Judas Priest - Sin After Sin

Ahh, Heavy Metal...
Back when I was a teenager, I was obsessed with heavy metal, it kinda struck a chord with my geekyness and shyness, but looking back on it, I can barely listen to most of it as it just seems rather pointless and pathetic. Like an audio version of Dungeons & Dragons. It seems to get all the geekyness and wrap it in a cloak of manufactured malice, which ends up coming across all futile. However Judas Priest are one of the true exceptions. Formed in the industrial city of Birmingham, Priest started off as a kinda post-psychedelic heavy blues band, their first album, Rocka Rolla, a total delight. It's utterly bleak, without veering into the pseudo-gothic pretentions of which the genre is now associated. By their second album, Sad Wings Of Destiny, Priest had refined their sound into a chugging behemoth, not of the Hawkwind/Motorhead style, but more streamlined, more angry. By this, their third album, the blues element had faded, and what we're left with is kinda like metal's 'year zero', in it's new and fresh sound. But was Sin After Sin the first of the new fast metal, or the end of the post-psychedelic heavies?

The album opens up with Sinner, an epic fast paced monster of a track featuring searing vocals, a steady beat and chugging riffage. The signature Priest sound. Halford's voice still has those bluesy influences during the verses, but when it hits the chorus he's screeching in splendid falsetto form. The song features religious imagery presented in a sci-fi way, while musically it's total heavy metal featuring loads of different sections building up an epic feel, with tremendous playing featuring the kind of energy that left Zeppelin and Sabbath choking in their dust. The middle break features a delicious Hendrix take by the now sadly retired K. K. Downing. This however is not the summer of love, this is ghostly and alien, with Halford over the top with menacing imagery before returning to standard form and a more standard approach guitar solo. The track just then builds up to it's climactic... climax, where Rob Halford's voice just gets higher and punchier. Ouch. It's a killer track and one of heavy metal's defining statements. The next track, a cover of Joan Baez's Diamonds And Rust just kicks right off, with a KISS-like riff. It's a more poppier metal, but it's actually good! It doesn't carry the weight of Joan's original, and so feels rather synthetic, and if done by lesser bands, would come off cheap. Here though it just works and just feels right. It's absurd, but it works as a metal song. Also some of Tipton's lead breaks lay the groundwork for their next album, Stained Class. The third track, Starbreaker is kinda the album's let down. It's really average and just kinda plods along in comparison. It's not that it's a bad track, but it lacks any real energy, and the science fiction themes just float above the track in a sub-moorecock fashion. It kinda shows that this album is solid when a track that is merely 'good' is the let down. Side 1 finishes off with The Last Rose Of Summer. See, even these leather clad bastards have a sensitive side. Unlike say, Poison's 'Every Rose has It's Thorn', this track does not feel like plastic emotions sung in order to get into the girl's (or boy's) trousers. There's a distinct post-psychedelic feel to it, which harks back to my theory, that Priest were really the last of the sixties style bands. It's not a great track here, and lyrically it's kinda clunky, but it's a superb ending to the first side of the record, closing it nicely and not giving you any hint at the barbarism that lays ahead. If the first side of this record is the closing swansong of an ageing music, then the second side is the blueprint for metal.

