Head Full of Snow

Jethro Tull – Stand Up

Jeffman — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:15:20 +0000

Jethro Tull’s 1969 album Stand Up was the follow up to the inconsistent debut, This Was, and the first to feature Birmingham-born mainstay Martin Lancelot Barre on guitar.

It was also the album that signposted the path down which Jethro Tull (or the mighty Tull, dependant on personal opinion) were headed, largely doing away with the blues influence of the previous release and drifting, via the road of progressive rock, into more folkish pastures.

The change came about following the departure of Mick Abrahams, who’d left following creative differences between him and Tull’s main man Ian Anderson, over musical direction. When replacement and future Black Sabbath axeman Toni Iommi failed to work out it was left to Martin Barre to take up the mantle, which he did, remaining to this day.

Stand Up retains the blues edge for opening track ‘A New Day Yesterday’, almost as though it’s a peace offering for the fans of This Was, left outside the door to gently ease them into the Tull’s new sound. Not that there’s anything gentle about its electric-blues heavy rhythm.

From then on in Stand Up weaves various elements into the mix as it stands on the harbour wall and bids the blues farewell. Ian Anderson brings the songs down to a more personal level than before (although the previous album was weighed down with instrumentals) and the album is all the better for that. ‘Jeffrey Goes to Leicester Square’, ‘Back to the Family’ and ‘Look into the Sun’ are all classic Tull and it’s also here that we first sample what has become a Tull standard over the years, the instrumental, jazzified flute arrangement of J.S. Bach’s ‘Bourée’.

But it’s track 8 that provides the highlight of Stand Up; the gradually intensifying lament of ‘We Used to Know’. It’s said that this song inspired the Eagles’ infinitely better known ‘Hotel California’ and it’s true, the chord progression at the start of both songs is as good as identical (I’ve no idea what that means either. They just sound the bloody same and that’s that). Second to ‘Heavy Horses’, ‘They Used to Know’ is possibly the best song Jethro Tull ever did. With so many to choose from that’s a bold statement to make.

‘We Used to Know’ is followed by ‘Reasons for Waiting’, another princely track from the Tull’s enviable oeuvre and the pacy, uptempo ‘For a Thousand Mothers’ – sounding like the rhythm section chasing each other around a percussion factory – leads us out nicely.

With 4 bonus tracks on the 2001 reissue, including the chart bothering ‘Living in the Past’, Stand Up is in strong contention for the title of best Tull album. It’s certainly the moment in history when Jethro Tull suggest they’d one day be worthy of the moniker, the mighty Tull.

Stand Up is reissued by Chrysalis and available from Amazon.co.uk

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Jethro Tull – Stand Up

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Fruits de Mer Records

Jeffman — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 23:52:27 +0000

In the world of cinema, remakes are usually dismissed as a sign of the lack of creativity within the film industry moneymaking machine. The same can’t be said for music. If an artist covers another’s tune it’s called a tribute, and, dependant upon the song and diversity of the arrangement or “reinterpretation”, sometimes hailed as a “work of genius”.

So what if you’re a record label and all you do is release modern re-recordings of psychedelic, prog rock and acid-folk tunes from the late 60s and 70s? Well Fruits de Mer Records is one such label (possibly the only such label), and like the bumblebee with its disproportionate bodyweight to wingspan ratio, it shouldn’t work, but somehow does.

Fruits de Mer Records put out these little curios on limited edition, coloured 7″ vinyl, harking back to the age of the A-side and B-sided single with a repertoire of songs from such HFoS-friendly acts as The Zombies, Van der Graaf Generator, Caravan and The Rolling Stones.

Performing these tracks are a variety of modern day psych and prog apologists, including The Flaming Gnomes, Vibravoid and Stay; and in the case of Mark Fry, the original artist re-recording tracks from his seminal, though relatively obscure, acid-folk reverie Dreaming With Alice.

The 11-track sampler sent to HFoS towers absolutely bristles with energy, as these new acts inject old favourites with a renewed vigour, rendering something that sounds nowhere near as bad as the concept might suggest.

For instance, Schizo Fun Addict’s version of The Small Faces’ ‘Ogden’s Gone Nut Flake’ adds an ethereal female vocal, whilst cutting back on the original’s heavy phasing, firing it onto a new plain. Elsewhere, the aforementioned Stay, a neo-psych band from Spain, take credible shots at Strawberry Alarm Clock’s ‘Rainy Day, Mushroom Pillow’ and The Rolling Stones’ ‘2000 Light Years From Home‘.

Mark Fry’s version of the haunting title track from his Dreaming With Alice album is notable for appearing in one continuous form as opposed to the fragmented, album-straddling original, but loses nothing for it, sounding as though it was recorded in 1968 (despite the original album’s slightly out of time recording of 1972). Juxtaposing this gentleness is the barking mad, phased out psychedelic rock of Cranium Pie, chucking out a blistering rendition of Dantalion’s Chariot’s ‘Madman Running Through the Field’, complete with spectral vocodered chorus and backwards vocals.

Fruits de Mer and its roster of artists are doing a splendid job. Their multicoloured range of mind-bending musical platters is well worth checking out.

You can find out more at the Fruits de Mer website or sample some of the tracks on their MySpace page.

