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HATFIELD AND THE NORTHHatfield And The NorthCanterbury Scene4.26 | 739 ratings |
From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website
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![]() For any lover of jazzy Canterbury prog this band is absolutely essential. There are over a dozen of tracks (running times vary between 0:23 and 10:10), but the album flows smoothly and the seams are very unnoticeable. In this sense it reminds of early SOFT MACHINE (vols. 1 and 2). The sound is a bit different though, one could describe it as an airier and jazzier version of Caravan from 1971, featuring the elegant vocals of Richard Sinclair. Stewart has changed his organ tone of Egg into lighter approach favouring electric piano. Phil Miller's recognizeable guitar style brings thicker tones into the sound. A female vocal trio on few tracks brings yet another link to Stewart's, Miller's and Pyle's next band, NATIONAL HEALTH. Robert Wyatt's vocalise input on 'Calyx' is a certain Canterbury classic, and so is this whole instrumental-oriented album with many funny track titles such as 'Lobster In Cleavage Probe'. Perhaps the nicest song on the CD is 'Let's Eat (Real Soon)', originally appeared as a single. The album received some warm reviews, but the studio sessions (delayed by some technical problems) were more expensive than what the album sold. The follower album, equally recommendable The Rotters' Club actually made it into No. 43 in the charts, surprisingly. It also gave the name to Jonathan Coe's fine novel, in which progressive rock has a central part in its picture of the 1970's.
Matti |
5/5 |
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