Trollheart

Album title: Gentle Giant
Artist: Gentle Giant
Nationality: English
Label: Vertigo
Chronology: Debut
Grade: A
Previous Experience of this Artist: Quite a bit through the feature I ran previously
The Trollheart Factor: 4
Landmark value: More a case of cult value I would think. Gentle Giant were not one of the big prog acts that broke through in the 1970s, in fact they seem to have remained fairly obscure and under-appreciated in their day, and have only really acquired the respect of prog fans from a retrospective prospective as it were.
Tracklisting: Giant/Funny Ways/Alucard/Isn’t It Quiet and Cold/Nothing at All/Why Not/The Queen
Comments: Although I knew initially nothing about this band - but had heard them being praised by proggers in the same breath as Genesis, Yes and Camel - I did get a little better acquainted with them through the first “ProGenitors” feature some while back in this journal. This was their debut album, and it sort of gives me a feeling of a mixture of early Uriah Heep and Spock’s Beard. There’s quite a lot of brass, which while not unique in prog bands was certainly not standard, gives it a kind of jazzy feel. I guess I could also throw some Kansas in there too in terms of overall sound. The title track is quite keyboard-led, or at least organ-led, with plenty of trumpet. I’d say it’s a little improvisational though, and definitely too long.

Nice violin starting “Funny Ways” with a more restrained vocal from, well, one of the Shulmans, hard to say which, as two of the three brothers sing lead. Nice honky-tonk piano piece, with some cool Hammond too. I like the vocal harmonies in “Alucard” (seriously?) here, almost reminiscent of what Queen would later make famous, and it’s another jazzy number with touches of the Alan Parsons Project leaking over the edges, more brass and heavy Hammond. I’m not entirely sure why so many bands, especially prog bands, always want to have a twenties-sounding song (maybe it goes back to the Beatles?) but Gentle Giant are no exception, as “Isn’t It Quiet and Cold” demonstrates ably. The violin - sounding almost fiddle-like - helps here, and the vocal is good. You could almost see them playing this in some fashionable tea shop or something while gentlemen and ladies clap politely, or more likely ignore them completely.

There’s a lovely soft acoustic melody to “Nothing at All” with again some fine vocal harmonies, puts me in mind of very early Dan Fogelberg or perhaps The Eagles. It does however break fairly quickly into a bluesy boogie with sort of, I don’t know, Deep Purple overtones? Maybe Bad Company or Free? That sort of thing anyway. I think I detect some marimba in there, do I? Oh yeah, and another drum solo. Wonderful. And a very jazzy piano run. Given the title, there’s a hell of a lot in this! Well, it is the longest track, over nine minutes. “Why Not” seems to hover between blues/psych rock and nascent prog; I’d still have a hard time classifying much of this as what I would consider prog rock, though it’s certainly got potential. Here is where the band shows it the most I think, with some nice flute backed up by lush keyboards. The album ends with, of all things, a rendition of “God Save the Queen”. All right.

Favourite track(s): Funny Ways/Alucard/Nothing at All
Least favourite track(s): Giant
Overall impression: A competent album, well written and played, but I can sort of see where Gentle Giant were already lagging behind bands like Yes, Genesis and ELP, who were setting their own seal on their work and getting ready to ride the upcoming prog storm. GG seem to have still been saddling up their horses here, not quite sure what the weather was going to be like.
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Trollheart

Album title: H to He Who Am the Only One
Artist: Van der Graaf Generator
Nationality: English
Label: Charisma
Chronology: Third
Grade: A
Landmark value:
Tracklisting: Killer/House With No Door/The Emperor in His War Room (a) The Emperor (b) The Room /Lost (a) The Dance in Sand and Sea (b) The Dance in Frost/ Pioneers over c
Comments: I’ve always wondered about the title to this album, which is very weird indeed. I think I read somewhere that the “H” refers to hydrogen and the “He” to helium, and it’s some sort of description of the chemical change in a reaction or something, but I can’t recall where I read that, or even if I dreamed it. The album kicks off with “Killer”, the tale of how lonely it can be to be a shark, and it’s got a very hard rock feel, reminds me of very early Sabbath or Purple, with a riff that’s very familiar but which I can’t pin down. It’s a good song, and became a favourite in live settings, indeed it’s on the first VDGG album I ever bought, which was a collection of their greatest hits (though calling them that might be overstating the case ever so slightly, as they were never a band to trouble the charts). It’s quite a dark song, with thankfully the minimum of screeching horn, and Hammill is on form as ever, crowing maniacally in his desperate isolation at the bottom of the sea.