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Fruits de Mer Records

The Complex musical Soundscape of Mahikari

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Khan – Space Shanty

Jeffman — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 03:46:02 +0000

There’s a glittering pond, somewhere beyond the grim onset of the 1980s, where floats many a progressive rock act of the 70s that have either gone on to be forgotten or never attained the recognition they might’ve hoped for in their time. Drifting on this shimmering pool of dancing light, if you look hard enough, you may well spot Khan and there 1972 oneshot Space Shanty.

Give Space Shanty a listen and it will fire itself free of the watery grave, blasting forth beyond the pull of the earth’s orbit and into the deepest and darkest reaches of the universe. A psychedelic blend of arty space-rock and progressive organ noodling provide the soundtrack.

Khan were the almost legendary Steve Hillage (later of Gong and ongoing solo success), Dave Stewart (Egg, Hatfield and teh North, National Health), Nick Greenwood (The Crazy World of Arthur Brown) and Eric Peachy (Dr. K’s Blues Band). Their lifespan was short but that matters not – Space Shanty is an ambitious, sometimes flawed vestige by which to remember them.

A concept album of sorts, Space Shanty rings with otherworldly sounds, over-sincere vocals, winding guitar passages and Dave Stewart’s ethereal organs creating an interstellar undercurrent. Everything a progressive rock album should have.

With six tracks ranging from five to ten minutes in length, Khan tick all the boxes on the progressive rock checklist with a sound that’s not a hundred miles from Camel’s Moonmadness, albeit four years prior to that release. It also suggests the direction Steve Hillage was headed in – even with his musical career in its infancy – influenced by the avant-garde Canterbury scene and showcasing the experimental flair for which he’d recieve prog rock adulation on Gong’s “Radio Gnome Trilogy” and beyond.

Space Shanty is the kernel of the far-out, spage-age voyaging of Hillage’s later years and one that takes us into the realms of sci-fi authors Brian Aldiss and Larry Niven.

Khan’s voyage across the stars ends with ‘Hollow Stone (Escape of the Space Pirates)’, a wistful opus of spage-age acid dreaming that rounds things off nicely and, along with the staring-at-the-sun-mindfuck-trip that is ‘Mixed Up Man of the Mountains’, gets the HFoS connoiseur’s choice recommendation.

Space Shanty is a solid, if occcasionally understated example of progressive rock. It sports a Roger Dean-esque cover, the staple artwork of 70’s prog, and the 2008 reissue offers two bonus tracks.

Seek out the pond, salvage the vessel, and set course for the stars.

Space Shanty is reissued by Esoteric Recordings and available from Amazon.co.uk

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Khan – Space Shanty

Gong UK Tour Dates and Live Shots

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Supersister – Iskander

Jeffman — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:33:22 +0000

The oddball and essentially lighthearted Supersister saw a change in the ranks for 1973’s Iskander, their fourth studio album, with 50% of the four man line-up departing due to creative differences. With a new drummer in the shape of Herman van Boeyen and a saxophonist and flautist named Charlie Mariano drafted in, Supersister went all serious and recorded a concept album based upon the life of Alexander the Great.

The result was a wedge of progressive rock in the classic sense of the term.

In the same way that Rick Wakeman approached his solo projects with little or no vocal accompaniment, Iskander is all about the musicianship, creating musical vistas and sonic soundscapes that encapsulate the subject matter. There are Middle Eastern influences weaved throughout the fabric of the album, tying in with the Persian connection to the empire builder and ruler of ancient Greece (Iskander being the Persian name for Alexander). These are provided by Mariano wielding a variety of ethnic wind instruments.

A jazz-rock element also makes its – not altogether welcome – presence felt throughout and if the truth be known, this neither feels nor sounds like the Supersister of old. It holds more in common with, say, Camel’s The Snow Goose than their debut album Present From Nancy.

But is it any good?

Well, it’s not bad. The nine tracks blend effortlessly into one another, maintaining the feel of a sonic journey, but the occasional vocals seem to get lost, and in approaching the album in this way Supersister lose their identity, rendering themselves indistinguishable from a host of other prog rock bands of the 70s.

Saying that though, both ‘Bagaos’ and ‘Looking Back’ touch upon the previous quirky nature of these Dutch musical eccentrics, and the inclusion upon this Esoteric reissue of the single ‘Wow’ along with its B-side ‘Drs. D’, as well as the ramped-up 7″ version of ‘Bagaos’, help to remind us of how bloody good Supersister could be.

Not the best that Supersister released, but one that could grow over time.

Iskander is reissued by Esoteric Recordings and available from Amazon.co.uk

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Supersister – Iskander

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Focus – Hocus Pocus

Jeffman — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 11:03:10 +0000

Inspired Dutch lunacy from Thijs van Leer. Jan Akkerman and the rest of Focus, with a 1973 live version of their barmier than a badger’s stag-do track, ‘Hocus Pocus’.

Taken from the 1971 album Moving Waves, this version of the prog rockers’ classic is inexplicably speeded up in places, but it doesn’t lose any of its Tull-esque madness.

One that’s sure to be highly placed in the soon to be announced Head Full of Snow Top 50.

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Focus -- Hocus Pocus

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Demon Fuzz – Afreaka!

