SOLID

I was very pleased to see that The Groundhogs have been added as a "Prog Related" band here, a very worthy addition as although they were for much of their career a band in the classic power trio tradition, Mainman Tony "TS" McPhee liked to experiment with various guitar effects and sounds as well as the use of the Mellotron and Synths giving their music a progressive edge.

During the seventies the band released a string of very strong albums, Solid while not being one of their best does have moments that almost equal classics on albums such as Split and Hoggwash. Unfortunately though the momentum of the early part of the album is not kept up and trails off in quality for much of the second half.

Things kick off in fine style with Light My Light, an excellent up tempo rocker. McPhee as already mentioned was not averse to using plenty of effects for his guitar sound, here much of the time it's heavily phased. There's an excellent extended guitar solo, again heavily effect laden. Although the Groundhogs were primarily McPhee's baby Pete Cruikshank and Clive Brooks on bass and drums respectively provide simple but solid backing, essential to give McPhee the freedom to go where he wants at will.

Free From All Alarm starts as an acoustic guitar/vocal only blues composition until the band pile in full force making for a powerful second half. Sins Of The Father is a superb number, McPhee making plenty of use of the Mellotron alongside his guitar on another up tempo rocker. Sad Go Round is the least enjoyable track of side 1, simply being an okay mid tempo rocker.

Corn Cob, not surprisingly from the title is a bit of country blues, no drums but a few of McPhee's sometimes effect laden guitars. On Plea Sing, Plea Song, once again McPhee shows he's not content to just let a guitar sound like a guitar with hardly a natural sound present but turns out to be a bit of a mess. Snow Storm like Sins Of The Father makes plenty of use of the Mellotron alongside a cleanly picked guitar and finally the almost 9 minute Joker's Grave closes the album. Opening with an array of random synth sounds alongside electric guitar, the hi-hat and bass soon bring it into a steady rhythm. It then picks up with some fast picking from McPhee and bongos from Brooks but ultimately turns out to be a bit disappointing as so much more could have been made of this track, wandering along a little aimlessly as it does.

In some ways then a bit of a frustrating album. Despite containing some excellent moments, a good portion of the album, partly down to McPhee's insistence to experiment with effects comes across as a bit of mess. However such is the strength of the best bits it's still worth adding to your collection but not the best place to start for the uninitiated.

Solid, but about to Split

Having got his solo album ("Two sides of..") out of his system, Tony McPhee reconvened the Groundhogs in 1974 with an unchanged line up. While two thirds of the trio remained faithful to bass and drums, McPhee continued to enhance his collection of instruments, adding the latest synths, while retaining the services of his trusty guitar collection.

The opening "Light My Light" finds the band in an upbeat mood, the track being based on phased acoustic guitar and a light infectious melody. There are strong similarities with the music of Family here, McPhee doing a good impression of Roger Chapman. The following "Free from all alarm" appears to be exactly the same song again, but with a more sparse acoustic accompaniment.

For the mellotron affectionados, "Sins of the father" has some great phased mellotron. The song itself is a bit messy, it reminded me of Hawkwind's work from around the same time, but somehow it all works. Once again, "Sad go round" seems like an extension of "Sins of the father".

"Corn cob" is a basic blues based affair. While I appreciate blues is where the band started, I had hoped they had moved on from basic fare such as this. "Plea sing, plea song" was clearly written as a single, and indeed was released as one (with a non-album B- side). The rather indistinct main melody was probably the reason it failed to trouble the singles chart. "Snow storm" finds McPhee sounding like the great Raymond Froggatt, his gruff tones being supported by some further fine mellotron sounds. At just short of 9 minutes, the closing "Joker's Grave" is the longest track on the album. McPhee continues with his rough, indistinct vocals on this heavy dirge which jumps around between styles and sounds without ever being convincing.

In all, an album which is not without its appeal, but which suffers from muddled production and poor arrangements. "Solid" could have been much better.

At the time, this appeared to be the Groundhogs final album, the band breaking up shortly after it was released. The reality is though that Tony McPhee was the Groundhogs, and he soon reformed himself with alternative backing musicians.

The remastered version has one short bonus track, "Over blue", but it will be of interest to collectors only.

7/10

The 'Hogs pour out the pig iron. Hoofed-heavy, filthy, gluttonous and gloomy, so smeltering sloopy. Solid snorts out the eccentric, exitensial despair and the schizo side of "The 'Hog" (Tony McPhee).

Just coming off his solo album from 1973, 'The Two Sides Of Tony (T.S.) McPhee', with his experimentations of the latest electronics on the side long track, "The Hunt", is a real shift from the bluesed psych, guitar swilling so synonymous with the Groundhogs and showcases McPhee's talents on the Mellotron, synthesizers and other electro-gadgets. McPhee would take his twisted taste of technical trickery and snarl it with his sonic, shifting guitar style that would be 'Solid'.

Bringing back his rhythm section from 'Hogwash', drummer Clive Brooks and long time bassist, Pete Cruickshanks and recording in his home studio, this all about Tony (Tough Shit) McPhee and his new toys of a Mellotron and the latest synthesizer with a ring modulator, phasers and wah-wahs and even on some tracks sending his gruff vocals through a vocoder with muddled effects, at times being calculated messy.

The Mellotron morbidly magnifies the melancholy, manic-depressive lyrical content and shadely blends the bog bottom blues and the progressive, stabbing sig shifts with three of the best tracks off the album, "Light My Light", "Sins Of The Father" and "Snowstorm". These three songs would be a mainstay in the 'Hogs' live performances for the next two and half decades.

"Free From All Alarm" opens up acoustically, but McPhee can't make it without engaging electrification half way through the track. Too bad, the first part of this tune has a great greasy groove of swampy country gliding over boogie. "Gosh darn it Tony! Let the strings slide and sing".

"Corn Cob" is the bacon of the Groundhogs. Barbequed blues rock.

"Plea Sing, Plea Song". Please no.

"Hello da'ere" as McPhee welcomes us to "Joker's Grave" as it captures his capricious center of his personality. An eccentric showcase of synthesized and erratic noodling. Too many effects and an overload on the circuitry (the brain).

'Solid' isn't up to snuff as their conceptual trilogy, 'Thank Christ Of The Bomb', 'Who'll Save The World? The Mighty Groundhogs!' and 'Split' and has the qualities and irregularities of 'Hogwash'.

The Groundhogs disbanded after this release but McPhee put together a new lineup two years later and released two albums in 1976, 'Black Diamond' and 'Crosscut Saw'. The 'Hogs didn't "sell out" to the "mainstream" as so many of thier contemparies from the "heyday" of hard blues rock/proto-metal did, however they were also put out to pasture by the emergence of punk and disco.

August, 2011 saw the release of a live album titled, 'Solid Live'. A live album from the tour that followed the release of 'Solid' containing, "Light My Light", "Free From All Alarm" and "Sins Of The Father/Sad Go Round" from 'Solid'. "Dog Me Bitch" from McPhee's solo album, 'The Two Sides Tony (T.S.) McPhee' and "Soldier" from 'Thank Christ For The Bomb'. All these tracks were released in part on other live albums compilations or as bonus tracks but never together as recorded on May 23rd., 1974.