Oddly enough, I read that this was composed specifically so that the band would have a commercial song they could put on the album, yet when the label approached them to release it as a single they refused, considering it not proggy enough and therefore not representative of them as a band. In the event, it was the only choice and so no singles were taken from the album. The shortest track on the disc, just over six and a half minutes long, “House With No Door”, sounds to me like it would have been a better selection for a single, but it wasn’t considered. Hammill dials it way down here, the song mostly driven on his piano with some very soft and gentle flute, and I’d have to say so far this album is to me a huge improvement on the last one.

“The Emperor in His War Room” is a mini-suite, one of two on the album, the first part at least of which allow Hammill to unleash his bitter, acerbic side, but also includes a really nice vocal chorus and attendant flute. This time it’s Hammond that mostly takes the tune, another slow song though not in any way a ballad, speeding up and getting tougher in the second part, bringing in the by-now-familiar snarling saxes which seem to be VDGG’s trademark. Also some fine guitar, as ever, from guesting Robert Fripp. Very much a carnival, calliope feel to “Lost”, Hammill’s voice in almost nursery-rhyme style following the melody before breaking down into a lament attended by darker sax, and though this is an eleven-minute song it’s not a suite. But it certainly goes through some changes. For a song of its length it goes by pretty quickly, which I always find a good sign. Weirdly frenetic ending which fades out. Hmm. No complaints though.

That leaves, believe it or not, the longest track to close, and “Pioneers Over c” opens with what sounds like an early synth effect, and tackles - not for the first time, but among the first - the idea of science fiction in music, particularly faster than light travel. It has some strong sax work, unsurprising as it was written between Hammill and the band’s horn player David Jackson. Sort of a churchy choral section in it too, nice soft Hammond work, some of the sax is a little too jumpy for me, and I’d have preferred a better closer but still not bad.

Favourite track(s): Pretty much everything, despite some small caveats above
Least favourite track(s):
Overall impression: A big improvement over The Least We Can Do Is Wave To Each Other; this is an album I could listen to all the way through. Odd that it was so commercially unsuccessful, though there are to be fair some very long tracks on it. Good stuff though.
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Trollheart

Album title: Lizard
Artist: King Crimson
Nationality: English
Label: Island/Atlantic
Chronology: Third
Grade: A
Landmark value: I don’t think much, other than it was the only King Crimson album to feature Graham Haskell on vocals.
Tracklisting: Cirkus (including Entry of the Chameleons)/Indoor Games/Happy Family/Lady of the Dancing Water/Lizard (a) Prince Rupert Awakes (b)Bolero - the Peacock’s Tale (c) The Battle of Glass Tears (i) Dawn Song (ii) Last Skirmish (iii) Prince Rupert’s Lament (d) Big Top
Comments: My relationship so far with KC has been tenuous at best, fractious at worst, so when I read this album is more jazzy than their previous efforts, my heart kind of sinks, but we’ll see. Starts nicely, with a kind of fairy-tale feel before Fripp’s growling guitar, doing almost a police siren, tears it apart then allows “Cirkus” to settle back into its groove. Some lovely soft sax from the great Mel Collins and lush keys from either Peter Sinfield or Fripp himself, never easy to work out with King Crimson. Overall a slowish song that ushers the album in well, and then “Indoor Games” seems to utilise some small effects on Haskell’s voice, and is more in the realm of hard rock I feel than prog - not seeing jazz influences yet I must say. Maybe a little in the sax, the guitar possibly?

Okay I hear it now on “Happy Family”, and it’s pretty annoying; quite discordant at times, sort of a squelchy funk going on too. Don’t like this much. “Lady of the Dancing Water” is much better, gives me a feel of mid-seventies Alan Parsons, the little flute bursts just about right, the piano lovely, the vocal low-key and melodious compared to how it was on the previous track. Jon Anderson makes a guest appearance on the opening of the final and title track, a four-part suite that runs for over twenty-three minutes, making it a contender for longest prog rock track of the era, alongside “Supper’s Ready”, "Close to the Edge" and “A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers”. I have to say, the class Anderson brings to the album is marked, and I suspect if Yes had not been a thing then Fripp might have asked him to join permanently.

