"Magic Carpet Ride: The Dunhill/ABC Years 1967-1971" by STEPPENWOLF – Includes 8 Albums issued January 1968 to November 1971 in the USA (May 1968 to November 1971 in the UK on RCA Victor, Stateside and Probe Records) – featuring John Kay, Michael Monarch, Goldy McJohn, Rushton Moreve, Jerry Edmonton, Mars Bonfire, Nick St. Nicholas, Larry Byrom, Kent Henry and George Biondo (November 2021 UK Esoteric Recordings 8CD Clamshell Box Set with Mini LP Repro Artwork Card Sleeves and Paschal Byrne Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

 

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"...Heading Off Down The Highway..."

 

British reissue label Esoteric Recordings (a part of Cherry Red) has fast been carving out a place in the hearts of collectors these last few years and a total winner like "Magic Carpet Ride: The Dunhill/ABC Years 1967-1971" amply shows why – it screams class. And in October 2022 – it's priced at just over forty-quid and not the initial sixty – so is properly great value for money (for years you could only get expensive Japanese SHM-CD Remasters that at one point were clocking in at £400 for what you get here at a tenth of the cost).

 

In a nutshell, you get 8 Steppenwolf albums in Stereo - six studio sets, the full compliment of one live US-double which was only released as a single LP in the UK and a single live set of early 1967 wolf recordings when they were called The Sparrow. On top of that there's a tasty 26 Bonus 45-single Sides (most in their original and rare Mono form), a beautifully presented 52-page chunky-monkey booklet, a fold-out memorabilia-strewn poster, 8 Mini LP card repro sleeves (five of which are gatefolds) and Brand New 2021 Paschal Byrne Remasters from original Dunhill/ABC master tapes. Frankly Frank and don't step on the grass Sam, but that's a whole lot of primo Howlin' Wolf, if you know what I'm barking on about.

 

Always somehow in the second tier of great Rock Bands, Steppenwolf rocked and ever since I heard their angry, but utterly brilliant take on drug-addiction "The Pusher" complete with John Kay's larger-than-life persona dealing with everything from the intrusiveness of The Man and the Vietnam War to snowblind friends - I have loved the mad buggers dearly. Time to come out of the cave man; get wild, tighten up your wig and hop on long motorbikes and suspect carpets. Here is the Sookie-Sookie detail...

 

 

UK released Friday, 26 Nov 2021 - "Magic Carpet Ride: The Dunhill/ABC Years 1967-1971" by STEPPENWOLF on Esoteric Recordings ECLEC82777 (Barcode 5013929477780) is an 8CD Clamshell Box Set with Mini LP Card Sleeve Repro Artwork, a 52-Page Booklet, Fold-Out Poster, 26 Bonus Tracks and New 2021 Remasters that play out as follows:

 

CD1 "Steppenwolf" – 1968 Debut LP (74:29 minutes): 

The LP's STEREO MIX ONLY is used on this CD; the 8 Bonus Single Sides are in MONO.

1. Sookie Sookie [Side 1]

2. Everybody's Next One 

3. Berry Rides Again

4. Hootchie Kootchie Man 

5. Born To Be Wild

6. Your Wall's Too High 

7. Desperation [Side 2]

8. The Pusher 

9. A Girl I Knew

10. Take What You Need 

11. The Ostrich

Tracks 1 to 11 are their debut album "Steppenwolf" - released January 1968 on Dunhill D-50029 (Mono) and Dunhill DS-50029 (Stereo) and May 1968 in the UK on RCA Victor RD-7974 (Mono) and RCA Victor SF-7974 (Stereo). Produced by GABRIEL MEKLER - it peaked at No. 6 in the US Billboard Rock LP charts (didn't chart UK).

 

BONUS TRACKS: 

12. Sookie Sookie (Mono Single Version) - February 1968 US 45-single, Dunhill D-4123, A

13. Born To Be Wild (Mono Single Version) - May 1968 US 45-single, Dunhill D-4138, A

14. Everybody's Next One (Mono Single Version) - May 1968 US 45-single, Dunhill D-4138, B

15. Take What You Need (Mono Single Version) - Feb 1968 US 45-single, Dunhill D-4123, B

16. A Girl I Knew (Mono Single Version) - Oct 1967 US debut 45-single, Dunhill D-4109, A 

17. The Ostrich (Mono Single Version) - Oct 1967 US debut 45-single, Dunhill D-4109, B

18. The Pusher (Mono Single Version) - August 1970 UK 45-single, Stateside SS 8056, A

19. Berry Rides Again (Mono Single Version) - December 1969 US 45-single, Dunhill D-4221, B-side of "Monster"

 

CD2 "The Second" – 1968 Second LP (46:33 minutes): 

The LP's STEREO MIX ONLY is used on this CD; the 2 Bonus Single Sides are in MONO.

