THE ROAD

This one off band probably would've been completely forgotten about relegating its sole album at the very bottom of the obscurity bin if not for the fact it was the launching pad for future Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett who was quietly working in QUIET WORLD while his future band was cranking out "Trespass." Joined by his brother and fellow guitarist John Hackett, bassist Dick Driver, drummer Sean O'Maily, keyboardist and trumpeter Phil Henderson, acoustic guitarist John Heather and lead vocalists Lea Heather and Gill Gilberts, this large ensemble released its sole album THE ROAD in 1970 mostly failing on deaf ears although the album was preceded by the non-album single "Miss Whittington / There Is A Mountain."

Quite unlike anything Genesis ever released THE ROAD had one foot in orchestrated pop and another in the world of progressive rock and folk with a somewhat overblown religious concept inspired by the 1908 book "The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ" written by Levi H. Dowling who claimed the book was channeled by accessing the akashic records and featured a compendium of mystical knowledge. The book became the basis of many New Age philosophies and incorporated astrology into Christianity. Musically the album is quite diverse with lots of themes crammed into its 40 minute run with intricate lyrics rejoicing the life of Christ sounding somewhat like a mix of a Christian rock band trading off with a 60s cafe act albeit with sophisticated production engineering and heavy use of symphonic touches and array of instrumentation.

With a freaky album cover of an elderly man with an embryo seemingly growing out of his head, QUIET WORLD very well have crafted the world's first black metal album cover without knowing it as it belies the rather cheerful, uplifting and often whimsical transitions between Beatles-esque sing-songy choruses (think "Hey Jude" and its excessively long ending) and more serious even earnest folky passages making the album a little weird although for 1970 was probably not even remotely considered so. While not even remotely recognizable as having any connection to Genesis, careful listening will reveal some of Hackett's guitar techniques which would become his signature sound as chief axe grinder in one of prog's best known classic bands. The constant changing of themes including medieval segments gives the album an inconsistency with certain motifs sounding very serious and the rock opera segments sounding a bit whimsical.

For all its inconsistencies in keeping a uniform feel to the album's run, QUIET WORLD featured some excellent musical performances with interesting sections that rock out as well as tenderly beautiful folk sections however the spoken word dialogue towards the beginning of the album reveals the hilarious hippie dippy idealism and head in the clouds ethos of the era with overly earnest citations that make you question exactly how serious the entire project was as inevitable moments of humor insert themselves into the mix whether intended or not. Overall the album feels like a clash of two totally disparate musical scenarios namely a musical that was forced by a record company contract to work with a symphonic folk band and this was the result.

While Hackett would go on to international fame with Genesis and his solo career that followed, the Leah brothers on the other hand would go on to be successful composers of the musicals "A Slice Of Saturday Night," "Lust" and "Blood Money" which would find hundreds of various productions translated into many different languages as well as quite a few other film scores. While Phil Henderson also went on to compose film scores most of the other artists on board to disappear from the music biz altogether. While not an essential album by any means this isn't as bad as many make it out to be. It's quite pleasant actually although definitely a little goofy at times. Reminds me a little bit of the US band Touch's 1969 album as the musical meets prog and other styles is quite unique. Definitely worthy of checking out but needed to be a double album with better continuity to truly work in a captivating way.