We start off with an instrumental break, Let Us Prey, pseudo-church guitar harmonies which bleed into Call For The Priest,  a balls-to-the-wall proto speed metal headbanging moshpitting slobberknocker of a track. It's fast, it's heavy, it's aggressive, it's got that steady fast beat. It's just a total fun track, played by superb musicians who must've surely known that they were treading new ground. The Let us Prey harmony returns with Halford now inventing power metal with his warrior-like chants before we get into a lovely duelling guitar section leading into another harmonised part just totally down and to the point. The track races to it's climax, leading to the bluesy depression-soaked rock of Raw Deal, describing Halford's experience in a famous gay bar,. The bass pounds through, the music taking various turns throughout, always coming across as bitterness personified as music. It's not bitterness against homosexuals, as Halford himself is gay, but bitterness at how it had to be kept in the dark, hidden. After describing the act of sex, the track then leads into it's climax, with Rob's screams coming through and then slamming into a post coital disregard for what has happened, in total spite. After the frank openness of Raw Deal, we're taken into Here Come The Tears Taking that psychedelic feeling of The Last Rose Of Summer, but taking it to an emotional nadir. There's no optimism here, no pretence, just unrelenting misery and Halford at his most emotive, whilst it builds up into one of the most soul crushing guitar breaks in the whole genre. Soaked in the damp fluids of the blues without sounding fake like Clapton, this just carries the track through dragging us into a resolution. Through the murky waters of despair into an explosion of emotion, which ends it all... until the next track starts to trickle in, Vague watery dots of music which give no hint at the pure anger and hatred present in Dissident Aggressor, the track that has yet to be supassed interms of metal's barbaric intent. The aggressive outlet of all the emotion that has gone on before it. Halford does not sing so much as shoot the words at you, while the rhythm chuggs along propelling us further forward, the solo not much of a solo as a mess of deliciously sharp noise which penetrates the ears before building up struggling and fighting to survive, building up to a sudden end.

This album is perhaps the only metal album you'll find that I'll mark as a 'MUST HAVE'. Because quite simply, if you've heard this album, then you've heard everything the genre has to offer. Like literally, the genre hasn't really progressed since Sin After Sin's release in 1977. Whilst Iron Maiden may have streamlined the music to it's purest form, they never take it further, and likewise the more 'extreme' areas of metal, such as black and death, are essentially Deep Purple with extra shouting.
This LP is also an example of how clever track positions make an album. the whole of the second side is set up to just bring you to an emotional peak, with anger, bitterness and sadness leading into sheer brutality. Whilst metal is seen as something of an embarassment in the music world, I have no problem admitting that I just really enjoy this record.

Boney M - Belfast

Boney M are a popular multi-national (Jamaica, Germany and more!)disco group, achieving success in the late seventies with their peculiar brand of offbeat pop which combines reggae, soul, disco, funk and a particularly German style of deadpan humour. This single, Belfast, was their fifth single and topped the charts in Germany and the UK.

Belfast jumps right in with a funky disco beat, a dense sound with some nice distorted guitar work, the machine like intro takes us into a nice groove. The intro/chorus is almost militaristic and reminds me of German drinking songs. Marcia Barrett's got a nice kinda subtle voice which really works well with the groove. It's a very bizarre song, dancing grooves, disco stylings and political lyrics, but it kinda works in this disjointed way. The song kinda just loops itself around until fading out. It feels like it's missing some main parts, an unfinished song.

Plantation Boy is our B side, starting off in a disco/reggae style, just bouncing along in an optimistic fashion. The vocals come across as like it's an old island song, but with definite pop hooks. Lyrics searching for a positive future, to rise up from being a slave labourer, which work well with the lighthearted music to create a nice upbeat track. Musically again it just kinda loops itself away without any real bridges and breaks, but works better with it's bouncing groove. Again it fades to silence.

So yeah, two decent songs here. Whilst not on the same level as Earth, Wind & Fire, or Chic, Boney M can really work some good stuff together. It's also worth pointing out that while often looked back as like some embarrassing joke band due to their offbeat music, Boney M had a different groove and were still able to carry on the Afro-futurist stylings that were at the heart of disco. Good single.

Kate Bush - Wuthering Heights

Kate Bush is something of an abnormality. A female pop singer, with artistic integrity and an ability to avoid the celebrity lifestyle! Kate Bush burst onto the scenes in the late seventies with her trademark high-pitched voice, combining pop music with prog style pretensions. Needless to say, she's great!

