Canterbury Glass

Sacred Scenes and Characters might be the most influential psychedelic album that wasn’t released in 1968.  That might take some explanation.

Canterbury Glass was a five piece band who recorded their sole work, Sacred Scenes and Characters, late in 1968.  At that time, the five members were Malcolm Ironton (guitar and vocals), Mike hall (keyboards, guitar and vocals), Tony Proto (bass), Dave Dowle (drums) and Valerie Watson (flute, harmonica and vocals).  Their album consisted of six long tracks that were strongly influenced by religious choral music (Westminster Cathedral to be specific) mixed with the creative psychedelic rock of the era, specifically Caravan, Pink Floyd and to a lesser extent, The Moody Blues.   The result was a brilliant concept album that displayed an amazing diversity of musical ideas – very innovative for its day.

Here’s where we will break from the actual music and look at the story behind this album.

After the recording was completed, the producer ran it over to Polydor and got an immediate offer to release it – on a major label.  He then made the mistake of also shopping it to CBS, who showed some interest as well.  This back and forth between the two labels went on for too long, and both decided to move on and invest in other musical projects.  Disappointed, the band soon fell apart and the music was forgotten.   Until, almost 40 years later, when Malcolm Ironside came across the master tapes while working on another project.  Unfortunately, he could only find four of the original six tracks.  An early demo of one of the missing songs was found, and it was in good enough shape to include, although it actually bore little resemblance to the finished version.   There is one more interesting piece to this story.  A young unknown (at the time) guitarist was invited to add some lead guitar to the final track.  That turned out to be Steve Hackett, of Genesis fame.

Generally, an archival find like this rarely lives up to the backing story.  In the case of Canterbury Glass, it does and much more, as you can hear for yourself in the sample linked below.   As it turns out, Kyrie, the opening track, is nicely representative of the remaining three long songs.   In addition to the solid bass lines and multi-part vocal harmonies, the remainder of the album will feature some nice acoustic guitar, with a distinct psych feel through the vocals.   There are also long sections of organ with the typical tone and technique of the era.  Some tight ensemble play with sharp staccato runs and more than a few start and stops make this album as much proto-prog as it is psychedelic.   The harmonica dates it a bit, but the flute, and there is a lot of it, hints at great things to come from other bands in a few short years (Jethro Tull, Focus, et al).

If you are a fan of the very earliest psych-proto-prog crossover period, this little gem should find a nice home in your collection.

One of the most incredible psychedelic rock albums from 1968 did not see its release until 2007.   Thankfully, we can now enjoy it, or at least 2/3 of what was found.

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The Ship

The Ship: A Contemporary Folk Music Journey is a fascinating piece of American folk rock with just enough complexity and development to interest a broad minded progressive rock listener.   The band, which goes by the name of The Ship, is a five piece featuring three guitars, keyboards and bass.   There are no drums, but you don’t really miss them thanks to an ever present acoustic guitar strumming in the background.  Four of the five members sing, offering up some incredible vocal harmonies over the course of this concept album.   Think along the lines of Ian Mathews (Seven Bridges Road) and you will be in the right ballpark.  In addition to the aforementioned instruments, you will also hear dobro, harmonica, flute and perhaps even a cello.

Most of the 11 songs are in the 3-5 minute range and go from enthusiastic romping to some absolutely gorgeous somber songs.  The middle of this album is where the progressive elements really start showing up with a pair of back to back 8 minutes songs about the obligatory storm encounter and subsequent sailing around while completely lost.  The album closes with a nice long reprise of the main opening theme.

There is not a dull moment anywhere to be found in this fun concept album.

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Fauns

Every once in a while, you come across some new music that makes you drop what you are doing and just listen.  Such is the case with this German folk/rock band. Please don’t confuse them with another German band called Faun, which is easy as the music is eerily similar, though Faun (without the s) is more pagan folk on period instruments.

The band has been together since the mid-1990s, but has just recently started releasing full length albums.  To date, they have issued two, LeafFall (2009) and Awaiting the Sun (2011).  There is also 23 minute EP that the band has issued earlier in the summer.  The EP is only available at their performances or through their website.

Fauns is a six piece featuring two guitarists (one acoustic and one electric), bass, drums, keyboards as well as viola/flute.  The band also makes great use of both male and female vocals, either individually or in harmony.  They also do a nice job of mixing long and sometimes complicated 10+ minute songs with shorter verse/chorus pieces.   Fauns does one more thing that really sets them apart – they aren’t afraid to play in unusual time signatures, which puts them right on the progressive rock radar.   Long suites of breathtakingly beautiful pastoral music with flute mixed with some loud amped up heavy riffing – what’s not to like.

Instead of just one sample, I’ve decided to include three to give you some idea of the breadth of this band’s repertoire, which is mind-boggling when you consider they only have two albums.  As for where to start, it really doesn’t matter.  You will end up owning both albums.  I don’t know that I have a favorite, but LeafFall is probably the place where I would begin.

Dawn is an except from the 20 minute closing track on Awaiting the Sun.  Breathtaking.

As Her Autumn Song Called is one of the more basic short pieces from LeafFall.