Jeffman — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 14:51:11 +0000

Progressive rock in the ’70s was traditionally recognised as being the realm of white (often middle-class, art-school educated), occasionally nerdy, hippy-types. However, challenging such notions was the all black Demon Fuzz, who signed to Pye’s prog label, Dawn, in 1970.

Afreaka!, released in the same year was there one and only album.

Five tracks (the Esoteric Recordings reissue bolts on the three track maxi-single ‘I Put a Spell On You’) pitch Demon Fuzz somewhere between prog rock and psychedelic soul-laced jazz excursions, with a threadwork of world music, tribal beats and the ever-trusty wah-wah pedal weaving its spell somewhere beneath.

The opening instrumental of ‘Past, Present and Future’ begins in purest progressive rock style with the meandering showmanship of a grinding bass, prior to some sultry horns kicking in and the song taking on a psychedelic jazz /soul feel that wouldn’t sound out a place on the backing track to a 70s blaxploitation flick. It continues to blend styles for just shy of ten minutes, and amazingly, for a song that is both instrumental and of a jazz-influence, doesn’t get boring.

It’s also a solid signpost for what to expect from the rest of Afreaka! If you don’t like ‘Past, Present and Future’, chances are you’ll feel much the same about the remainder. If you do, then everything’s dandy and carry on as you were.

The first of three vocal tracks, ‘Disillusioned’, keeps the jazz infusion ball rolling, through the faster paced ‘Another Country’, and leading to the eight minute long ’Hymn to Mother Earth’, a gently drifting paean to the ecosphere that bursts with dramatic interludes and is underscored by the prog rock weapons of choice, the organ (sounds like a Hammond) and flute.

The three track maxi-single, included as a bonus, features Demon Fuzz’s rendition of the Screamin’ Jay Hawkins classic ‘I Put a Spell On You’ – albeit in a markedly different arrangement from the original – the social commentary of ‘Message to Mankind’ and the more traditional jazz/world sound of ‘Fuzz Oriental Blues’.

Afreaka! comes as a pleasant surprise, with anything boasting a heavy jazz element usually being ejected via the nearest window at HFoS towers. However, Demon Fuzz’s blend is just right and succeeds in cooking up an appetising dish of progressive rock/soul/jazz/world fusion. One that’s well worth the more traditional progressive rock fan dipping their finger into.

Afreaka! by Demon Fuzz is reissued by Esoteric Recordings and available from Amazon.co.uk

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Demon Fuzz – Afreaka!

Supersister – Iskander

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Esoteric Recordings November Releases

Jeffman — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:11:53 +0000

Esoteric Recordings continue their sterling crusade of reissuing remastered psychedelic and progressive rock albums of the 60s and 70s.

So as the leaves brown, the air gets colder and the door slowly creaks shut on 2009, what’s crackling away in the Esoteric fireplace, lined up for a November release?

Pete Sinfield – Still (1973) A 2CD reissue of the King Crimson lyricist’s one and only solo venture. A large number of alternative mixes and outtakes are promised.

Flash – Flash (1972) The debut album by prog rocker’s Flash, the band formed by ex-Yes guitarist Peter Banks in the wake of his unceremonious replacement by Steve Howe in 1971.

Peter Banks – Both Side of Peter Banks (1973) With little information at the time of publishing, one has to imagine that this is either a typo or a renamed reissue of the deposed Yes guitarist’s 1973 album Two Sides of Peter Banks. Featuring Genesis’s Steve Hackett and Phil Collins (don’t let the mention of Phil Collins put you off) and King Crimson’s John Wetton, the album was written and recorded with Jon Akkerman of barmy Dutch progsters Focus.

Supersister – Spiral Staircase aka as Sweet Ok Supersister (1974) Just as Dutch and equally as barmy as Focus is the fifth and final classic-era release for Supersister.

Daryll Way – Concerto for Electric Violin (1978) Solo album from the founder member of Curved Air, who, in the same year, also recorded with Gong and Jethro Tull (on the title track of Heavy Horses).

Made in Sweden – Made in England (1970) The fourth album from the progressive jazz-rock trio.

Robert Calvert – Captain Lockheed and the Starfighters (1974) Debut concept album from Hawkwind associate, poet and rock-nutter Robert Calvert. Billed as no different to the 2007 Eclectic release, simply made re-available.

Esoteric Recordings website

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Man – MAN (1971) album review

Jeffman — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 15:00:28 +0000

Man, the rock group that spilled forth from South Wales in the late sixties and released a raft of albums throughout the seventies, were never ones to accept the pigeonhole gracefully. After all, what were they? Could Man be called psychedelic rock, progressive rock, country-rock or good old-fashioned pub rock?

Well they took elements of all these disciplines and brewed their own concoction, which if a category must be applied, would fall somewhere within the progressive-country-blues bracket… probably. MAN, their eponymously titled third album from 1971 is a suitable example of this eclectic clash of styles, as it veers from one to the next over the course of five songs.

Kicking off with the bluesy, pub-rocker ‘Romain’, a first-time listener may think they have Man sussed as it slips into the Tennessee-tinged ‘Country Girl’, which wouldn’t sound out of place blasting from the stage of the The Grand Ole Oprey. However, what follows most certainly would.