Wuthering Heights is Bush's most well known release, put out there in 1977. A piano opens the track up, with Kate's vocals soaring overhead, passionate and high pitched. The track builds up, we get a nice slow beat for the chorus and remainder of the song. Her voice is almost ghostly in this track, kinda hovering above the music, it totally carries the track though. This song really struck out from the usual disco/rock that were taking the lead at the time, bringing a beautiful melody to the public's ears, the guitar solo at the end reflecting it and fading out.

The B side is Kite, using a lighthearted playful beat and a more unconventional vocal approach to Bush's singing. There's something child-like about this song, which recalls Kevin Ayers or early Syd barrett, and again reflects prog rock in it's dense instrumentation, and it's ability to avoid a definate genre, whilst certain rythmic motiffs recall seventies fusion.

This really is a great little single, two solid tracks and a remarkable singer. It's definately one that I'd recommend for any music fan.

COMPILATION SPECIAL #2!

ok, so here's three more groovy compilation albums, today with a more electic taste. I think we can say that these compilation specials occur when I wake up with a hangover! I need proper focus for a regular review, but these are short and sweet.
Today's involve Daevid Allen, Funkadelic and Miles Davis:

Daevid Allen: The Man From Gong The best Of Daevid Allen

Daevid Allen is widely regarded as a musical genius, and rightfully so. From Soft Machine to Gong to a successful solo career and collaborations with Acid Mothers Temple, Daevid has never stopped experimenting and playing with his own unique world of music. This little CD serves as an excellent introduction to the man, with highlight tracks such as Floatin' Anarchy (with Planet Gong), Why Do We Treat Ourselves Like We Do, and the post-punk excitement of Pearls and Bananareggae, you'll get a glimpse at an eccentric genius from another planet. His discography is vast, and you should all dive in!

Funkadelic: You Got The Funk We Got The Funk

2 CDs of pure Funkadelic, what can go wrong? Featuring trademark tracks One Nation Under A Groove, Electric Spanking Of War Babies and Maggot Brain, you know this disc is for true funksters only. George Clinton propelled Funk into a new territory during funkadelic's early albums in the seventies, and this sampler shows us the more refined P-Funk sound of the second half of that decade, grooves in total control, and an excellent tightness in the playing, whilst still staying true to the mothership. Also included are two instrumental versions of previously mentioned tracks, which are just perfect for sampling or backing tracks for jams. A good introduction to these crazy mothas.

Miles Davis: The Very Best Of Miles Davis The Warner Bros. Sessions 1985 - 1991

It's a widely held (and widely inaccurate) opinion, that Miles Davis' eighties work is cold, clinical and lacks the emotion and skill of his previous work. This is a total fallacy. Here we have a true artist going against the contemporary jazz scene (which became dominated by the 'mouldy figs' such as Wynton Marsalis, during the eighties, and still stays true to this day) and carrying on experimenting. Hip Hop production techniques brought Davis down to a real street level, enigmatic playing brought a new unease to his music, and his rendition of Time After Time turns a good pop song into a truely emotive jazz standard, and one of my favourite recordings of all time. Pure emotion that literally brings me to tears everytime I hear it. Tracks such as Chocolate Chip, Mystery, Amandla and Summertime show how Miles took jazz in new and exciting directions whilst also creating new interpretations of classic standards. A great introduction to a much misunderstood period of a great musician.

So here you go, three good compilation albums which can expand your musical understanding. The Miles Davis disc (the first of his I got) had such a profound influence on me as a young guitarist that I still try to model my playing on his horn blowing. I'd say get em all.

David Bowie - Low

Low was a real watershed moment for popular music, would electronic music really work on a mainstream audience? Critics were confused, even his record company refused to let it count as part of his contractual obligation, yet it caused a storm on it's release, and ushered in a new age of a new kind of music, electronic pop. Low is one of the greatest and most important albums ever released, born out of desperation and alienation, it is Bowie's definitive artistic statement, and although many people consider it's follow up, Heroes, to be the better album, they're wrong. Heroes expands on what Bowie achieved on Low, and combined it with his more familiar sound, songs were fuller and more formed, but on Low, we had pure emotion. Snippets of information presented to us, lyrics presenting us with the essential facts and nothing more. A sense of bravery and experimentation flows throughout. This is the start of Bowie's 'Berlin Trilogy', and what a way to kick it off!

