appeal of bands like Focus, Camel or Genesis but this band's sole album NO PICTURES from the 1970s showcases an extremely tender fragility that features beautiful melodic constructs fortified with more abstract prog rock attributes. While not as popular as the Gnidrolog album which has found a new found popularity decades after its release, LADY LAKE is still relatively unknown even in prog circles. This can be considered an easy listening prog album with an emphasis on the light and airy most closely associated with bands like Camel, early Genesis and other similarly minded symphonic prog bands. This is an excellent album that needs rediscovering!