‘Would the Christians Wait Five Minutes? The Lions Are Having a Draw’ is as progressive as seventies progressive rock comes, right down to the unwieldy, tongue-in-cheek title. The thirteen minute instrumental, complete with occasional ethereal chanting, takes us beyond the realms of deepest space on a gentle, sometimes searing, voyage into the unknown and is a damn sight better than that equally unwieldy description might have you believe. It also appears to be a completely different band to that playing on the first two tracks. More Pink Floyd than Floyd Tillman.

Then as your coming down following the spaced out trip of ‘Would the Christians Wait Five Minutes…’, Man let rip with the hard-edged rock ‘n’ roll of ‘Daughter of the Fireplace’, which despite a few progressive elements thrown in for good measure, once again casts the listener’s expectations out the window.

MAN concludes with the twenty minute ‘Alchemist’, a psychedelic prog rock magnum opus that sounds like Pink Floyd’s ‘Echoes’ off of the same year’s Meddle colliding headfirst with a Hawkwind freak-out.

Reading through the liner notes provided by vocalist and guitarist Deke Leonard, reveals the album to have been made on a diet of finest homegrown and industrial strength LSD. With such a liberated attitude to their intake of mind-altering substances, Man created in MAN a spacey, tripped-out, sometimes conventional but always erratic dichotomy of an album. And a damned fine one at that.

The Esoteric Recordings reissue contains two bonus tracks. The single version of ‘Daughter of the Fireplace’, and the longer, first version of ‘Alchemist’.

MAN is remastered and reissued by Esoteric and available from Amazon.co.uk

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Man – MAN (1971) album review

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The Beatles ‘Box of Vision’ Book for UK Release

Jeffman — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 14:11:34 +0000

‘I’ve Got a Feeling’ this Christmas is going to be one made in heaven for the weathered Beatles fan, ‘Yes it Is’. Following on from a veritable ‘Helter Skelter’ of Beatles business to coincide with the 40th anniversary of their split – including the complete digital remastering of the Fab Four’s backcatalog, as well as the first official venture into the world of video gaming with The Beatles Rock Band – ‘Yesterday’ it came to the attention of Head Full of Snow that The Beatles Box of Vision is to be released in the UK in time for the festive period.

Whereas, generally, ‘Happiness is a Warm Gun’ , true happiness can only be achieved by ‘Something’ such as this book/display case combo – the type which makes you want to scream in its general direction, “I’ve ‘Got to Get You into My Life’”…

… But crap punning aside, this really looks to be one for the collector, boasting three components that will leave a Beatles enthusiast foaming at the mouth.

Book 1 – The Album Artwork Book is a 200 page, LP-sized lexicon of all The Beatles’ album covers (both UK and US), back covers, gatefolds, inserts and complete booklets, presented in new restored art prints. One for the completist to get more than a little moist under the collar over.

Book 2 – “The Catalography” is a full colour Beatles discography, bursting with photos, text and track-listings for all the UK and US releases.

Book 3 – The Box of Vision storage book is designed to organise and display the complete Beatles backcatalog in the style of lush oppulence they surely deserve. Tailored to store the recent digi-pack reissues, those who own the previous releases can still bung the CDs and booklets in, dispensing with the jewel cases or putting them to better use (ideas in the comments below, please).

“It’s the ultimate fan piece,” says designer, Jonathon Polk, and it would certainly add a spring to the step of those of The Beatles persuasion.

Available from selected outlets or mail order, it only remains for me to say, ‘Mailman, Bring Me No More Blues’, bring me one of these badboys.

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HFoS Top Five Procol Harum Songs

Jeffman — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 03:52:42 +0000

To bring Head Full of Snow’s Procol Harum Week to a close, we list our five favourite tunes from the erudite songsmiths of psychedelic and progressive rock grandiose.

Actually, following a ruddy great trawl through what’s on offer, this may be retitled our “five favourite Procol Harum tunes available on YouTube.” They’re all absolute stonkers, nonetheless. ‘A Salty Dog‘, ‘Grand Hotel‘ and ‘A Whiter Shade of Pale’ are absent from this list as they were posted earlier this week.

So with no further nonsense, let’s get stuck in.

No. 5 -- Homburg

Procol Harum’s follow up to ‘A Whiter Shade of Pale‘ was released in September 1967 and continued the hypnagogic classical melancholy of that phenomenal hit with some more abstract, yet carefully crafted lyrics (c/o Keith Reid), and Gary Brooker’s piano taking prominence over Matthew Fisher’s Hammond organ. It reached No.5 in the UK charts and is available as a bonus track on Procol Harum’s debut album.

No. 4 -- Pandora’s Box

Resplendent in marimba, keyboards and flute, ‘Pandora’s Box’ appeared on the 1975 album, Procol’s Ninth, their penultimate release before the band name was retired in 1977 for a hefty 14 years. The song was originally recorded in an instrumental form as far back as August 1967, which is also included as a bonus track on the debut album. The ‘75 version reached No. 16 in the UK charts.

No. 3 -- Nothing That I Didn’t Know

“Did you hear what happened to Jenny Droe?” -- Me neither, but this atmospheric lament makes one think it was something pretty bad. Gary Brooker breaks out the accordian at the end of this one, and if anybody’s curious as to what Procol Harum’s silent member -- lyricist Keith Reid -- looks like, that’s him with the curly hair and glasses looking forlorn in the first shot of the video. ‘Nothing That I Didn’t Know’ appeared on the 1970 album Home.