He is though only on the first movement, as it were, “Prince Rupert Awakes”, which only accounts for four and a half minutes of the epic. It’s powerful and cinematic, with great piano flourishes, marching-style drums and a real punch in it. Collins’ sax takes us into the second part, “Bolero - The Peacock’s Tale”, with a kind of Spanish style in it, the parts seeming to get progressively (sorry) longer as they go, with this taking up six and half minutes, including some really nice oboe and clarinet too, and I would imagine an instrumental section. Gets a bit annoyingly jazzy then in the midsection, which kind of ruins it for me and does not seem to fit, notwithstanding my bias against jazz.

Into the longest section we go, and the eleven-minute “The Battle of Glass Tears” is itself split into three sections, the first, “Dawn Song”, an oboe-led introduction with strangely serpentine (lizardesque?) overtones and a very sotto voce vocal, dark and quite dismal. Hardly puts me in mind of any dawn, though maybe the dawn of a battle? The distant rolling of militaristic drums backs this up (to say nothing of the title of course) and then big heavy organ and pounding percussion takes us into what I assume to be the second part, “The Last Skirmish” (hard to say, as they’re not shown separately, at least, not with running times) and a VDGG-style horn section with dancing flute as things kick up a little.

This is quite jazzy but reminds me both of the aforementioned Generators of the Van der Graaf, and also later Pallas, particularly on “Queen of the Deep” and “The Ripper”. Maintains a basic motif on the sax throughout the section, with a not unreasonable amount of improvisation going on too. An instrumental part, in case I forgot to mention. This all fades away for the final part, “Prince Rupert’s Lament”, slowing down to a hollow, almost funereal sound with the faintest of what sound like bagpipes just about audible (probably Fripp though) then a rising single guitar wailing against the echoing slow drumbeat. That leaves us with a minute and a half of “Big Top”, a sort of future echo of Waits in a circus or carnival-style instrumental to close.

Favourite track(s): Lady of the Dancing Water, Lizard
Least favourite track(s): Happy Family
Overall impression: Definitely a decent album, nothing wrong with it, however it’s not the one to move me from my position of “King Crimson are a good band” to “Wow! King Crimson are the shit!” Not yet anyway. The jazz influences in the album I found to be quite sporadic, certainly not enough to spoil it for me, and overall a good proggy record which does nothing to dim my hope that I may eventually see why everyone rates this band.
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DianneW

quite useful..short it is

Trollheart

Album title: Focus Plays Focus or In and Out of Focus
Artist: Focus
Nationality: Dutch
Label: Imperial
Chronology: Debut
Grade: A
Previous Experience of this Artist: One other album and Brainbox
The Trollheart Factor: 2
Landmark value:
Tracklisting: Focus (vocal)/Black Beauty/Sugar Island/Anonymous/House of the King/Happy Nightmare - Mescaline/Why Dream/Focus (instrumental)
Comments: Focus are a band I know very little about. I’ve reviewed the album by their original band, Brainbox (at least, the one which numbered Thijs Van Leer and Jan Akkerman among its personnel) and years ago I also wrote a review on one of their more recent albums, but that’s about it. I know they’re big in the prog scene, and being at the time one of the few prog bands outside of the UK they were considered something of an anomaly, but grew to be very popular and are still going today.

Note: As I may have mentioned earlier, the album was originally called Focus Plays Focus but when it became successful on the back of the single “The House of the King” it was re-released for the international market in 1971, and for some reason retitled as “In and Out of Focus.” Don’t ask me. Also, the Spotify copy appears to have the track listing in reverse, so to save hassle that’s how I’m going to review it. If you’re familiar with the album my apologies, but there’s no way I’m clicking each track as I play the album so that they’re in the right order.

That means we start off with “Focus (vocal)”, which is a soft little organ-led piece, extremely reminiscent of the Alan Parsons Project, by which I mean of course they must have taken inspiration from Focus. Played blind, I might have thought this was the APP. Oddly, it seems to consist of one sung line, right at the start, and then a sort of staggered motif repeating on the organ against Akkerman’s lush guitar work, which basically makes it more or less an instrumental as far as I can see. Very nice start though, and on into “Black Beauty”, which I’m going to assume is not about Anna Sewell’s famous horse. Much more of a punch to this one, sharp guitar and rolling percussion, sounds like the sort of thing The Flower Kings would do later on. A certain Beatles feel here, with elements of the Moody Blues too. There’s a lot of simple fun about “Sugar Island”, a much more stripped-down sort of song with a nice Hammond line. Oddly enough, the song seems to be a poke at Cuban leader the late Fidel Castro. Hum.