1. Faster Than The Speed Of Life [Side 1]

2. Tighten Up Your Wig 

3. None Of Your Doing 

4. Spiritual Fantasy 

5. Don't Step On The Grass Sam 

6. 28 [Side 2]

7. Magic Carpet Ride

8. Disappointment Number (Unknown)

9. Lost And Found By Trial And Error 

10. Hodge, Podge, Strained Through A Leslie

11. Resurrection

12. Reflections

Tracks 1 to 12 are their second studio album "The Second" - released October 1968 in the US on Dunhill DS-50037 (Stereo-only) and December 1968 UK on Stateside SL 5003 (Mono) and Stateside SSL 5003 (Stereo). Produced by GABRIEL MEKLER - it peaked at No. 3 in the USA on the Billboard Rock LP charts (didn't chart UK)

 

BONUS TRACKS: 

13. Magic Carpet Ride (Mono Single Version) - Sept 1968 US 45-single, Dunhill D-4161, A

14. Spiritual Fantasy (Mono Single Version) - Aug 1970 US 45-single, Dunhill D-4248, B-side of "Screaming Night Hog"

 

CD3 "At Your Birthday Party" – 1969 Third LP (53:30 minutes):

The 13-Track album is in STEREO; the 4 Bonus Single Sides are in MONO.

1. Don't Cry [Side 1]

2. Chicken Wolf

3. Lovely Meter 

4. Round And Round 

5. It's Never Too Late 

6. Sleeping Dream 

7. Jupiter Child [Side 2]

8. She'll Be Better

9. Cat Killer 

10. Rock Me

11. God Fearing Man 

12. Mango Juice

13. Happy Birthday

Tracks 1 to 13 are their third studio album "At Your Birthday Party" - released March 1969 in the US on Dunhill/ABC DSX-50053 (Stereo) and May 1969 in the UK on Stateside SSL 5011 (Stereo. Produced by GABRIEL MEKLER - it peaked at No. 7 in the US Billboard Rock LP charts (didn't chart UK)

BONUS TRACKS: 

14. Rock Me (Mono Single Version) - Feb 1969 US 45-single, Dunhill D-4182, A

15. Jupiter Child (Mono Single Version) - Feb 1969 US 45-single, Dunhill D-4182, B

 

CD4 "Early Steppenwolf" - 1969 Fourth LP (43:44 minutes):

Recorded Live at The Matrix in San Francisco, May 14, 1967 (as The Sparrow)

1. Power Play [Side 1]

2. Howlin' For My Baby 

3. Goin' Upstairs 

4. Corina, Corina

5. Tighten Up Your Wig 

6. The Pusher (21:36 minutes) [Side 2]

Tracks 1 to 6 are their fourth album "Early Steppenwolf", a collection of six live recordings as THE SPARROW made in May 1967 with MARS BONFIRE on Lead Guitar - released July 1969 in the US on Dunhill/ABC Records DS-50060 in Stereo and November 1969 in the UK on Stateside SSL 5015 in Stereo (it peaked at No. 27 in the US Billboard Rock LP charts, didn't chart UK).

 

CD5 "Monster" – 1969 Fifth LP (44:53 minutes):

The 7-Track album is in STEREO; the 3 Bonus Single Sides are in STEREO and MONO.

10 Tracks

1. Monster/Suicide/America [Side 1]

2. Draft Resister 

3. Power Play 

4. Move Over [Side 2]

5. Fag

6. What Would You Do (If I Did That To You) [Side 2]

7. From Here To There Eventually 

Tracks 1 to 7 are their fifth album (fourth studio) "Monster" - released November 1969 in the US on Dunhill/ABC Records DS-50066 in Stereo and February 1970 UK on Stateside SSL 5021 in Stereo. Produced by GABRIEL MEKLER - it peaked at No. 17 on the US Billboard Rock LP charts and became their first LP to chart in the UK peaking at No. 43.

 

BONUS TRACKS:

8. Monster (Single Version, Edit, Stereo) - December 1969 US 45-single, Dunhill D-4221, A

9. Move Over (Mono Single Version) - August 1969 US 45-single, Dunhill D-4205, A

10. Power Play (Mono Single Version) - August 1969 US 45-single, Dunhill D-4205, B

 

CD6 "Steppenwolf 'Live'" – 1970 Sixth Album (78:25 minutes):

The 13-Track Live-Double is in STEREO on this CD; the 3 Bonuses are MONO

1. Sookie Sookie [Side 1]

2. Don't Step On The Grass Sam

3. Tighten Up Your Wig

4. Monster [Side 2]

5. Draft Resister

6. Power Play 

7. Corina, Corina [Side 3]

8. Twisted

9. From Here To There Eventually 

10. Hey Lawdy Mama [Side 4]

11. Magic Carpet Ride 

12. The Pusher 

13. Born To Be Wild

Tracks 1 to 13 are their sixth album (second live set) issued June 1970 as a 2LP vinyl double-album in the USA on Dunhill DSD 50075 in Stereo only. On the original US issue the opening tracks "Hey Lawdy Mama" and "Magic Carpet Ride" of Side 4 are configured on the label as one-song hence giving the double a 12-track count. Here they have been separated as two songs, hence the 13-track count on CD. Produced by GABRIEL MEKLER - it peaked at No. 7 in the US Billboard Rock LP charts and No. 16 (as a single LP) in the UK