Bowie was at his end, having just starred in The Man Who Fell To Earth, he was addicted to cocaine and alcohol, he was empty and stressed, his marriage was in ruins and his career was over. Moving to Berlin with Iggy Pop in tow, to escape from his vices and renew himself, Bowie fully submerged himself in the Krautrock scene, Kraftwerk, Can, Neu! and so forth, and this was to inform his last chance, creating an album that's natural yet synthetic, inwardly depressive yet optimistic. With weird stories involving conflicts and confusion with his band, and a collaboration with the artistic Brian Eno, this album really shines and is in some respect a miracle. Mojo magazine has done numerous articles on the creation of and background to Low(including one in this month's issue!), so I'll leave it at that, and go just review the album. As you may have already guessed, I really like it!

Side A is mostly conventional music, starting with the instrumental Speed Of Life,  a motorik beat, repetitive rhythm, and a lead guitar really take us into alien territory, the lead synth gives us a hopeful melody. This is a decent upbeat song, combining Bowie's pop sensibilities with a noticeable Krautrock influence. The short and sweet nature really contrasts with the opening song of his previous album, Station To Station. A funky yet robotic bass guitar and an almost out of tune guitar take us into the second track, Breaking Glass, with lyrics inspired by a fight Bowie got himself in, we're told a story in snippets, and an acknowledgement of his own flaws. We get a neat synth sound throughout in places. It's a great, short, well written song which fades out, taking us into What In The World. With lyrics about 'a little world with grey eyes', this sounds the most 'Bowie' track on the album, with some great guitar, and the repetitive motorik beat still carrying on. The lyrics tell a story, yet still feel somewhat abstracted, and some occasionally out of time singing overlapped works brilliantly.

The hit single Sound And Vision takes us in with a pleasant guitar riff, funky bass and the same motorik drum beat. In true Krautrock style, it opens with an extended instrumental section, synth patterns and so on. It's a very upbeat piece involving sometimes undecipherable lyrics. He starts singling with the chorus and we're treated to some true abstract lyrics, this song is perhaps the true turning point on how the music is lifting out of his solitude and into a new world of colour and optimism. The next song is Always Crashing In The Same Car, which like Breaking Glass, is a very straightforward lyrical theme. Again, the same motorik beat, and some nice lead guitar work, some bubbling synths in the background over an instrumental section. Bowie really lets the groove work itself out here, the upbeat music contrasting his rather subdued and melancholy singing, but it just really works out. The solo is excellent in the psychedelic/prog style, really fitting into place. Next Bowie asks someone to Be My Wife, a cry for help during his fractious marriage which is disintegrating before his very eyes. The guitar is distorted and out of tune, the beat the same as before, the music dramatic. Our man's isolation and loneliness really comes out here, showing a search for belonging, a quest for love. A romantic way of dealing with a gruelling divorce case.  Again the guitar solo really kicks it in the bag, with equal melancholy and upbeatness. The first side ends with the instrumental A New Career In New Town, opening up with a sombre beat, and ghostly synth chords, it then kicks it up a not, bringing back the motorik beat from before, an upbeat melody and a true uplifting feel, Bowie is crawling up from the depths of desperation. As the title suggests, this instrumental track represents the new found hope he felt during his move to Berlin, and his adoption of a more electric style, free from the excesses of conventional rock. There's hints of Kraftwerk and Neu! on this track. Notably, the studio this album was recorded in was situated opposite Kraftwerk's legendary Kling Klang studio. The track fades out into upbeatness. A thoroughly enjoyable first side, nice upbeat music, and a real solid drumbeat throughout.