I like the way the flute is used here - Jethro Tull take note, though probably not. No complaints so far. “Anonymous” has an interesting trumpet intro and then a flute solo before it engages in a duel with the guitar (I kid you not), with the piano joining in in a very jazzy way. Though this is over six and a half minutes I’m going to stick my neck out and say it’s an instrumental. And my neck is safe, because that’s exactly what it is. In addition, it’s a hell of a vehicle for Jan Akkerman to show just why he’s so respected as a guitarist. Oh, there’s a drum solo too. I’m not too upset about that, though in fairness, did it need one? That big hit single is up next, and I must admit, I’ve never heard “The House of the King”, but oh look, it’s an instrumental too.

Quite short, at less than three minutes, apparently it became famous as the theme to various TV shows, but again it’s not familiar to these ears. Has a sort of almost flamenco feel to it, seems to me. Good work on the flute there, Thijs! Catchy, for sure, and for an instrumental to get into the charts it usually has to have something different, which this does. “Happy Nightmare” (shown on the Spotify as having the subtitle “Mescaline”) is a final return to vocals, slow and kind of medieval in its format at first, before breaking into a mid-paced breezy sort of half-soul idea. Nice vocal harmonies. It would seem, on the basis of this album at least, that Focus are a little more of a relaxed band, or were, as “Why Dream” is another, well, dreamy ballad riding on waves of Hammond and some sweet guitar, and none the worse for it either. Things close then on the opening track (or open on the closing track, whichever version you have I guess) with “Focus (instrumental)” - which can’t be that much different from “Focus (vocal)”, right? Well, not, not right, as this runs for nearly ten minutes. And it’s worth every one of them.

Favourite track(s): everything
Least favourite track(s):
Overall impression: A great debut, lots of excellent musicianship, and it’s nice to see a band not just going head-down on their first time out, but taking it easy and relaxed as they look on the album cover.
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Trollheart

Zeuhl? Logical?

(Honestly, I don't know if it's pronounced that way, but I'll be damned if I'll pass up an opportunity for a good pun!)

The next band coined the term and created the style of progressive rock which came to be known as Zeuhl. Here. let Wiki explain. I’m going for a cup of tea.I feel I may need it.


Christian Vander has described the style of progressive rock that he developed with Magma in France from 1969 onwards as "zeuhl". Dominique Leone, writing for Pitchfork, says the style is "about what you'd expect an alien rock opera to sound like: massed, chanted choral motifs, martial, repetitive percussion, sudden bursts of explosive improv and just as unexpected lapses into eerie, minimalist trance-rock." The term comes from Kobaïan, the fictional language created by Vander for Magma. He has said that it means celestial; that "Zeuhl music means 'vibratory music'" and that zeuhl is "L'esprit au travers de la matière. That is Zeuhl. Zeuhl is also the sound which you can feel vibrating in your belly. Pronounce the word Zeuhl very slowly, and stress the letter 'z' at the beginning, and you will feel your body vibrating."



Album title: Magma
Artist: Magma
Nationality: French
Label: Philips
Chronology: Debut
Grade: B
Previous Experience of this Artist: Zero
The Trollheart Factor: 0
Landmark value: As it kicked off a whole new sub-genre of prog (though seemingly restricted to French bands) it has to have a high LV.
Tracklisting: "Kobaïa/Aïna/Malaria/Sohïa/Sckxyss/Auraë/Thaud Zaïa/Naü Ektila/Stöah/Mûh
Comments: Sure are a lot of strange accents and things in these titles! That’s because, apparently, the album is sung, not in English nor even in French, but in "Kobaïan", a made-up language created by the band to tie in with the concept of the album, which apparently follows exiles from Earth as they set up on another planet (the aforementioned Kobaïa) and promptly go to war against other fellow ex-Earthers. Lovely. Look, it’s going to be a pain in the arse copying and pasting these titles, so what say I just write them without all the little accents? After all, it’s not even a real language, so who am I going to offend? Non-existent aliens? That cool with you? No? Tough: I’m doing it anyway.

Oh come on! It’s a double album? Sigh. I feel this may be a slog. Oh well, ad astra, as they say. And the first track is ten minutes long. Sigh again. Right, well forget about lyrics, as, like I said, this is written and sung in Magma’s own fictitious language, so we’ll have to concentrate on the music, which from the off is upbeat and fast, sort of jazzy with a good amount of flute. Pretty frenetic stuff, which is really nothing new, but then, as described above, the characteristics of what will become I guess Zeuhl come into play, as three minutes in the music basically stops, brings in a sort of declaimed vocal speaking against almost nothing, the music then becoming somewhat barebones before picking up again, this time with the vocal in the background. There’s some nice piano and bass, but I kind of get the feeling this won’t be for me. I expect Frownland loves this sort of thing.