No. 2 -- Magdalene (My Regal Zonophone)

An excellent, if almost funeral-style dirge, from Procol Harum’s second album, Shine on Brightly, released in 1968. ‘Magdalene (My Regal Zonophone)’ takes its name from the record label (Regal Zonophone) the band were signed to at the time, one that had been around since 1932 and was in 1967 revived as an imprint by EMI. Two versions of the song were recorded, both appearing on the Salvo/Fly reissue of Shine on Brightly. This is the album version, which Gary Brooker said of, when interviewed for Dutch radio in 1979, “… never quite captured the warmth and magic of the original version.” I, for one, have to disagree.

No. 1 -- Whaling Stories

Even if ‘Grand Hotel‘, ‘A Salty Dog‘ or ‘AWSoP’ had been allowed into this top five, they would’ve all been pipped to the finishing post by this, one of the finest examples of progressive, symphonic or any other kind of rock you might wish to mention. Truly Procol Harum’s magnum opus, ‘Whaling Stories’ is epic in every sense of the word. A nightmarish nautical fantasy from the pen of Keith Reid with superb composition by Gary Brooker, it builds and builds to a fantastic choral finale. First seeing light of day on the 1970 album Home, ‘Whaling Stories’ is Head Full of Snow’s top track from the titanically technicolor, yet criminally underrated, Procol Harum archives. And thereby hangs a tale.

Procol Harum’s debut album, Shine on Brightly, A Salty Dog, Home, Grand Hotel and Procol’s Ninth are available to buy from Amazon.

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All This and More: A 4-Disc Compendium (Procol Harum Week)

Jeffman — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 11:15:45 +0000

With packaging as lush as and three times more lickable than a Gary Brooker orchestral arrangement, Salvo release the Creme de Menthe of their Procol Harum 40th Anniversary reissues, the four disc compendium, All This and More.

All this and more, indeed. What we have here is three CDs spanning the lengthy career of Southend-on-Sea’s finest, a DVD brimming with live performances, and a 70-page booklet distended with photographs, song facts and the story so far regarding the perennial psychedelic/progressive/symphonic rock act.

Disc 1 cherry-picks the crop from the band’s first four years and albums, though for my money slips up in excluding both ‘Magdalene (My Regal Zonophone)’ from Shine on Brightly and ‘Whaling Stories’ from Home. Minor quibbles aside, it’s a decent harvest of Procol Harum’s first phase, distilled into 16 tracks. ‘A Whiter Shade of Pale‘, ‘Homburg’, ‘A Salty Dog’ and all five suites of the epic prog rock cornerstone ‘In Held ‘Twas in I’, are present and correct, as one would hope.

Aside from ‘Your Own Choice’, which appears on fourth album Home and mysteriously makes the opener here, Disc 2 covers 1971 and beyond, snaffling songs from Broken Barricades, right up to 2003’s The Well’s on Fire. These include the excellent and moving lament ‘For Liquorice John’ from Grand Hotel, the Gypsy campfire ambience of ‘Beyond the Pale’, and a restored version of ‘The Blue Danube’, recorded live in 1976 at the Bournemouth Winter Gardens and produced by Steve Winwood’s brother, Muff. Needless to say, the lion’s share of the goodies rightly come from the 1971-1977 era, prior to Procol Harum’s 14 year break.

Disc 3 is a real treat for those already familiar with the albums, as it brings together 14 live performances stretching back as far as 1969. Amongst the gems collected here are an extended workout of Home’s ‘Whisky Train’ from 2007 and a rendering of the epic ‘Last Train to Niagara’, which contains lyrics and musical motifs from Procol Harum’s long history, tied together by the central theme of a reflective train journey.

The DVD on All This and More, also brings together live performances ranging from 1974 to 2006. 22 in all. The after-dinner brandy arrives in the form of a Danish TV special from 1974, featuring the most seventies looking audience, sitting in the most seventies looking set ever conceived. With four tracks taken from Hotel Grand, A Salty Dog and Exotic Birds and Fruit, the band (in their fifth incarnation) belt them out in typical dynamic style. Also worthy of a mention is a rousing rendition of ‘Whaling Stories’, filmed at Ledreborg Castle in Denmark, 2006, and including a full orchestra and choral accompaniment. Sterling stuff.

Overall All This and More is as comprehensive an overview of the first forty years of Procol Harum as one could wish for. Sure, the inclusion of more modern tracks – 1991 onwards – may seem unnecesary, but by broadening the brush Salvo have fulfilled the remit of a Procol Harum compendium. Besides, there’s more than enough of the old stuff on here to keep us all happy.

The absence of any alternate studio versions, unlike last year’s The Move Anthology (also fantastically packaged by Salvo), makes All This and More fall just short of being the essential purchase that particular release was… If you already have the reissued albums, that is. If not, it knocks any other Procol Harum “Best of” into a cocked hat. The presentation, extra content, and the sound quality on both the CDs and DVD are second to none, and petty nitpicks aside, All This and More is the recommended port of call for those wanting an easily accessible, yet extensive journey, into the musical realm of one of prog rock’s finest.

