Dr. Z – Three Parts to My Soul
Douglas Evil. Julius No. Victor Von Doom. Henry Jekyll. Josef Mengele. Fu Manchu… erm… Harold Shipman. What’s the common denominator here?
That’s right; it’s a roll call of doctors. More importantly, it’s a roll call of evil doctors. Yes, doctors who deal in evil as opposed to good. Some coveted world domination, others the forced conception of a supposed master race. Some just wanted a world free of old age pensioners.
But there’s a new Doc in town. At least, in 1971 there was, although nobody seemed to notice Dr. Z’s bid for global supremacy, a failure underlined by the fact Three Parts to My Soul allegedly sold less than 100 copies.
But Dr. Z didn’t have sharks with “frickin’ laser beams” at their disposal. Nor did they have a nuclear reactor submerged in water. They didn’t even have a bottle of diamorphine and a rusty syringe. No. Dr. Z’s weapon of choice was progressive rock.
Some might say that a twenty minute drum solo or an extended freak-out on a Mini Moog would be more than enough to beat an unsuspecting world into submission, but they’re just philistines! How dare they!
In Richard Morton Jack’s essential tome, Galactic Ramble
A little harsh, one thinks.
Less than 100 sales may not have been enough to hold sway with the United Nations, or even secure a volcanic hideaway in the Pacific, but it ensured that Dr. Z had an album that would go on to be one of the most obscure released by the progressive Vertigo label during the seventies. It’s also evidence of a grave misjudgement by the prog audience of yesteryear and, of course, Giles Hamilton today.
Grave indeed; and the grave is often where Three Parts to My Soul seems to be emanating from. Swansea professor, Keith Keyes, wrote, produced, played keyboards and provided the menacing vocals. Such abstruse lyrics and preternatural delivery isn’t what one expects from the teaching fraternity, but hey, this was the 1970s and if you had long hair and a bong the size of a hydroelectric power station, then anything went. Despite it seemingly being all about young mister Keyes, he was aided and abetted by two other academic types. Rob Watson on a subdued bass and Bob Watkins on drum and percussion, providing the tribal beat present throughout.
It’s all pretty sinister stuff, like early Black Sabbath without the guitar riffs and overt campness. As I’ve said here before, ‘Evil Woman’s Manly Child‘ is the best track by far and the rest of the album fails to live up to it, but that don’t make it no good.
Whatever dastardly intentions Dr. Z had in mind for our children and womenfolk, it didn’t stop them from knocking out a reasonably atmospheric prog tune into the bargain. The title track, ‘Spiritus, Manes Et Umbra’, is nearly as strong as the aforementioned ‘Evil Woman…’ and running at 12 minutes even has time to slot in some extended drum and keyboard duelling, though this threatens to poke a tentative toe across the threshold of tedium before being yanked back into the body of the song for a rousing crescendo.
I could say pretty much the same about the other four tracks. All good stuff as far as I’m concerned, with titles such as ‘Burn in Anger’, ‘Summer for the Rose’ and ‘In a Tooken of Despair’. No idea what any of it means but I’m sure it’s all very deep and intellectually sound. This was a university boffin, after all.
The CD version I have offers two bonus tracks. The A and B-side of a Keith Keyes single released prior to Dr. Z’s inception. Being brief jaunts into the upper rings of psychedelic pop, they’re as different in sound to the rest of the album as it’s possible to get. Nevertheless, the sound quality of these two tracks is a marked improvement to that of Three Parts to My Soul, which is a little on the muddy side to say the least. A proper digitally remastered reissue is what’s called for methinks.
As for Dr. Z (that’s pronounced Zed, for any American readers), who needs to rule the world when there’s a rare prog album like this, just aching to be listened to?
Three Parts to My Soul by Dr. Z is available to buy from Amazon.co.uk
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