THE FIRST TAPE ALBUM

Somekind of a legend among fans of Neo Prog, despite being far from a famous band, Twelfth Night had the opportunity to release what is considered today the first ever Neo Prog album.The group was formed as The Andy Revell band in February 1978 at the Reading University by guitarist Andy Revell and drummer Brian Devoil, joined a few months later by bassist Clive Mitten.This trio recorded the rare demo ''Skan'' in March 79' and the summer of the same year the original line-up was completed with the addition of keyboardist Rick Battersby.In December 79' Twelfth Night entered the Multivision Studios in Wokingham to record two tracks for an upcoming cassette, ''Freddie Hepburn'' and ''Sequences''.These, along with two tracks recorded live in a concert at Reading University in November 79', would sum up what was going to be ''The first tape'' cassette album, released in January 1980.

Back in the day Twelfth Night played all instrumental Progressive Rock, obviously influenced by the 70's British Prog scene, as captured in the opening ''Freddie Hepburn'', which ia decent keyboard-driven instrumental piece with lots of solos and breaks, highlighted also by the great FLOYD-ian guitar melodies, which offer a quite symphonic mood, combined with the synthesizers.''Encore Une Fois'' reminds me of the Liverpool-based THE BODY or THIRD QUADRANT, it is good spacey instrumental Prog with a slight New Wave aesthetics and soaring guitar work with dominant floating synthesizers around.The very long epic ''Sequences'' belongs among the most ambitious works by the group, split in different segments, ranging from dramatic atmospheres to more virtuosic and melodic passages.The opening keyboards recall early MARILLION and in general the two bands sound quite similar, mixing undeground psychedelic movements with light Symphonic Rock.The middle part of the track sounds more like a jam with powerful guitars and a pounding rhythm section, followed by a long synth prelude, that eventually would lead to the melodic ending with these nice CAMEL/PINK FLOYD vibes during the guitar solos and the superb symphonic keyboards, which produce a majestic atmosphere.''Für Helene Part I'' seems extremely influenced by GENESIS with nice BANKS-like synth moves and a nice symphonic touch throughout, although at this point the early groovy parts of the group during the listening reflect a bit of an unpolished sound.

This belongs among the cassette releases of Neo Prog, which someone should own.It is a bit of an unpolished release with a raw production, but the music is very good with excellent performances and a well-arranged instrumental palette.Recommended.

This is actually the second demo tape produced by Twelfth Night, after early release Skan, and indeed some of the material on its various configurations first had an airing on that demo; after a long time being extremely hard to legitimately acquire, the material finally saw a reissue on Twelfth Night's archival series in 2013. The two tracks unique to it are (Hats Off To) Freddie Hepburn and the first full-length version of Sequences (an abbreviated version of the song had appeared on Skan). Both are much of a muchness - instrumental, dark neo-prog with a hard-edged attitude and a pulsating rhythm section. The sound quality is decent by the standards of demo tapes of this era, not up to the quality of a professionally-made studio recording, but with material like this I find the lo-fi aesthetic helps more than it hurts.