 

In the UK, "Steppenwolf 'Live'" was issued July 1970 on Stateside SSL 5029 as an 11-Track Single LP in Stereo. You can sequence that version using the following tracks:

Side 1: Sookie Sookie, Don't Step On The Grass Sam, Tighten Up Your Wig, Hey Lawdy Mama, Magic Carpet Ride, The Pusher

Side 2: Corina-Corina, Twisted, From Here To There Eventually, Draft Resister, Born To Be Wild

 

BONUS TRACKS: 

14. Hey Lawdy Mama [Live] (Mono Single Version) - April 1970 US 45 on Dunhill D-4234, A

15. Twisted [Live] (Mono Single Version) - April 1970 US 45 on Dunhill D-4234, B

16.Corina, Corina [Live] (Mono Single Version) - August 1970 US 45 on Dunhill D-4248, B-side of "Screaming Night Hog"

 

CD7 "Steppenwolf 7" – 1970 Seventh Album (50:28 minutes):

The 12 Tracks are all in STEREO 

1. Ball Crusher [Side 1]

2. Forty Days And Forty Nights 

3. Fat Jack 

4. Renegade

5. Foggy Mental Breakdown [Side 2]

6. Snow Blind Friend 

7. Who Needs Ya

8. Earschplittenloudenboomer

9. Hippo Stomp

Tracks 1 to 9 are their seventh album (fifth studio) "Steppenwolf 7" - released November 1970 in the US on ABC/Dunhill DSX-50090 and January 1971 in the UK on Probe Records SPBA 6254. Produced by RICHARD PODOLOR - it peaked at No. 19 on the US Billboard Rock Lp charts (didn't chart UK). 

BONUS TRACKS:

10. Screaming Night Hog - August 1970 US 45-single on Dunhill/ABC D-4258, A

11. Snow Blind Friend - February 1971 US 45-single on Dunhill/ABC D-4269, A

12. Hippo Stomp - February 1971 US 45-single on Dunhill/ABC D-4269, B

 

CD8 "For Ladies Only" – 1971 Eight Album (61:13 minutes):

Tracks 1 to 12 in STEREO, Track 13 is MONO

1. For Ladies Only [Side 1]

2. I'm Asking 

3. Shackles And Chains 

4. Tenderness

5. The Night Time's For You [Side 2]

6. Jaded Strumpet 

7. Sparkle Eyes 

8. Black Pit 

9. Ride With Me 

10. In Hopes Of A Garden 

Tracks 1 to 10 are their eight album (sixth studio set) "For Ladies Only" - released November 1971 in the US Dunhill/ABC DSX-50110 in Stereo and November 1971 in the UK on Probe Records SPBA 6260 in Stereo. Produced by RICHARD PODOLOR - it peaked at No. 54 on the US Billboard Rock LP charts (didn't chart UK) 

 

BONUS TRACKS:

11. For Madmen Only - June 1971 US 45-single on Dunhill D-4283, B-side of "Ride With Me"

12. For Ladies Only (Single Version, Stereo Version) - October 1971 US Promo-Only US 45-single on Dunhill D-4292, B-side of "For Ladies Only (Mono Version)"

13. Ride With Me (Mono Single Version) - June 1971 US 45-single on Dunhill D-4283, A

 

"Magic Carpet Ride..." is a looker of a CD Box Set - the glossy Clamshell giving it a feel of event. The Matt-booklet of 54-pages has reams of MALCOLM DOME liner notes interspersed with LP credits and loads of period photos, while the fold-out memorabilia poster showing stuff like their involvement in the "Candy" soundtrack is a great touch. PASCHAL BYRNE did the new Remasters from original tapes and it absolutely rocks - the lyrically awful "Jaded Strumpet" on "For Ladies Only" might make you wince, but the in-yer-face Audio won't. 

 

My only thing would be that many of the Mono single mixes feel too often like an Audio compromise rather than a Bonus. The fact that the last four card sleeves are gatefolds thereby keeping to their original designs is well tasty too - but the silver foil feel of the debut is missing as is the die-cut of "At Your Birthday Party" - for that level of Mini LP Sleeve detail you have to go to the Japanese SHM-CD reissues of April 2013 and they'll cost ya. But what we do have is superbly done and cleanly presented.  

 

The much-loved self-titled 1968 debut album is balls-to-the-wall brilliant - not surprising then that a whopping eight of its eleven tracks made it onto the 2CD "Gold" compilation put out to universal praise in September 2005 (Erick Labson Remasters - see separate review). So many tracks like their fantastic cover of Don Covay and Steve Cropper's "Sookie Sookie", Hoyt Axton's viscerally brutal "The Pusher" and their own reach for personal freedom "Born To Be Wild" that would lead the "Easy Rider" movie charge the following year. I would have to admit that the filler started to creep in by the time we reach platter number three - "At Your Birthday Party" feeling like its reaching all the time, but killer Kay tunes like "Rock Me" and "Jupiter Child" saving the day.