All This and More: A 4-Disc Compendium is released on Salvo and available to buy from Amazon.co.uk

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Grand Hotel album review – Procol Harum

Jeffman — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 14:24:42 +0000

Procol Harum were already into their fifth line-up when, in 1973, they released their sixth studio album, Grand Hotel.

With guitarist Robin Trower and his replacement for Live in Concert with the Edmonton Orchestra, Dave Ball, both gone, Mick Grabham, ex of Ladbroke Grove country rockers Cochise, joined the fold and along with Alan Cartwright on bass, Procol Harum were back to being a five-piece. Grand Hotel also saw a triumphant return to the symphonic sound they had been drifting away from on the previous studio albums, Home and Broken Barricades.

As with the earlier albums it’s Gary Brooker’s piano that takes the lead, and with Alan Cartwright’s arrival freeing him from bass duties, Chris Copping provides sterling support on the organ, enriching the melodies in a far less “hands-on” manner than previous Hammond-maestro, Matthew Fisher.

The album begins in noble style with a track that sits comfortably amongst the best that Procol Harum ever knocked out.

‘Grand Hotel‘ gives the album its name and the listener a lavishly dramatic example of symphonic rock at its very best. This is the stuff of movie soundtracks, belted out with incredible finesse by the band that could never be surpassed when it came to this sort of thing. Not by Queen, ELO or anybody. As the cover of the album suggests, the song evokes a feel of 1920’s grandeur, with the opulent air of a hotel exclusive to the rich and the famous prevalent throughout. The inclusion of full orchestral and choir arrangements puts it at the zenith of the band’s output alongside such classics as ‘A Salty Dog‘ and ‘Whaling Stories’. The inclusion of a raw, orchestra-free version of ‘Grand Hotel’ as a bonus track, though still exceptional, highlights the elevation these symphonic embellishments give it.

With such a strong opener, Grand Hotel pulls out all the stops ensuring it doesn’t disappoint for the remainder, and though the vast scope of the title track proves difficult to surpass, one would be hard-pressed to find a damp squib amongst what’s on offer.

They range from the melodic humour of ‘A Rum Tale’ to the jaunty bossa nova of the closer (and weakest track), ‘Robert’s Box’. In between, ‘For Liqourice John’, an emotional lament to a friend who committed suicide, and ‘Fires (Which Burn Brightly)’, an operatic number strengthened by the vocal contribution of Christianne Legrand, both match ‘Grand Hotel’ for sheer breathtaking elegance.

Grand Hotel easily ranks alongside A Salty Dog and Home as one of Procol Harum’s best studio albums.

Grand Hotel is reissued by Salvo Records and available from Amazon.co.uk

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Grand Hotel album review – Procol Harum

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Grand Hotel (song and video) – Procol Harum Week

Jeffman — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 14:21:53 +0000

The opener to the album Grand Hotel, and one of Procol harum’s finest.

Released in 1973, ‘Grand Hotel’ cements Procol Harum’s place as one the finest progressive/symphonic rock bands the genre had to offer. I don’t think anything else needs saying.

You can read a review of Grand Hotel here.

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Grand Hotel (song and video) -- Procol Harum Week

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Live in Concert with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra: Procol Harum Week

Jeffman — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 15:14:40 +0000

For their sixth album, Procol Harum departed the studio and took to the stage of the Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium in Edmonton, Canada, with a full symphony orchestra as their backing band and a 24-voice choir providing vocal support.

Released in 1972, Procol Harum Live in Concert with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra (to give it its full, roll off the tongue title) was the result and it finds the band in their natural live habitat, their most ambitious songs up until that time heard in all their symphonic rock glory.

Harvesting its yield from the first four albums, Salvo’s reissue of Live in Concert… is a must for anybody who, like myself, thoroughly enjoys Procol Harum’s most excessive outings. I’m talking songs like the magnificently grandiose ‘Whaling Stories’ from Home, ‘A Salty Dog’ from the album of the same name and the epically schizophrenic ‘In Held Twas in I’ from Shine on Brightly, all of which are present and correct here.

Hearing these orchestral rock masterpieces delivered live with a full accompaniment will send a shiver down your spine, as the full majesty of Procol Harum’s innovative brilliance is given copious space to breathe. Even a track such as the fairly innocuous ‘Conquistador’ from the debut album, is elevated to something much more cinematic when treated to such an audacious arrangement.

And that’s what this album is all about. Being bold. It’s progressive rock with all the trimmings – flicking the V-sign to the critics that would later dismiss the genre as being overblown. Whereas there’s a certain amount of justification in the accusation of pomposity levelled at some prog acts, this was never the case with Procol Harum. The magnificence of their sound coupled with the sheer power of Gary Brooker’s blue-eyed-soul vocals was always something much more majestic. Live in Concert with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra is a stunning showcase of this and a band always ahead of their game.

The Salvo reissue, as usual, is sexily packaged and complemented by a damn good read in the informative, photo-packed booklet. There’s also three bonus tracks with live versions of ‘Luskus Delph’ and ‘Simple Sister’ from Broken Barricades and ‘Shine on Brightly’. More reasons – if more reasons were needed – to cop a hold of this album now.

