THE ROTTERS' CLUB

"The Rotters' Club" is the second full-length studio album by UK progressive rock/jazz-rock act Hatfield and The North. The album was released through Virgin Records in March 1975. It's the successor to the band's eponymously titled debut full-length album which was released in February 1974. Hatfield and The North formed in mid-1972, released two full-length studio albums and disbanded in 1975. So it was a relatively short-lived act, but at the time it was a sort of Canterbury scene supergroup featuring members and ex-members of acts like Delivery, Matching Mole, Gong, and Caravan, which meant that Hatfield and The North got some attention. The four-piece lineup who recorded the debut album is intact on "The Rotters' Club". Phil Miller (guitars), Dave Stewart (Hammond organ, Fender Rhodes, piano, MiniMoog, tone generator), Richard Sinclair (bass, lead vocals, additional guitar), and Pip Pyle (drums, percussion)...

...all of the above incredibly accomplished and experienced musicians and it's audible. "The Rotters' Club" is a very well performed release featuring many great musicial moments and details. Stylistically Hatfield and The North play a soft progressive rock/jazz-rock style, which is often laid-back and pleasant, but definitely not devoid of musical experimentation. Opening track "Share It" is a bit deceiving with it's nice pop melody and Sinclair giving a polished vocal performance (not completely unlike some of his most "light" work with Caravan), but already from track number two "Lounging There Trying", the band start showing their true colors. Jazz/fusion rhythm work, odd time-signatures, and a general disregard for regular vers/chorus structures or normal pop/rock compositional rules. In that respect Hatfield and The North are definitely closer to jazz music than they are to pop/rock. The album features several sections with improvised jamming ("The Yes No Interlude" is probably the best example of that) but also more structured compositions.

While it's a step up from the rather incoherrent debut album, "The Rotters' Club" does suffer from some of the same inconsistency issues as the debut album did. It's predominantly the songwriting which could have been more memorable, because as the case is with the debut album, "The Rotters' Club" is a both well produced and well performed album. There's no arguing that it's through and through a quality release featuring many intriguing musical ideas, but to my ears it often sounds a bit random and it's sometimes hard to know where the improvisation and the structured composed parts start and end. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.