Side B opens with Warszawa, a track which inspired Joy Division so much that they were initially called Warsaw (Spandau Ballet were also so enamoured with this album that their name comes from an area of Berlin). starting with a moody piano beating over a subtle synth, the track opens up with a haunting melody reminiscent of Wendy/Walter Carlos' Clockwork Orange soundtrack. The piano beat becomes more synthy, emphasising a sense of isolation and yet wonder at the newly developing futuristic landscape, it's exploration not just of music, but of this brave new world. It's a sad track, and it allows itself to fully develop and emotional feeling throughout. Yes, it's sad, but it's a bittersweet sadness, one laced with silent hope. This side of the album is the one which really changed popular music, combining Brian Eno's idea of musical soundtracks for visions, with Bowie's amazing writing abilities, music of the most experimental nature! The track cools down, leading Bowie into some tribal style chanting over this haunting beat, suggesting a future world. The melody slows right down before returning to it's main motif, that of exploration. I close my eyes and this track brings forth visions of steel and glass, a clinical clean world of magic. The next track is Art Decade, featuring a moving synth melody, somehow playful yet haunting over a steady beat. Futuristic sound effects flow around, but this track really feels like isolation, loneliness, walking alone in the futuristic world and taking in the sights, sounds, atmosphere. a total synth track, this serves as the counterpoint to Kraftwerk's Autobahn, the fun of driving slows down, and we are now in a place to take in all the details of the surrounding view. The chords build up, and overtake the melody as the track fades away.

The next track is Weeping Wall, vibes enter the scene, creating a constant beat, as a harsh synth takes the lead, the beat dictated by synth. The lead melody is playful yet again somewhat haunting, but the beat ups the pace compared to the previous two tracks. A distorted guitar emanates a sense of melancholy, while the rest of the track is upbeat. Is this our man bowie coming to terms with himself? chanting returns, crying, while then repeated by the synth melody. It's a track which feels lonely, yet also feels alive. It's got concealed hope, like most tracks on this album. The melody is utterly sublime, and at the end some heavy chords take over before it fades into silence. The album closes with Subterraneans, which greets us with some more alien chords, and some reversed sounds, it's a melancholy sound, describing again this strange futuristic world. To a man coming out of isolation/addiction, the world around him must have seemed strange and alien. The melody is haunting, based upon swells of sound, heavenly yet haunting. Bowie's chanting makes a return, following the melody, and suddenly the chord swells feel less melancholic, the melody less haunting, yet the track is still ghostly. A saxophone now comes in, an almost filmic sound, playing over the backing , flowing like liquid into Bowie's chants which're again both upbeat and downbeat, the track brings back the sax as it draws to it's close, Sax over chanting over synth, it's that sense of bittersweetness, that carries the album onwards, with more melodies overlapping, building a sensation before fading into silence forever.

To say this album is a MUST HAVE is a total understatement, it is truly one of the most amazing experiences that your ears can receive. A totally new world unleashed on an unsuspecting public. I think that everyone should get a copy of this album, regardless of taste, you'll find something amazing inside. A mixture of conflicting emotions, new sensations and unbeatable writing. I first heard this album at the age of seventeen, and seven years on and hundreds of listens later, I am still finding new things, new sounds, new feelings. This isn't just Bowie's finest hour, but popular music's finest hour!

I have Low on CD and Vinyl, as well as the single Sound And Vision on vinyl, and I do have to say, the CD version has more clarity of the sounds, it is very precise, yet lacks the air and volume of the vinyl release, which feels far more spacious. The CD is like a high definition photograph, highly detailed yet flattened, while listening to it on Vinyl is like being there and taking it all in. Both are of high quality, and so I'll leave it to you to make your mind up, I prefer the vinyl LP due to it's sense of space and density.

