AND IT CAME TO PASS

Finally we have Warm Dust creeping slowly into the Prog -archives.This great English band from early seventies released three official albums,with very little commercial success.My first encounter with this band was in mid-seventies,when I begin to explore less known prog acts.Although Warm Dust can't be considered clearly as straight prog,they developed sound similar to their contemporaries of the era,like Cressida,Affinity or even Greatest show on Earth,incorporating different styles colored heavily by wind instruments (saxes,flute,trumpets,even recorders).Their debut album " and It Came To Pass",released in 1970,was a brave foray into still uncharted waters of british prog world,being a double LPat the time when even biggest names in the genre did not dare to experiment wildly.Most prominent member known to wider audiences was Paul Carrack,keyboardist,who was going to be very successful during his stint with british popsters Squeeze in the eighties.Music on this massive double LP is very hard to categorise.There is a mix of long and shorter tracks and the sound has a very live and raw feel,with lots of room for instrumental interplay between saxes,flute and hammond organ.Dransfield Walker's muscular vocal drives the band literaly into frenzy during epics "Turbulence" and album's title song.There is strong jazz influence throughout,but also r'n'b overtones,mostly on shorter pieces.From today's perspective this album may sound dated to some prog purists,but underlaying fact is that this was one of the strongest debuts at the time of it's release. All three albums are reissued on CD by Red Fox records in 2001,with second and third(Peace for our time and Warm Dust)released as 2 on 1.Overall,very good effort from Warm Dust and highly recommended.Four stars.