THE PALLAS EP

PALLAS is rightfully known as one of the earliest neo-prog bands that along with Marillion, IQ, Twelfth Night, Pendragon and Solstice ushered in the second wave of popular progressive rock in the early 1980s. What's not well known however is that the band formed as far back as 1974 in Aberdeen, Scotland and spent many years hitting the club circuit with the mission of keeping symphonic prog alive while the entire prog scene was clearly in decline. What's also interesting is that the band was first called Rainbow until Ritchie Blackmore left Deep Purple and assembled a band of the same name and achieved superstardom. After a brief stint as Pallas Anthene, the second part was dropped and has been simply PALLAS ever since.

While the first proper PALLAS album didn't emerge until 1984 way after its contemporaries jumped on the on the neo-prog bandwagon, the band did predate its competition and in fact released its debut EP simply titled THE PALLAS EP as early as 1978 however PALLAS was an entirely different band in those days with only founder Graeme Murray remaining by the time "The Sentinel" saw the light of day. THE PALLAS EP was a completely different beast than anything that came after and wouldn't even be recognizable as a PALLAS release even by the staunchest of followers. Pressed only once as a 7" vinyl recording with four tracks, this earliest offering from PALLAS found itself in a tug of war between Genesis inspired progressive rock and the contemporary sounds of punk rock. This hard to find musical artifact didn't even have a proper album cover and was simply released in a plain 45 styled sleeve with a simple THE PALLAS EP stamped on it.

One of the most unusual moments for any band that would be called neo-prog, PALLAS delivers a strange hybrid of punk rock simplicity with the progressive rock instrumentation such as a mellotron and 12-string guitar. Avoiding any time signature workouts, THE PALLAS EP focused more on simple punk rock songs with titles like "Reds Under The Beds" and "Thought Police" which displayed an anarchic sense of paranoia right out of the Sex Pistols or Crass playbook however the unusual electronic embellishments and high register vocal style of Peter Gabriel and early neo-prog clearly kept this in a world all its own. While Peter Hammill and Van der Graaf were flirting with punk rock crossover moments, their music provided a much more nuanced approach and greater finesse.

THE PALLAS EP is a crude first attempt at the recording process with a shoddy production and garage rock style songwriting. The four tracks on board do offer distinct melodic developments but stick to a short punchy 4-minute-ish running time. The lyrics almost sound like a parody with the opening "Reds Under The Beds" referring to the Red Scare of the Soviet Union and the ensuing paranoia the West had during the era about commies emerging from every nook and cranny ready to dethrone democracy in a McCarthy-esque coup d'erat. "Thought Police" is equally head scratching as it features a few prog moves such as an opening synth solo while three chord guitar punk banters on in accompaniment. The vocals are fairly bad with a laughable attempt to sound punk but failing to evoke all the proper attitude that made punk rock so effective.

"CUUK" offers a bit of bagpipe sounds to a less punk influenced sound and more reliant on hard rock. Vaguely sounding like what Big Country would conjure up in the 80s, the track was perhaps the most interesting musically speaking. The final "Wilmot Dovehouse MP" almost sounds like a tribute to The Who with its Pete Townsend guitar strumming technique but mixes the punkish guitar and bass moves with a trippy new wave styled keyboard heft. The vocals are in the style of an impish elf half-narrating and half-singing a storyline. The EP is one of a kind really and while not even remotely essential for lovers of the neo-prog style, it certainly is an interesting little curiosity that showcased a band experimenting with its stylistic approach before finally latching onto the 80s scene that would make them one of the top artists in the neo-prog second wave of progressive rock. Hard to find but available for a quick spin on the band's Bandcamp site. It's so bad that it's good in a Shaggs sorta way so i'll give it 3 stars.