John McLaughlin & Carlos Santana - Love Devotion Surrender

Love Devotion Surrender, one of the more controversial fusion albums released, features the guitar prowess of both Carlos Santana and John McLaughlin at the top of their spiritual form. 'Why is it controversial?' I hear you ask, well it is inspired by the teachings of Guru Sri Chinmoy (one of those gurus who became very influencial during the post-psychedelic age, where musicians wanted to continue their spiritual journeys which they had begun during acid trips) and pushed Santana further and further away from his rock beginings. I did intend to ignore the spiritualist aspect of this album, and focus solely on the music, however with the gatefold featuring a passage from Sri Chinmoy, and photographs of the guitarists looking remarkably cult-like, I think it's the elephant in the room, and really should be mentioned. The passage represents a very naive view, asking of us to devote ourselves to spiritualist teachings. It also reflects gender stereotypes within the fist paragraph. Did I say reflects? I mean reinforces. The idea of fully surrendering ourselves to one specific goal/teaching/belief is something I find really disturbing, it's like deliberately limiting human potential. I'm a spiritualist of sorts, and I think it comes down to bettering ourselves, doing what we can to help other people, doing what we can to achieve the best we can. Meditate, but don't surrender your life to it. Ok, to avoid getting into a rant and starting to bitch about religion, I think it's time to get down and boogie (well... meditate) with some 'machine gun' guitaring from two guitar giants.

Side A serves as a tribute to John Coltrane and starts with A Love Supreme, a cover of the track Aknowledgement. It bursts into our ears with a flurry of guitar shredding, leading into a soft groove, where John and Carlos improvise over the top in a Free Jazz manner. There's a sense of real emotion behind what they're playing, something modern shredders lack. Larry Young's organ plods at the back keeping a nice sense of musicality which gels the guitars to the rythm. Chants of 'A Love Supreme' come in as it gets quieter, and Larry Young's organ meanders around in a deliciously playful fashion. Doug Ranch's bass really propelled this track forward. Track 2 is an accoustic cover of Coltrane's Naima, a dreamlike beautiful melody which drifts around your head, you close your eyes, inhale from your joss stick, and man, it's good. 
A quiet organ drone takes hold, leading us into an amazing drum roll and then guitar and chanting. A Love Divine begins. It's some beautiful guitar soloing going on here over this constant jazz beat, the guitaring itself has a distinctly more jazz feel to it. Yeah it's much more fusion than the previous tracks, allowing both McLaughlin and Santana have a decent amount of room to really let themselves go and stretch out their wings. At times McLaughlin's guitar is so fast it melts your ears. Again though, this never feels like showing off, there really is an emotional context to his playing which bounces off the wall towards you. "A Live Devine is yours and mine"

The B side introduces us to the epic Let Us Go Into The House Of The Lord, based on an old Bible hymm. It starts with an organ vamp, overwhich McLaughlin plays some of his most amazing and weightless licks, you close your eyes and feel your body raising from the ground. Then a steady moving rythm kicks in, John again just flying higher and higher. He's often been called the 'John Coltrane of the guitar' in that he combines blistering speed with such pure spirituality, and this is proof of that. The backing groove is as undeniable as the lead, it's a simple groove, but when it locks fully into place, it just gets your head moving, getting you in the position for John's sublime guitar masterwork. I have to say, with the constant rythm going on, this is a perfect track to pick up a guitar and jam to, it's just great. The guitar masterclass only gets better and better and then winds down to a close. We have one track to go, Meditation. A softer piece, a walking piano draws us inside, a gentle melody, Santana's guitar providing suport. This kinda track is traditional for closign off 70's albums or music.

As you may have guessed, I am far more into John McLaughlin than Santana, the dude just does it for me. McLaughlin's been one of the biggest influences on my guitar playing and I just love how he does what he does. Musically, this album is really enjoyable, and John's guitar slinging is at the top of it's form, and just listening to it makes me want to pick up mine and just shred. The tones are all honey sweet, and there is a distinct sense of spirituality flowing through the music, though it never becomes overpowering. Sri Chinmoy despite all his controversies has done a lot to promote peace, and without him, we wouldn't have had this album.