Live in Concert with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra is reissued by Salvo and available from Amazon.co.uk

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Live in Concert with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra: Procol Harum Week

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Simple Sister video: Procol Harum Week

Jeffman — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 15:21:22 +0000

As reviewed yesterday as part of Procol Harum Week, here’s the barnstorming opener from 1971’s Broken Barricades album, entitled ‘Simple Sister’.

Well most of it anyway, as this video seems to be a sawn-off version, running at two minutes shy of the album original. Nevertheless, it gives a good feel for the harder rock edge that was heard on the Broken Barricades album.

This live workout is from the post-Robin Trower days, featuring the band in their fourth guise with Gary Brooker on vocals and piano, BJ Wilson on drums, Chris Copping on organ, Alan Cartwright on bass and Dave Ball on guitar (who having not long replaced Trower, would soon leave to join Long John Baldry).

Cracking stuff from the Procol Harum stable.

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Simple Sister video: Procol Harum Week

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A Salty Dog video: Procol Harum Week

Jeffman — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 14:37:37 +0000

‘A Salty Dog’ is widely regarded as one of Procol Harum’s finest songs, and you wouldn’t get any arguments from Head Full of Snow on that count.

Taken from the 1969 album of the same name, it marked vocalist and songwriter Gary Brooker’s first attempt at an orchestral score, and the lavish result places ‘A Salty Dog’ in the bracket of all-time great progressive rock compositions. It can also be regarded as quite a feat, considering Brooker had no classical training whatsoever.

The briny, maritime masterpiece, featuring nautical lyrics from the Procol Harum writer in residence, Keith Reid, failed to capture the mood of the public when released as a single in May 1969. Still dismissed as the one-hit wonders behind ‘AWSoP‘, ‘A Salty Dog’ climbed to an underwhelming No. 44 on the UK singles charts.

Since then it has gone on to enjoy deserved appreciation amongst critics and fans alike.

‘A Salty Dog’ appears on the album of the same name reissued by Salvo and Fly Records band available from Amazon.co.uk

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A Salty Dog video: Procol Harum Week

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Broken Barricades: Procol Harum Week

Jeffman — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 15:22:05 +0000

In 1971, when Procol Harum’s Broken Barricades was first released, the band that has been through a massive 23 different line-ups was only on their third, the same quartet responsible for the previous album Home.

There was Chris Copping doubling up on bass and organ, alongside BJ Wilson and Robin Trower from the classic era, on drums and guitar respectively. Then, of course, there was the one constant factor in Procol Harum’s lifespan: Gary Brooker, singer, pianist and songwriting partner to the band’s lyricist, the ever-present Keith Reid.

Home had seen the psychedelia of A Whiter Shade of Pale, and the earlier albums, shown the door in favour of a harder rock sound that kept the progressive edge and cemented Procol Harum’s reputation as one of the most innovative acts doing the rounds.

Broken Barrricades saw them continue along this road, paring back the symphonics that had really come to the fore on A Salty Dog and Home’s ‘Whaling Stories’, to produce an album that’s still chock full of ideas, despite seeing them in their rawest form.

Robin Trower’s guitar dexterity dominates throughout, with Gary Brooker’s piano often content to provide depth as opposed to the usual lead, whilst BJ Wilson’s drumming really comes into its own, particularly on ‘Power Failure’ where a solo sees him punishing the skins without becoming needlessly pretentious or overstaying his welcome.

Kicking off with ‘Simple Sister’, a song bursting with robust enthusiasm and utilising Brooker’s R ‘n’ B vocals to maximum effect, the eight tracks on the original release contain some real gems, worthy of immortality within the extensive Procol Harum canon.

The title track is a joy of melody, juxtaposed against its apocalyptic if suitably abstract lyrics, whereas ‘Song For a Dreamer’, a fitting tribute written in the wake of Jimi Hendrix’s untimely death, will feel familiar to anybody who has heard the guitar legend’s ‘1983… (A Merman I Should Turn to Be)’ from Electric Ladyland. Also worthy of mention is ‘Luskus Delph’, the only song on the album to slip into the symphonic rock territory Procol Harum made their own.

Broken Barricades is a superb continuation of the band’s legacy, marking themselves out as a matured, serious rock act for the 1970s.

The Salvo reissue sees the label teaming up with Strongman Records and maintaining the high standard set by their collaboration with Fly. There are four bonus tracks, two alternate takes and two backing tracks – but once again it’s the lush packaging and booklet that gives the major labels, carelessly popping out reissues like they’re going out of fashion, something to aspire to.

Broken Barricades is reissued by Salvo Records and available from Amazon.co.uk

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Broken Barricades: Procol Harum Week

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Procol Harum Week: A Whiter Shade of Pale

Jeffman — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 11:16:52 +0000

Head Full of Snow’s 100th post coincides with the launch of Procol Harum Week. It’s almost as though I planned it that way. And where else would one kick off a Procol Harum Week than at the moment in time where it all began? The debut single that has gone on to be named the UK’s “most played record ever”.

Whether you love or hate it, there’s no denying that if at some point over the last 42 years you’ve heard a bit of music, there’s more chance of it being ‘A Whiter Shade of Pale’ than anything else.