 

Rock-genius and So-Steppenwolf-Sounding-Riffage courses through the veins of "Don't Step On The Grass Sam" - both John Kay and Joey Edmonton sharing the vocals and those incendiary 'you'll pay if you disagree with me' lyrics. It's of the times for sure, but at a distance of nearing on 60-years - its crafty melody/production turns still amazes and manages to feel contemporary. There are times too when the band's musical reach surprises - even thrills - the gorgeous and cleverly orchestrated string arrangements in "Spiritual Fantasy" - just a song that dreams and hopes - John Kay searching for the supreme. The sexy guitar and piano Blues lurch of "Disappointment Number (Unknown)" is not just a fabulous deep album cut, but the Audio on the Remaster is fantastically clear - Mekler's original Production values shining through. And despite its hippy almost Jazz Fusion feel (or perhaps because of it) - I've been a tad partial to the three-minute instrumental "Mango Juice" on the patchy "At Your Birthday Party" album. 

Other deep dive dips include the slide-guitar shuffle of "Shackles And Chains" on Side 1 of the mixed-bag "For Ladies Only" album - their last for Dunhill/ABC in 1971 before they joined Mums Records for 1974's comback platter "Slow Flux". "Shackles And Chains" is another hooky John Kay message song (funky too) and this time we finally get to hear the great production values from Richard Podolor (guitarist Kent Henry playing a blinder). And I used to put "Tenderness" from the same album on 70's-Fest CD-Rs I made for Shop Plays - its Mars Bonfire-written acoustic/keyboard/guitar shuffle disarmingly touching (gorgeous Audio too). The guitar/keyboard groove of the instrumental "Black Pit" is one for Soul-Rock 'Funky Funky' compilations as well. 

 

While you might think its cool to have the Mono Single Mixes, the version of the lovely "Spiritual Fantasy" in Mono fares fairly well, but "Magic Carpet Ride" in Mono is too muffled for my tastes (guess I'm too used to that great Stereo clarity). Collectors will love the oddities - the decidedly eerie B-side "For Madmen Only" where the band seems to channeling Stephen King on a bad day. But then you play "Ride With Me" as either a 1971 Mono Single or its Stereo LP counterpart - with John Kay at his rumbunktious blazing best - and the rawk racket that Steppenwolf made was/is just fantastic. And on it goes...

 

There is so much on "The Dunhill/ABC Years 1967-1971", we could have it for days, but this Esoteric Recordings 8CD Mini Box Set for STEPPENWOLF hits home on all the right fronts - Presentation, Audio and Musical Surprises for a band so pigeonholed by their 60ts sound. 

 

A Magic Carpet Ride indeed...

 

PS: see also my review for "Gold" and "Slow Flux etc" both by Steppenwolf and the John Kay solo albums from 1972 and 1973 on Beat Goes On Records - "Forgotten Songs..." and "My Sportin' Life"

"Olias Of Sunhillow" by JON ANDERSON of YES – July 1976 UK and USA Debut Solo Album on Atlantic Records (April 2021 UK Esoteric Recordings CD + DVD-A Reissue with a 2020 Ben Wiseman Remaster for CD and 5.1 Surround Mix and High Resolution Stereo Mix for the DVD-A) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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PROG ROCK, PSYCH, AVANT GARDE...
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Covering 1967 to 1977 - It Also Focuses On

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"...One Clear Hand..."

Encouraged by the brilliance of "Relayer" in 1974 (with Patrick Moraz at the keyboards instead of Rick Wakeman) - like most YES fans at the time - I awaited the inevitable Solo albums in the mid Seventies with a sense of excitement. And while Bassist Chris Squire and Guitarist Steve Howe had their moments of glory with November 1975's "Fish Out Of Water" and October 1975's "Beginnings" respectively - most of us somehow knew that Lead Singer and Leading Light in the Yes Multiverse JON ANDERSON and his debut vinyl LP of 1976 would be the Proggy Humdinger to get. And - "...one clear hand..." (lyrics from "Flight of The Moorglade") - it was and still is. 

Released in July 1976 on Atlantic K 50261 in the UK and Atlantic SD 18180 in the USA - "Olias Of Sunhillow" even peaked at Number 8 in good old Blighty (No. 47 in the USA) and has been a treasured work by Prog Rock fans ever since. But its odyssey onto digital has been one of expensive hits and cheap-assed misses - mostly misses.