Can - I Want More

What happens when you take an experimental and highly influential German band and combine them with the burgeoning disco scene which is taking hold during the mid-seventies?
You get 'I Want More'. A surreal, unearthly mechanical track which kinda slivers into your ears, beats out one heck of a groove and just stys there. This is like Kraftwerk meets Funkadelic. To be honest, that prettymuch sums it up. By this time, Krautrock and Funk had been heavily dipping into each others pools for quite some time, the minimalist beat of sly stone and laterday funkadelic, the wah wah'd staccato rythms, the cosmic themes, the longing of creating a music for 'their' people, the evolution from rock towards electro, etc, etc. The similarities between the two can go on forever.

I Want More starts off with a funky guitar riff leading into a funky beat and whispery other worldly vocals of an extreme vagueness. But this is post-Suzuki Can, the vocals serve as nothing more than an interesting texture which layers over the music. This then segues into an amazing musical break, sheer Krautrock at it's best and most enjoyable. An upbeat melody over a robotic funk beat. The ghostly whispers of 'I want more and more and more' return and then so does a reprise of this delicious delicious melody, and we fade to silence. This is a superb track, and sounds so surreal and unique compared to the norm. But believe it or not, I Want More is the more normal of the two tracks on this round disk of black plastic.

More, the B-side generates one heck of a groove, the chant of 'More and more and more and more' repeats throughout, creating a whispery and almost sacred, exptremely desperate sounding texture, a vocal version of a steam train rolling along the rails. It gives the music a major sense of urgency and keeps the groove rolling. A funky guitar solo is overlayed, it's funky without breaking into the Hendrix-isms. Which is always good. The track kinda fades out, but it really does what it needs to. Give you a solid groove that's both experimental and danceable (muchlike David Bowie's can inspired Berlin Trilogy, which I will no doubt speak about in great lengths at a later point on this blog!), and has solid musical hooks.

Can's I Want More is an amazing single, proof that Krautrock had 'commercial appeal' and that our German friends are far funkier than we British often give them credit for. A true missing link between funk's playful offspring (disco), and avant-garde rock. It has my full endorsement. Get hold of a copy now!

Yes - Close to the edge

Yes.... Yes, Yes, Yes... Seen by many as the height of Progressive Rock's pretentions, an example of all that should be avoided, right? Well no. Prog is hardely the dirty word it used to be, and has one of the largest dedicated audiences of any genre around. I think we all go through that phase where we're anti-prog, but in reality, it's a dumb way of thinking. I'd never really sat down and properlly listened to Yes until a month ago, I had brought this album randomly as I had just started collecting LPs, and my oh my, this was a brilliant introduction to the band.

After a short introductionary soundscape of droning and noise, like a kind of natural sound, Yes break in with a free jazz/fusiony instrumental introduction, a pure cachophony of delicious prog, broken up with  the occasional chant of 'Ahhhh' before sequeing into something more musical and melodic. It swings in a pleasant way, very musch what oyu'd expect from prog. John Anderson's vocals creep in, a higher pitched version of your typical rock vocals. There's an element of Sting in his voice? Yes, at times it almost verges on 'white boy reggae', about six years before it hits the mainstream. However it is prog through and through. The music breaks into a quiet water-like section, reflecting the subject theme of The River Man, Siddhartha. A beautiful noise breaks in as we are treated to Rick Wakeman on an organ, becoming something of a spiritual point, like a moment of ecstacy, before erupting into the full Wakeman keyboard majesty. If you have a wizard costume, put it on for this part. the main lyrical theme returns and feels more joyous.


Lyrically, the song tackles the subject of spiritual awakening of Siddhartha, based confusingly on a novel by Hermann Hesse, where the titular character (Siddhartha) is around in the same time as Gautama Buddha (who was originally Prince Siddhartha, and had a spiritual awakening...) Anyways, around this time in the seventies, rock was at a point, leaving the faux-spirituality of the late sixties behind, many had begun to really look into it, and themselves, and this spirituality is a recurring theme of Yes' music at the time. The lyrics are often nonsensical when viewed in a logical sense, but serve as an expression of the abstract ideas found in such a subject.