And to show off their progressive side, here is the long closing track from the debut, Cuiviénen.

If you like some folk to go with your prog, give Fauns a listen.

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Unit Wail

The date was March 14, 2004 and a little known English group unleashed a behemoth of progressive rock mayham on an unsuspecting world.  Guapo’s Five Suns significance was that the album was truly a genre buster.  It was Zeuhl, it was avant-garde.  It was heavy as a ton of bricks, yet it had a melodic quality where you could actually hum the main themes.  In a world where so many bands get labelled and we spend a tremendous amount of time and energy classifying, and often times alienating listeners, this was a rare moment of unity.  The follow up effort, Black Oni, thrilled some and others not so much.  The group hug was short lived and eventually the divide grew wider as Guapo continued to develop their style with their next release, and then as Miasma and the Carousel of Headless Horses.  The world had indeed returned back to normal.

Zoom ahead to some time in late September, 2012, and the same thing has just happened, this time thanks to this new five piece band from France.  New might not be terribly accurate as the guitarist is Frank Fromy from the legendary Zeuhl/RIO/Avant band Shub-Niggurath.  At first that did not thrill me as I’m not a fan of that particular band.  Oh, I appreciate the dark angry noise that they created, I just need a bit more melody.

To say that Unit Wail floored me is an understatement.

The album starts off with a gnarly sustained guitar line that we have heard a hundred times, from Richard Pinhas to Frank Fromy to just about anybody who has played with Christian Vander in the last decade.  The guitar line begins to uncoil like a snake and all of a sudden we are hearing some of best blowtorch guitar/bass/drums since Heldon’s Stand By.   Oops, now a mood swing and it’s gently re-building while a Mellotron can be heard in the distance.  Finally the entire band jumps in with the ferocity of Shub-Niggurath ….. and the melodic qualities of the aforementioned Guapo.  This is Zeuhl, this is avant-garde.  This is post-rock, and RIO.  This is ……. well, incredible.

All of this took place in just the first three minutes of this remarkable album.

Keyboardist and principal composer,  Vincent Sicot-Vantalon, has done a spectacular job of creating 3 to 5 minute musical ideas in which to showcase the versatility of the band. Through it all you hear the glorious Mellotron, always in the background, but never very far away when it is momentarily absent.  There is a great mix of high energy blowtorch pieces as well as some less intense moments, allowing the listener to catch their breath.  You will also hear some of the nastiest fuzz bass since Jannik Top and Bernard Paganotti tried to show who was boss on Da Futura.  The album closes out with a heavy funeral march that creates mental imagery of Godzilla walking off into the sunset, sad that this has come to an end.  At least for now.   You can always hit the play button again.  And again.

The most important thing you need to know about this album is that it is always moving, nearly always busy and energetic, and always melodic.

Here is a sample, courtesy of our friends at Soleil Zuehl.

As a result of this album, I am revisiting the Shub-Niggurath releases with a new set of ears, and am liking what I hear.

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Dr. Tree

Since the last couple of postings have been about jazz-rock bands, let’s keep that going with Dr. Tree.

This sextet from New Zealand released just one album, a self-titled work back in 1976 .  In addition to the typical core of guitar, keyboards, bass and drums, Dr. Tree adds a second percussionist and a trumpet, who gets his fair share of the spotlight.  While you might think that tilts them more in the direction of a stage band, consider that the second track on the album is a cover of Return to Forever’s Vulcan Worlds, one of the few tunes that doesn’t feature trumpet.  I should add that it is a pretty ripping cover.   At the very least, Dr. Tree was trying to be a high energy fusion band and they were quite successful accomplishing that.  You will also hear more than enough to tickle your prog-bone, like long passages of rather complicated counterpoint.  Then there is the riffing.  And riffing.  And riffing.

One of the things that can go terribly wrong with fusion or jazz-rock bands of this era were the inclusion of vocals, or even worse, the dreaded girl chorus.  Dr. Tree plays this one smartly and keeps it all instrumental.

The first three tracks, one being a short introduction, are the high energy rocking parts of the album.  The Return to Forever cover and the sample below round out that portion of the album.   The next two tracks are a bit less rock and move into a Freddy Hubbard Red Clay direction, and that is a very good thing indeed.  The ever present twinkling of the Fender Rhodes keeps it interesting through that part of the album.  The finale starts with the instruments going around in circles, as if in a bubbling cauldron about to erupt.  That is temporarily interrupted by an energetic, and thankfully brief percussion solo.   Your patience for sitting through those couple of minutes are rewarded with a hyper-energetic finish to the album.

Fortunately, this album has been legitimately reissued in a gorgeous digipack.  If you have picked up one of the bootlegs, perhaps the Poor House, you should really replace it with this edition.  The packaging and sound quality are top notch.

Important note: The legitimate reissue of this CD is on EMI New Zealand.  I have checked a couple of US domestic sources for this and they are not the EMI reissue, but a bootleg on Southside out of Germany.  And of course, there is the Poor House bootleg from a decade or so ago still floating about.  In the comments, Tom suggests looking on Ebay or from an online shop in New Zealand called Smoke CDs.  A big thanks to Tom Hayes for this information!

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