Though not their best song, it managed to capture a moment in the summer of 1967 when, if you were fortunate enough not to have to work for a living and bought into the whole flower power freedom movement, anything seemed possible. The fact it caught on with the mainstream too, quickly elevated AWSoP to the legendary stature it enjoys today.

Its phenomenal success was not solely down to it being a damn fine song. A spot of canny marketing saw the disc released to a pirate radio station first (Radio London), creating a deluge of interest. The single was given an immediate, yet limited, release of 1000 copies, further stoking public enthusiasm for something not everyone had the chance of getting their hands on. When the enormous demand was finally met, record stores in the UK were seen with makeshift signs in the window declaring “A WHITER SHADE OF PALE AVAILABLE HERE”, and the record hit the top spot of the singles charts on June 10th 1967.

Since then ‘A Whiter Shade of Pale’ has gone on to be both a blessing and a curse to the group. A blessing in that it has made Gary Brooker (vocalist and songwriter) and Keith Reid (the band’s behind the scenes lyricist) a ton of cash. And a curse in that Procol Harum could never shake free of its considerable presence. Despite going on to produce ten albums in ten years, some people will only ever think of them as a one hit wonder.

Court cases aside -- Hammond organist Matthew Fisher won a claim to a percentage of the royalties in 2009 -- ‘A Whiter Shade of Pale’ remains to this day a stone cold classic of psychedelia.

Enough of my nonsense, behold the beast!

‘A Whiter Shade of Pale’ appears as a bonus track on the 40th Anniversary reissue of Procol Harum’s debut album, available from Amazon.co.uk

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Procol Harum Week: A Whiter Shade of Pale

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Procol Harum Week at Head Full of Snow

Jeffman — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 02:22:58 +0000

Just a quick announcement from the editorial staff here at HFoS towers that next week is officially declared Procol Harum Week.

Kicking off tomorrow, Head Full of Snow is dedicating itself to the innovative progressive rock act that will, unfairly or otherwise, forever be associated with one song, ‘A Whiter Shade of Pale’.

Between 1967 and 1977 Procol Harum released ten albums, yet never managed to repeat nor shake the success of their breakthrough single, officially the UK’s most played record of all time*.

Head Full of Snow loves Procol Harum’s symphonic rock/ prog excess, and following on from the underwhelming success of The Dukes of Stratosphere weekend, we give ourselves over to the band that’s spanned 23 different line-ups and is still playing today (with main man, Gary Brooker still at the helm).

Stay tuned this week for more.

*According to Phonographic Performance Ltd.

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The Witch and the Robot – On Safari

Jeffman — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 20:45:29 +0000

I seem to have jumped the gun when I made the rather bold statement that The Duckworth Lewis Method had released the best new album you would hear this year – back in August. Since then I have gone on to discover the sublime Circulus, who released their third album in June (reviews soon, promise) and now this cheeky little combo, The Witch and the Robot.

Set to be released on October 5th (2009), On Safari is their debut album.

Hailing from Ambleside in the Lake District, the band’s press release promises a blend of dark psychedelia, folk, shanties and spoken word – “proving that the darkest music often comes from the prettiest places” – and I’m happy to say they don’t disappoint. In fact any album actively promoting shanties, has to be a must-listen in my book.

On Safari pitches its tent firmly in the camp of the surreal, with tales of time travel, dead puppeteers, the sea, and seeking out the graves of giants nestled like a bag of spiders amidst other vaguely disturbing wierdness.

The first two tracks, ‘Giants’ Graves’ and ‘The Beatification of St Thomas Aquinas’, launch the proceedings in a robust, take-no-prisoners style before easing back for the gently lilting ‘Rapture of the Deep’, a song about finding oneness with the ocean as her opacity envelopes you mind, body and soul, en route to a watery grave!

And it’s this sense of the unsettling that lies behind the much of On Safari, with seemingly innocuous enough songs (though brilliantly executed) that when examined deeper reveal something a tad more dreadful lurking below the surface. It’s Brothers Grimm fairytales rewired by the Ramsey Campbell wing of The Mighty Boosh.

For instance, ‘The Puppeteer’ is pure Quay Bothers with its dead protagonist, without eyes, feet or a mouth, doomed to relate the tale of her demise through the child-repelling puppet show she hosts at a carnival. Elsewhere ‘No Flies on Me (Ballad of the Jam Head)’ is the tale of man whose job it is to draw the flies away from rich golfers by covering his head in jam, replete with the haunting chorus of “There must be something better than this”.

This realm of strangeness brings to mind Kevin Ayers wallowing at his darkest depths of uneasiness (think ‘The Confessions of Dr. Dream’ or ‘Song From the Bottom of a Well’), while tipping a jauntily angled trilby to fellow avant-gardists Gong, or even prog rockers Web.

On Safari is indeed a delight, fusing its different styles into one tempting whole. It’s pessimistic, pastoral, frantic, psychedelic in parts, and floating face down in a lake of lost desperation – the stuff of which nightmares are seeded.

The moral of this review – Never count your chickens in August before your psychedelic-folk-wierdness has hatched.

On Safari by The Witch and the Robot is released on Atic Records and available for pre-order on CD or to download now at Amazon.co.uk

The Witch and the Robot MySpace page

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The Witch and the Robot – On Safari

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