First came the German/Europe version from February 1996 with an unreadable four-page inlay badly repro'ing the stunning original artwork and sporting un-remastered dull sound (Atlantic 7567-80273-2 - Barcode 075678027321). Two followed that improved things - the October 2011 Japan-Only edition Warner Brothers/Atlantic/Arcangelo ARC-8061 (Barcode 4988044390614) - a SHM-CD in Repro Artwork and America's Audio Fidelity issue from January 2014 - a 24-Carat Gold CD Remastered by noted engineer KEVIN GRAY (Audio Fidelity AFZ 156 - Barcode 0780014215620). But both of those have been deleted years and subsequently acquired very nasty price tags on auction sites. In January 2020 Music On CD out of The Netherlands simply reissued the 1996 version in a Super Jewel Case (Music On CD MOCCD13846 - Barcode 8718627230459) but without any mastering details and some were suckered into buying that. Which brings us to pandemic year plus one - 2021...

UK released Friday, 9 April 2021 (delayed from Friday, 29 March 2021) - "Olias Of Sunhillow" by JON ANDERSON [of YES] on Esoteric Recordings QECLEC22748 (Barcode 5013929474888) is a CD + DVD-A Reissue and New Remaster (by Ben Wiseman) that plays out as follows (the CD and DVD-A have the same tracks as listed below - 44:22 minutes):   

1. Ocean Song [Side 1]

2. Meeting (Garden Of Geda)/Sound Out The Galleon

3. Dance Of Ranyart/Olias (To Build The Moorglade)

4. Qoquaq En Transic/Naon/Transic To

5. Flight Of The Moorglade

6. Solid Space [Side 2]

7. Moon Ra/Chords/Song Of Search

8. To The Runner

Those who bought the original record will of course remember not just the fabulous dense music contained within but also the full-on glory of the sleeve designed and painted by DAVID FAIRBROTHER ROE. A gatefold cover with an extra leaf inside and a same-design inner lyrics sleeve - it was dazzling as a package. Although Roger Dean ad been approached first and proved too busy to help, Roe had done Nazareth's "Hair Of The Dog" album in late 1973 and prior to that designed striking posters for three Isle of Wight Festivals in 1968, 1969 and 1970. Anderson saw the returned artwork and was duly taken aback. 

His space-tale of Magician Olias who lives on the doomed planet of Sunhillow features four tribes and two other characters in his journey to the safe world of Asgaurd - a second magician Ranyart who becomes the navigator of the spaceship 'Moorglade Mover' and a trance-singer Qoquaq who lulls sceptical tribes onto the ship with melodies of peace and love before their world explodes into millions of tears. As you imagine and see from the photos I've provided - the staggeringly elaborate artwork and equally beautiful inner sleeve and its writing font seemed more like a Tolkien book art-plate than an LP record. Esoteric are clearly aware of this and have tried to reproduce that impact and (largely) succeeded. 

A clever move has been to put the lyrics that were originally on both sides of the inner sleeve into a separate booklet (in the right inner flap) and print them to such a degree that you can actually read them. Unfortunately, they have not done the same to the 'story' of Olias that is spread across four inner flaps - most of which is barely legible. Clearly, they should have done the same for the story part of this. 

There is a separate 20-page booklet in the left flap that fills out the album's making - a new in-depth interview with JA by MALCOLM DOME (dated Oct 2020). Rumours of Vangelis playing keyboards on the album (which have persisted for years) and RCA doing their nut at the same are quickly quashed as untrue - though Vangelis was one of the first to hear the finished product and mightily approved (Anderson saw him as a mentor as well as musician friend). 

We also learn that "Olias Of Sunhillow" was a truly 'solo' project, Anderson playing 'everything' - as much as 30 instruments with a recording time of a gruelling three to eight-months (project gestation had been almost five years since the "Fragile" LP in 1971). Amidst the text and illuminations of how maddening the recording actually was - there are pictures of memorabilia supplied by fan David Watkinson - but I have to admit they are strangely muted and badly rendered to a point where you can see what they are but not read them. 

Presentation-wise - this Esoteric Recordings reissue is a damn good fist at it - the rare American Promo 7" single with Titled Picture Sleeve for "Flight Of The Moorglade" b/w "To The Runner" is pictured as are Trade Adverts, Reviews, Times articles etc. And the sepia-feel paper even mimics the texture of the original release. But I would have to be honest and say that that mistake with the story being unreadable is kind of dumb. I should also add that the new remaster from BEN WISEMAN says all the right things on the printed tin (first gen tapes, stereo masters etc) - but the result has left me slightly underwhelmed. 

For sure when you hear those Harp Scales in "Dance Of Ranyart" and that massive crescendo of voices and instruments during Track 4 on Side 1 - the effect is powerful. But I would say that this is a Remaster that needs a bit of welly on your Volume Dial to lift that veil. I also demo'd the 5.1 Surround Mix and the High Definition Stereo Mix on a mate's system (I don't have 5.1 myself) and the Audio was magnificent - the clarity is there that I feel is still a tad muffled on the CD version. 

