JASPER WRATH

The rare Jasper Wrath (self-titled) only full lenght. The album cover is fine, great use of colors. This album is the definitive crossover prog at times. Seems a common song but you know that is progressive. The first two tracks are fine, prog based rock. There's no focus on technical stuff or skills, just simple and cool prog songs. My CD version includes It's Up To You, a slow harmonic track. I like this one. Autumn reminds me of Beatles. Odyssey is a soft listening song, a little bit repetitve, but not annoying. Did You Know That is my favorite track, catchy rhythm. Drift Through Our Cloud shows an electro-tribal-psychedelic song, sorta Beatles influenced track. Portrait is another slow song, a good melody, I think. Roland of Montrevere is, no doubt about it, the most progressive track here. Is another good track.

Well, this is a good album, but nothing too special about it. I could normally live my life without it. I do not feel tempted to listen to it.

3.3 stars really.

I agree with the other reviewer that this is not an essential album. It's still good none-the-less. I may get some disagreements about this but I personally am reminded of the Quicksand "Home is where I belong" in parts of this album. Even tho they're from 1970 Connecticut, there seems to be elements of West Coast Harmonies and some touches of melancholia that the Quicksand album brings to mind. Mostly keyboard/guitar driven prog/pop with some nice flute elements thrown in. The vocal harmonies at times gives a Crosby Stills Nash feel to it. I'm also reminded of the vocal harmonies from some of the Pell Mell (see reviews) albums from Germany.

I'm still in search in some hidden surprises from the golden age. This was one of them.

If anyone out there has the Quicksand "Home is where I belong" album and enjoys that, I think you may wish to try this album out too although I think the Quicksand album is a little stronger. These go nicely side by side. A good effort but I can totally understand why they were doomed from the start. Too proggy to be a "top 40" of the day but not proggy enough to be considered more than a 3rd/lower-2nd tier prog album.

Jasper Wrath hailed from Connecticut. In 1971 they released their debut album on Sunflower, an MGM subsidiary (who had a few artists I'm unaware of, plus that label did release very early archival material from the Grateful Dead from 1966). Sunflower never lasted, so it comes as no surprise the Jasper Wrath LP went out of print, and while hard to find, seems quite a bit harder to find without the punch hole. This band later fell victim to a scam on the tax dodge label Dellwood (a label that originally started as a legit label back in the mid '60s, but by '77 was resurrected, this time with that dubious reputation), with two albums released under phony names: Arden House and Zoldar & Clark. In the late '70s there was a brief glut of tax dodge labels (from about 1976 to about 1978), but apparently these labels were caught, and shut down.

I also dig the photo of the band on the back cover, as they looked like Three Dog Night rejects. Robert Gennette, in particular, looks a bit like Chuck Negron, with that mustache.

Anyways, this was their sole legit LP and I've really grown to love this album. Although from Connecticut, this album was actually recorded in New York City, given there was much better musical opportunities in New York for obvious reasons. This album was described as a cross between Yes and the Moody Blues (no Mellotron, though). I'm sure the Yes thing was mainly from the vocal harmonies, as that band was just starting to take off with The Yes Album (although the band did go more in Yes territory as the Zoldar & Clark album demonstrated, which at that point was no coincidence). There's often a folky and psychedelic feel. "Look to the Sunrise" is a rather catchy number that I find really enjoyable. "Mysteries (You Can Find Out)" has a nice psychedelic vibe. There's one song not credited, but it's in between "Autumn" and "Odyssey" is "You Bear Witness" (at least I think that's the name of the song). It sounds like a totally separate song from "Autumn" as it keeps repeating the "You Bear Witness" chorus. Also I own the original LP that clearly shows five songs on side one on the disc itself, although only four are credited. "Odyssey" really blows me away. A nice folksy psychedelic vibe going on. It's obvious this dates from 1971 but there's that psychedelic feel that obviously shows the band didn't want to leave the '60s totally behind. "Did You Know That" has a bit of a Santana feel going on, with a jazzy Wes Montgomery-like lead guitar. "Roland of Montevere" is probably the most proggy thing on this album but it's still not full-on Yes.

This album was a real grower on me. This is that type of album from 1971 that didn't totally shake the '60s off, so you'll notice a strange combination of the '60s and the early '70s. Nice album that's worth having!