BULL ANGUS

American sextet band (with four members ? id not all six - of Italian descendence) from the Midwest, who developed a hard-driving organ-lead prog rock a bit similar to what many English bands did in the early 70's. This is their debut album, which dates from 71 recorded in NYC and was released on the Mercury label with a big bullish gatefold artwork. This twin-guitar group with the singer playing flute and percussion and an ever-present keyboardist (who very modest songwriter in terms of credits) play an energetic rock somewhere between Purple, Heep and Rooster (Farlowe era), but the fact that they're six allows them more instrumental freedom, although I wouldn't say that there are major surprises either.

Eight tracks (4 aside) no longer than 7.5 minutes, but a fairly wide sonic spectrum, where the main songwriting guitar duo (6 co-credits each) dominates but not outrageously, leaving plenty of space for everyone to blossom out more or less freely, without affecting the tightness of the band's songs. If you can picture Previte's vocals as a cross of Gillan and Farlowe, Piccolo's organ (nope, not flute ;o))) sounding Crane-ian or Lord-esque, the twins stringers marrying Blackmore and DuCann. While all of the songs are catchy enough (sometimes with relatively fun lyrics), not one seems to stand out from the pack, except maybe the quieter Cy. The flute doesn't systematically intervene in all tracks and never grows to Tull-ian proportions, but when it does rear its spout, it's a real delight, bringing a real plus to the overall sonic scheme.

Well if you love early-70's UK organ-driven hard prog, no doubt you'll love this first album, but I can't tell you if their second is as good, cos I've never seen it (let alone heard it), either in vinyl or in CD format. I gather that both vinyls are rather rare nowadays, and the fans had to wait a fair bit of time before both got a legit Cd reissue, but I bet that most are happy it happened just after the Millennium. In the meantime, this debut should satisfy your curiosity. While generally BA has their own personality, one can't help but feeling a bit awkward when some passages are a little too close for comfort to the other groups mentioned, but it's absolutely not interfering with the overall enjoyment of the album.

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