I've waited decades for this album to be properly remastered and available as such at a reasonable price - so I will congratulate Esoteric Recordings for that. But the lack of anything new (demos, outtake passages etc) is a bit of a disappointment if I'm brutally honest and that packaging faux pas irritates. But then I played the gorgeous Acoustic/Synth intro to "Flight Of The Moorglade" and I shed a wee Proggy tear of joy (I bought that single in Dublin back in the day). So someone is doing something right here. 

"Olias Of Sunhillow" has quite rightly built up a bit of a rep as a genuine Prog Rock, Art Rock, Symphonic Rock masterpiece. And while I still don’t quite know what your four tribes of Sunhillow are actually about (can’t tell my Oractaniom from my Nordranious man) – I love this record. Dense, layered, articulate without being too fay – it is a beautiful thing. And at last a good reissue label has done it a solid space retain.  

"Cha! Cha!" Anderson chants as he finishes the wicked album closer "To The Runner". Couldn't agree more my Topographic son...

"Raindances: The Transatlantic Recordings 1973-1975" by GRYPHON – Including Four UK Albums - "Gryphon" (June 1973), "Midnight Mushrumps" and "Red Queen To Gryphon Three" (May and November 1974) with "Raindance" (September 1975) - featuring Richard Harvey, Brian Gulland, Graeme Taylor, Dave Oberle, Philip Nestor and Malcolm Bennett (August 2018 UK Esoteric Recordings Compilation – 4LPs onto 2CDs – Ben Wiseman Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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"...Midnight Mushrumps..."

Described by one erudite music-press scribbler in the early Seventies as a "...13th Century Slade..." – England's hairy men of GRYPHON replaced bovver boots and mirror-ball top hats with ye olde powdered wigs, frilly velvet coats and chubby lutes sat on cushions surrounded by patchouli bowls and 16-track mixing consoles. 

Their often rhythmically complex instrumental passages crossed over into Amazing Blondel territory (an Island Records band in 1970 and 1971) and into Focus circa 1972 and 1973 on Polydor – a sort of five-piece Medieval Folk act with Prog Rock leanings and flourishes. Gryphon Music feels like Canada's Rush had a love child with England's Fairport Convention or Mr. Fox and didn't know what to do with the resulting squawler – a mishmash of soundscapes that even now defies description. 

But inside this undoubted virtuoso playing was beauty and even prettiness – and each of their four albums for Transatlantic Records came in those glorious stippled-effect artwork sleeves that made collectors like me a little unnecessary in the trouser area. Remastered from original tapes - the audio rocks (another Ben Wiseman winner), the presentation is sweet and I've seen this wee beauty online for under a tenner from some retailers. I love it. Here are the Midnight Mushrumps...

UK released Friday, 24 August 2018 - "Raindances: The Transatlantic Recordings 1973-1975" by GRYPHON on Esoteric Recordings ECLEC22639 (Barcode 5013929473942) offers 4LPs Remastered onto 2CDs and plays out as follows:

CD1 (74:05 minutes):
1. Kemp's Jig [Side 1]
2. Sir Gavin Grimbold 
3. Touch And Go
4. Three Jolly Butchers 
5. Pastime With Good Company 
6. The Unquiet Grave 
7. Estampie [Side 2]
8. Crossing The Stiles 
9. The Astrologer
10. Tea Wrecks 
11. Juniper Suite 
12. The Devil And The Farmer's Wife  
Tracks 1 to 12 are their debut album "Gryphon" - released June 1973 in the UK on Transatlantic Records TRA 262 (no USA release). Produced by LAURENCE ASTON and ADAM SKEAPING - it didn't chart.

13. Midnight Mushrumps [Side 1]
14. The Ploughboy's Dream [Side 2]
15. The Last Flash Of Gaberdine Tailor 
16. Gulland Rock 
17. Ethelion 
Tracks 13 to 17 are their second studio album "Midnight Mushrumps" - released May 1974 in the UK on Transatlantic Records TRA 282 (no US release). Produced by GRYPHON - it didn't chart. 

CD2 (79:54 minutes):
1. Opening Move (9:48 minutes) [Side 1]
2. Second Spasm (8:21 minutes)
3. Lament (10:50 minutes) [Side 2]
4. Checkmate (9:48 minutes)
Tracks 1 to 4 are their third studio album "Red Queen To Gryphon Three" - released November 1974 in the UK on Transatlantic Records TRA 287 and December 1974 in the USA on Bell Records BELL 1316. Produced by GRYPHON and DAVE GRINSTEAD - it didn't chart in either country.

