The HFoS Prog Rock Christmas Selection Pack 2010
And so it goes on. The Christmas theme continues with this year’s progressive rock selection pack; a follow-up to last year’s prog Christmas list and companion piece to the 2010 psychedelic rock one.
Remember, it’s not a “best of” or anything like that. Just a few suggestions as to what to spend those hard-earned Woolworths vouchers on.
Fields
Rare Bird keyboardist, Graham Fields, ventures out on his own, for this one-off album from 1971. Environmentally aware and swimming in lush piano and organ arrangements, Fields is one of the great forgotten albums of the progressive rock era. ‘Not So Good’, with its interpolation of the opening bars of ‘Jerusalem’, is worth the entry fee alone. A full review of Fields can be found here.
Fields is reissued by Esoteric and available to buy from Amazon.co.uk
Beggars Opera – Act One
As far as classical quotations go, Beggars Opera take it that one step further on their 1970 debut, entitled Act One. Incorporating ruddy great swathes of reinterpreted classical pieces such as the ‘William Tell Overture’ and ‘Hall of the Mountain King’ (and that’s just on the standout track ‘Raymond’s Road‘), Act One blurs the line between progressive rock and the classical music it often aspired to. A real feast of keyboards and Hammond organ, Beggars Opera released one of the finest albums man has known and one that remains a firm fixture in the, as yet unwritten, HFoS top ten. A full review is available here.
Act One by Beggars Opera is available to buy from Amazon.co.uk
Kevin Ayers – The Confessions of Dr. Dream and Other Stories
The reliably bizarre ex-Soft Machine bassist offers one of his reliably bizarre solo albums. From 1974, it’s an album of two halves, the first of which is taken up by typically oddball offerings, and the second half delivering the extensive title track, divided into four suites. He even manages to coax a half-decent performance from the usually tone-deaf Nico (have you heard her contributions to the Velvet Underground album or even the godawful ‘Little Sister’?), even if it is difficult to hear through the distortion – probably what renders her voice listenable.
The Confessions of Dr. Dream and Other Stories by Kevin Ayers is available to buy from Amazon.co.uk
Locomotive – We Are Everything You See
Hailing from Birmingham, the home of HFoS, Locomotive’s sole album from 1969 is a rare treat of post-psychedelic proto-prog. We Are Everything You See is an eclectic mix of songs that sounds not a little unlike early Van der Graaf Generator. The doom-laden ‘Mr. Armageddon’ and the three part concept piece ‘The Loves of Augustus Abbey’ are just some of the treats this little-heard obscurity has to offer.
We Are Everything You See by Locomotive is available to buy from Amazon.co.uk
Clouds – Watercolour Days
Another rarest of brews manifests in the shape of Watercolour Days, the second and final album from Clouds, released in 1971. A far more serious offering than the oft-jaunty Sgt. Pepper prog-psych of their debut, Scrapbook, Watercolour Days has much to recommend it. With organ and harpsichord histrionics aplenty, giving way to more melancholic offerings such as ‘Leavin’, Clouds was a group that deserved to go on to greater things but sadly disbanded well before their time.
Watercolour Days by Clouds is available as a two album package along with Scrapbook, to buy from Amazon.co.uk
Tomorrow, HFoS brings the bonus offering of the Folk Christmas Selection Pack. What will be the final serving from us of 2010.
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