I’m not entirely sure what the idea is behind writing an album in a made-up language. I get the thinking behind it, with the story and all, but how anyone is supposed to know what’s going on is beyond me. You could of course say the same of any “foreign”-language album, but there’s always the option of meeting someone who knows that language and can translate for you. Far as I know, there aren’t too many Kobaïans around here. It just makes what is on the face of it a disagreeable proposal to me even worse and harder to get to grips with. The second track just baffled me, but at least there’s some nice laid back piano and guitar on “Malaria”, though attended by rather forceful drumming and a sort of solo chant. “Sohia” definitely has a very spooky, seventies science fiction atmosphere to it, thick pulsing bass line and what sounds like brass (sax, maybe? Trumpet?) along with some rocky guitar. Think it may be an instrumental here. Actually, not quite: there is a sort of low chant comes in later on.

Overall, so far, I find this a pretty annoying blend of jazz fusion and what I can only call the most arrogant self-indulgence I have ever come across. These guys make Dream Theater sound restrained and humble. Jesus. This sort of music will never be for me. It’s really hard to even describe it, but I can confirm it’s giving me a headache. Just going to let it do its thing now and if anything interests me I’ll poke my head out, but right now I’m in hiding till this is over.

There’s a nice kind of Romanesque march-y thing in “Thaud Zaia”, puts me in mind of those old Biblical films, a sort of solo vocal chant again but I’d have to say this is about (so far) the only track that hasn’t made me want to extract my own teeth with rusty pliers rather than continue listening to this album. Maybe there’s hope. But I doubt there’s much of it. Nice flute ending. That wasn’t terrible. And neither is the next one, at least when it begins, on gentle acoustic guitar and maybe soprano sax? Never really sure. It’s the longest track though, at thirteen minutes and I doubt it will remain this way all through its length. “Nau Ektila” does of course morph into something much different, conga drums and sax and flute and god knows what all piling into the mix and making it sound like some sort of lambada on mescaline, possibly. Goes all wild and frantic freakout then slows down into a nice pastoral section with a soft vocal which of course doesn’t last. I suppose you’d have to give it to them and say these guys are nothing if not versatile, and also impatient to jump to a new style every few minutes.

I very much like the piano run here, about the eighth minute, and were it to stay like this, notwithstanding the freakorama just prior to this, I could even be entering this under the definitely to be sparsely populated “favourite tracks” section, but I doubt it will. Well spin my nipple nuts and send me to Alaska! It did. Well I never. That’s two tracks then. Wow. Only two tracks left to go, but this is Magma so that means another twenty minutes of this nonsense. Hey, maybe the trend will continue from the last two tracks? A screeching voice and doomy sax quickly disabuses me of that notion, and I’m off to walk the dog. And I don’t even have a dog!

I guess in the final analysis the problem I see with this music - or at least, this album - is that while there are some good ideas - nice melodies, good instrumental passages, even some decent singing, it too often breaks down into shouts, chants, screams and improvisational jazz figures to make it possible to really point to a track and say I like that one. Almost always, I can say I like this part but not that part, and there are really only two tracks here I can say I quite like.

To be perfectly honest, that’s two more than I thought there’d be.


Favourite track(s): Thaud Zaia, Nau Ektila
Least favourite track(s): Everything else. Most with a passion.
Overall impression: If this is Zeuhl, count me as not a fan. Has most of the things I hate about avant-garde, experimental, jazz etc. Sure, I can accept its importance as the beginning of a new form of prog rock, but it ain’t for these ears, son.
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DianneW

I am on track one and cant do this..irritable already and posting as I think you'll see the Album is called screaming now, head phones sure they go stuck on purpose. Kobaia... shoot me now... phew good to hear nothing again.
yes they would have some good music somewhere in there as I read a little and the drummer trained classically which is good, sure there is a lot more to know about them but as time is precious I try and read what interests me rather than just for the knowledge.
Cheers now

Trollheart

I envy you. I had to listen to the whole thing. Almost gave me nightmares. The things I do for my craft. Zeuhl my aaaah look at that over there...

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Frownland

I wouldn't expect you to like Magma but this really crosses the line.

Also: https://www.musicbanter.com/general-...ml#post1785519

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Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth.

The Batlord

Magma make Dream Theater sound like Nickelback.

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