5. Down The Dog [Side 1]
6. Raindance 
7. Mother Nature's Son
8. Le Cambrioleur Est Dans Le Mouchir 
9. Ormolu 
10. Fontiental Version 
11. Wallbanger [Side 2]
12. Don't Say Go 
13. (Ein Klein) Heidenleben 
Tracks 5 to 13 are their fourth album "Raindance" - released September 1975 in the UK on Transatlantic TRA 302 (no US release). Produced by GRYPHON - it didn't chart  

GRYPHON was:
RICHARD HARVEY - Keyboards, Recorders and Krumhorn
BRIAN GULLAND - Bassoon and Krumhorn
GRAEME TAYLOR - Guitars
PHILIP NESTOR - Bass
DAVID OBERLE - Drums, Percussion and Tympanies
MALCOLM BENNETT replaced Philip Nestor for "Raindance" - Bass, Flute and Lyrics 

The 24-page booklet is a pleasingly fat and pretty affair - all four albums covers given a page each and new liner notes from long-time writer MALCOLM DOME on the British band's very English peculiarities. Those who would worry that this is sort of silly Blackadder incidental music should not feel so - there is more Prog Folk or Folk Rock going on here than the mediaeval tag Gryphon is always whacked with. 

For sure as you peruse the song titles provided above - Jolly Butchers, Ploughman's Dreams and Raindances down in the Dog are very ye olde type music - but Gryphon infused the old with the new - and by the time they reached "Red Queen To Gryphon Three" - four lengthy pieces of music - they were very much in the Gentle Giant meets Trees meets Seventh Wave territories more than they were Steeleye Span for instance. The liner notes discuss the lovely Dan Pearce artwork that made their LP sleeves so distinctive and new interviews with Oberle and Gulland fill in how the band struggled and yet forged ahead (there are full LP credits on the final pages). 

But yet again the big news is BEN WISEMAN 24-Bit Digital Remasters from original Transatlantic Records tapes. These Gryphon albums have been issued before (even in Japan) but in my mind, they have never sounded this good - a timely and smart gathering together of their neglected brilliance. To the music...

Highlights include the very Rick Wakeman keyboard tale of forests, horses and dreaming of buxom wenches in "The Ploughman's Dream" on "Midnight Mushrumps" and the one true love acoustic prettiness of "The Unquiet Grave" on the self-titled debut. Speaking of the first album, it is undoubtedly the one most filled with ye olde dances on clavinets and oboes and the like ("Juniper Suite"). Those looking for Prog should go to the nineteen minutes of Side 1 for "Midnight Mushrumps" or the doomy organs of "Gulland Rock" or "Opening Moves" on "Red Queen To Gryphon Three". That beast harbours all their most admired work - long tracks filled with ye-olde rhythms mashed up with new Prog Rock Jazz Fusion flourishes on a Yamaha DX7 keyboard - all of it sounding like Elizabeth I has dropped acid and suddenly wants to expressive herself via the Clavinet, Bassoon, Recorder and Krumhorn (a bent Renaissance woodwind instrument). By the time we get to 1975 and "Raindance", there are even Focus guitar moments in "Down The Dog" and a gorgeous interpretation of that White Album gem "Mother Nature's Son" (The Beatles under another sun) - while "Wallbanger" has a Greenslade sway to its multiple keyboards funk. 

Gryphon would go on to release one further studio set - "Treason" in April 1977 on Harvest SHSP 4063. Neither number five nor the four albums that preceded it troubled any charts anywhere especially given Punk and New Wave's dominance of the mid to late Seventies scene. And always odd anyway – their music seemed even more wildly out of place on a musical map changed forever. 
Founder member Richard Harvey popped out a solo set called "Divisions On A Ground" in April 1975 (Transatlantic TRA 292) and would later pen music for TV and Cinema including Alan Bleasdale's much-loved "G.B.H." from 1991, along with "Animal Farm" and "Arabian Nights" in 1999 and 2000 respectively. 

Supporting Prog-Rock Supergroup YES on their US Tour of 1975 - Guitarist Steve Howe was so impressed with the band's instrumental dexterity that three Gryphonites - Graeme Taylor, David Oberle and Malcolm Bennett (he’d played on "Raindance") turned up on Howe’s debut solo LP "Beginnings" released November 1975 in the UK on Atlantic K 50151. The old band then returned to the fray with two retrospective CDs on Hux Records - "About As Curious As It Can Be" in March 2002 that featured BBC sessions from 1974 and 1975 and "Glastonbury Carol" in July 2003 that featured live recordings at the famous outdoor venue from 1971 to 1974. 

Gryphon were always an acquired taste (this music will definitely not be for everyone), but they were also one of those bands that have grown in stature since their demise – picked up on by Prog fanatics searching for a new fix that they might have missed first time around. 

Dancing in the rain with your frumpy Mushrumps – I'll have me some of that you saucy squire, thank you very much...

"Hergest Ridge" by MIKE OLDFIELD – August 1974 UK Second Album on Virgin Records featuring Guests Sally Oldfield of The Sallyangie and Clodagh Simmonds of Mellow Candle, William Murray of Kevin Ayers Band, Tom Hobart, William Murray of The Kevin Ayers Band and The London Sinfonietta Choir Arranged by David Bedford (June 2010 UK Mercury/Universal Single CD 2010 Expanded Edition Remaster – Mike Oldfield and Paschal Byrne Remixes and Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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1974

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"...Wordlessly Beautiful..."

