ROXY MUSIC

Roxy Music appeared to arrive out of nowhere, or possibly outer space, and this electrifying debut is proof that glam rock and progressive rock were not necessarily antithetical propositions. These dedicated dandies certainly wouldn't have thanked you for calling them a bunch of prog rockers but they came with plenty of prog baggage nonetheless.

Bryan Ferry famously auditioned to replace Greg Lake as singer in King Crimson (had he been able to play bass he might well have got the gig and the history of rock music would have been.. well, different, obviously) which led to Roxy sharing management with Crimson and Emerson, Lake and Palmer. The nascent band were raved about by Richard Williams in the very prog-friendly Melody Maker and resident BBC hippie John Peel booked them for his show after seeing them support Genesis at a Wimbledon venue called, and you couldn't possibly make this up, the Hobbit's Garden.

Mention of Genesis reminds me that dressing up in silly costumes, wearing badly applied makeup, generally making show, and all the sort of things frequently regarded as quintessentially glam rock activities, were by no means alien to prog rock outfits. Just like Genesis, Roxy took great pains with the artwork, though I think it is probably safe to assert that Genesis, unlike Roxy, never included a credit for the band's hairdresser on the sleeve of any of their albums.

The record was produced, somewhat less than perfectly it must be said, by Pete Sinfield, lyricist of legend to such prog rock giants as King Crimson, ELP and Bucks Fizz. Perhaps they should have hired a producer rather than a lyricist to produce it.

No matter, the inventive fire in the collective belly comes across splendidly. This is Roxy at their rawest and most audaciously avant-garde. Much has been written of this record as inaugurating a new era of post-modernist pop as the band artfully Re-Make/Re-Model the (then not very long) history of rock music. This is undoubtedly true but the thought occurs that such eclectic fusing of genres and creative plundering of found styles was also the very essence of progressive rock. They keep everything fairly concise, the longest number is just over seven minutes, but much of it has an epic feel and several tracks are your actual prog rock suites, shapeshifting things of wonder that constantly confound the listener's expectations and, indeed, musical logic.

I've just listened to this for the first time in aeons and I'd forgotten how exciting it is. Heralded as ahead of it's time on release it is now simply timeless (what was the date again? 1972? Or another millennium entirely?). It still sounds like something from a parallel universe and, though one could argue endlessly about whether it is Prog Rock, you would be blessed indeed to come across music more genuinely and thrillingly progressive than this in any genre.