Side two starts with a nice gentle accoustic piece, folky and playful. Totally light like a field. Wakeman's mooging around adds a gentle breeze and Anderson starts singing, and it eventually becomes proggier, reminding me of King Crimson's 'In The Court Of The Crimson King'-meets-arena-rock. It's that kinda aspirationy sound that'd usually be found at the end of a prog epic. And that it does, It returns to the playful melody and then gets proggy. I'm sensing a pattern here. And it ends. Kinda a fade out, a whimper rather than the bombast of side one.
We're then treated to a funky prog number, propelled by a neat guitar riff, Hendrix-lite, because every guitarist has their Hendrix copying moments. Prog Hendrix though sounds a bit different from most, especially when aided by Anderson's vocals making it totally 100% yes. It plays with prog tropes all too easily, and yes Wakeman has his harpsichord sound breaking through. Howe does his solo bit, it's Howe by numbers, in a track that's totally  prog by numbers. I must admit. It's decent, and enjoyable, but I don't know, I find it kinda lacking.


All in all, Close to the edge is a really good album. The second side feels rather uninspired compared to the first, but ultimately, well worth getting. Even if just for the Rodger Dean gatefold painting. But yeah, I think every record collector should have this album, it's totally of it's time yet timeless. One of the best of the 'pure-prog' releases, and Yes' highlight. This is the first of my 'MUST HAVE' reviews.

 The dreamlike gatefold. Love you man!

Hawkwind - Silver Machine

It will come as no suprise to anybody who knows me, that I will post about Silver Machine early on. Hawkwind are easily one of my favourite bands, one which has shapped and inspired so many genres, and despite being pensioners, even now they push forward with their own ever-changing brand of spacerock. Hawkwind are a genre by themselves.
But... Enough of this gushing, time to talk about this classic single.

Silver Machine is not my favourite Hawkwind track by a longshot, however this is to it's benefit. It replaces their trademark pummeling riffs with a chugging rock'n'roll rhythm, allowing it a more commercial and traditional value. But this is no ordinary rocker, the spacey sound effects take us off to Jupiter and beyond, and as the track plays out, we just go further and further. Robert Calvert's lyrics about his childhood bicycle become an adreneline filled description of a mysterious 'Silver Machine' which describes what seems to be a spaceship, but with an overly sexual tone. Most famously, here the world is shown Lemmy unleashed, for the first real time. And the world loved him. His greasy biker shouting jack daniels vocals really work well with the rock'n'roll vibe. This is outer space pubrock.

The B-Side is another Hawkwind Classic, Seven By Seven. Whilst Silver Machine was the high of the trip, this is the crushing downer. True dark psychedelia describes a journey, being lost in the dark world, your soul lost for all eternity. The classic Hawkwind pummeling riffage is on force here, complimented by a softer verse section, reflective. The chorus however is shrieked at us through a vast echo, we get the desperation, it brings us down. Though for whatever reason, there is a sense of restrain here, I'd assume from the production side as the playing is brutal. The track is utterly spacey and cosmic and not at all unlike Jack Kirby's Fourth World comics which were being published around the same time (and I really would recommend reading them!).

This 7" represents a trip, and it doesn't let us down. While Seven By Seven would truely find it's real sound on Hawkwind's epic Space Ritual live album, Silver Machine here is the best version around. Noticably the mix on Vinyl has far more depth of sound than the version on CD reissues, and the dance remix is pretty... terrible. So yeah, here we have the definitive version of Hawkwind's most well known song, and a somewhat controlled rendition of a great song. Naturally I would recommend everybody purchase this, it serves as the perfect introduction to one of rock's most explorative bands, the introduction to the majesty of Lemmy, and most importantly of all, two kick-ass tracks containing a heavyness unheard of at the time.