When Mike Oldfield issued solo platter No. 2 to a public hungry for more sidelong Progtastic Folk Rock - Virgin V 2013 took until the chart of 14 September 1974 to hit the number one spot (it was released in Blighty on 28 August 1974). 

"Hergest Ridge" (named after a real place near the town of Kington in Wales) stayed atop for three weeks only to be replaced (yet again) by his first album "Tubular Bells" from 1973 - interest in the first reignited by the Celtic musical beauty conjured up in the second. 

For Oldfield aficionados "Hergest Ridge" is "The Empire Strikes Back" in his voluminous catalogue. Not quite the groundbreaking "Star Wars: A New Hope" meisterwerk of the original 1973 template "Tubular Bells" - and considered by critics and large wads of the public to be a wee bit of a disappointment on release - it has nonetheless been beloved by real fans ever since. In fact (like others of the same persuasion) - I'd rather listen to the 1974 Celtic-influenced Folk Rock beauty that is inherently in Side One of "Hergest Ridge" than return to Side 2 of "Tubular Bells". 

Can't say I'm digging the non-Bootleg artwork either that has been replaced by some glider thingy (Bootleg was the Irish Wolfhound who lived at the Manor Studio and graced the original 1974 artwork front and rear - its given a full page in the booklet). But the 2010 Mike Oldfield Remix and the following Paschal Byrne Remaster have lifted up the Acoustics in this to a point where it suddenly feels so damn fresh. To Grid Reference SO296565 (starting point in the Kington Car Park)...

UK released 7 June 2010 - "Hergest Ridge" by MIKE OLDFIELD on Mercury/Universal UMC 532 675-5 (Barcode 600753267554) is a 2010 Single CD Expanded Edition Remaster that plays out as follows (44:10 minutes):

1. Hergest Ridge (Part One) 19:21 minutes 

2. Hergest Ridge (Part Two) 18:46 minutes 

2010 Stereo Remix by Mike Oldfield 

BONUS TRACKS: 

3. In Dulci Jubilo (For Maureen) 2:45 minutes 

Non-Album B-side of "Don Alfonso" - a February 1975 UK 45-single on Virgin VS 117 - a cover/rearrangement of a Bach melody

4. Spanish Tune (3:11 minutes) – 1A withdrawn 1974 UK Promotional-only One-Sided 45-single on Virgin VS 112 – Previously Unreleased on CD – it is a remixed edit of the final section of "Hergest Ridge (Part Two)". 

The 16-page booklet (with new interviews from MO, trade adverts, original LP artwork etc) provides a deep insight into the personal and musical turmoil that seemed to surround the album at every turn – Oldfield under not entirely unreasonable pressure from Richard Branson at Virgin to provide Opus Two – and right quick my son. Oldfield admits that he had been running on musical empty since the years he had spent putting T Bells together - and got away to the country to seek inspiration. He bought a house called The Beacon on the edge of Bradnor Hill by the Welsh border near the town of Kington that needed renovation. 

After teaming up with a local multi-instrumentalist called Leslie Penning – they hit the local restaurant and played multi-instrument gigs – Hurdy Gurdy, Recorders and The Crumhorn – for free wine. This got the spirit up, the Mediaeval tunes out and the creative juices flowing. And a local guidebook suggested rambling up the ancient path to a beauty spot called "Hergest Ridge"...

With Tom Newman engineering - again we get extensive overdubbing of a huge range of instruments for both Part One and Part Two passages. Mike Oldfield wielded armies of Acoustic and Electric Guitars, Mandolin, Organ, Glockenspiel, Timpani, Tubular Bells, Gongs and even Sleigh Bells (ring-ding-a-dinging). Ted Hobart played Trumpet, his brother Terry and sister Sally provided Flute and Backing vocals respectively (Sally Oldfield used to be in The Sallyangie with Mike). Backing Singers came from two other sources – the David Bedford arranged Choir of The London Sinfonietta and the well revered Clodagh Simmonds of cult Folk-Rock group Mellow Candle. William Murray of the Kevin Ayers Band provided Percussion too. 

The new Stereo Mix for 2010 makes a real point of bringing out the acoustic guitar whilst that penny whistle theme that opens Part One is simply gorgeous. Even as it gets overly crowded on Side One – the Remaster lets out those Trumpet fills – those cymbals crashing as they introduce another coda – and I’d love to know just what the hell it is that the ladies are singing on Side 2. Both bonuses are interesting shall we say, but the real bully beef lies with the density and at times pastoral beauty of both principal parts. 

Second best – maybe. But I find I come back for second helpings – and this major audio overhaul has only made that repeat decision all the more likely. 

In one of the full-page period adverts Virgin ran in the trades – it states the music is "...Wordlessly Beautiful..." I agree. Soar over the magical landscape of this CD Reissue and soak up its deeply lovely greenery. Way to go minimalist M.O....