MAN

Man were a curious beast of a band whose West Coast-inspired brand of guitar-solo heavy psych rock constantly straddled the dividing line between 'progressive rock' and 'psychedelic rock'. A bit like, say, The Grateful Dead blended carefully with Yes - when the Welsh rockers are at their very best - Man cultivated a strong live following during their early- 1970's heyday and released a succession of excellent studio albums despite their frequently-changing line-up. Efforts such as 'Be Good To Yourself At Least Once A Day' and 'Back Into The Future' showed a debt of gratitude to the likes of Quicksilver Messenger Service, but also shone with rambling-yet-intricate prog psych aesthetic coloured by their love of epic, bluesy guitar-driven marathons - many of their cuts break the twenty-minute mark - and a sincere love of all things musically West Coast. Some compared them to psych-folk high priests The Grateful dead, yet elements of their sound, especially in their later years, were fiendishly progressive. However, unlike many of their cohorts, Man's weakest material proved to be their earliest recordings, such as debut 'Revelations' and follow-up '2 Oz Of Plastic (With A Hole In The Middle)'. 'Man', their self-titled third album from 1970, sought to somewhat counter their early, and rather kitsch, psychedelic pop sound with a heavy dose of twangin' rock 'n' roll country, placing their new sound far from the old. Indeed, at first listen 'Man' sounds authentically American; tracks such as 'Country Girl' and 'Romain' have a vibrant, rustic and almost funk-driven quality, with steel guitars to the fore and raw, good-time feel soaking each chord. The longer songs feature more proggish ingredients mixed in with the country rock, yet at this point at least, Man had not mastered the art of transferring the epic grandeur of their live shows onto vinyl.The 22 minute long 'Alchemist' has it's moments, but it is more of a case of bad, or maybe inexperienced, musical architecture than simply weak melodies. The other, shorter epic, the punnishly-titled 'Would The Christians Wait Five Minutes? The Lions Are Having A Draw', is a less ambitious affair that shares the sweaty ambience of the album's shorter, funkier tracks but again remains far too long, even at twelve minutes. 'Man' is very much a case of being half a great album - surely one of the only country prog albums? - yet also marks the passage where the boys from Wales grew up to be...well, Man. As transitional abums go, 'Man' does have much to recommend it, especially to those who enjoy the psychedelic West coast rock of Jefferson Airplane and their US counterparts Wizards From Kansas, H.P. Lovecraft and The Grateful Dead. It's certainly not their proggiest or best release(it's probably their least proggiest), but more a fun-time musical experiment that produced a couple of genuine rockers for the road. Recommended for it's uniqueness then, but 'Man' is no serious contender. STEFAN TURNER, LONDON, 2010

The third album by Welsh band Man is a frustrating and inconsistent collection played by a talented group simply not knowing which direction to head in. A band known for blurring country and blues-rock with psychedelic (frequently West-Coast styled) sounds and some progressive sophistication, this self-titled album is perhaps a little too ambitious, with as many ideas as possible thrown in together to confused results, although there's still decent music here and there throughout.

`Romain' is a nicely played chugging slow-paced grooving boogie with a blistering electric guitar solo in the middle. Make sure to hang around for the slightly bent acoustic finale that comes out of nowhere, easily the most interesting part of the track. You sure wouldn't know the band were from Wales on `Country Girl', unsurprisingly a foot-tapping country rocker with pleasing pedal-steel guitar and soothing upbeat group harmonies. It's nothing of interest at all for prog fans, but it reminds of the Byrds' screwy space- rock/country/psych album `Dr Byrds and Mr Hyde', so it's easy to be forgiving of it. `Daughter of the Fireplace' is a blistering break-neck four minute blur of noisy blues-rock, full of howling vocals and pounding honky-tonk piano. It's punchy and energetic, but the jammy version on their live album `Live at the Padget Rooms, Penarth' wipes the floor with it.

Of much more interest to progressive fans are the two extended pieces, beginning with the 13 minute `Would The Christians Wait Five Minutes...'. Disorientating mangled guitar reverberations, plodding drumwork, spacey keyboard effects and delicate piano brings a dusty drifting haziness. By complete chance, the shimmering keys make it resemble Pink Floyd's classic `Echoes' from a couple of years later, and the uplifting main theme reprised in two spots even calls to mind German band Novalis. Some wordless crying harmonies in the final wouldn't sound out of place in a climactic western movie showdown. Truthfully it's not the most eventful of longer pieces, and there's barely anything resembling an actual tune or melody, but it sure sounds plenty cool and mysterious.

The album closes on a side-long piece, `Alchemist'. A twinkling ambient synth build, crashing cymbals, deranged wailing voices with some slow-burn electric noodling briefly calls to mind `Spare Chynge' from the Jefferson Airplane or a Grateful Dead improv. Soon imposing heavy dark riffs straight off a Black Sabbath album, wavering sound effects and spiralling drumming stomps down on the listener. Halfway through the piece evolves into a brooding acid-rock stroll with rambling spoken-word passages before finally wrapping on a bass hoedown with devilish accordian. Sadly the piece is really just a bunch of slightly interesting fragments and improvisations strung together with no sense of flow or cohesion, and it kind of pushes the friendship at almost 21 minutes.

If you are wishing to investigate the Man band for the first time, it might be better to initially stay away from this one. Perhaps one of their numerous dynamic live albums, such as the above mentioned `Penarth' disc would be a better starting option, showing off the band's talented skill of more focused improvisations and jams while still delivering energetic performances. But be alarmed by the two star rating, it's simply due to this being an inconsistent work, a clear case of multiple musical personalities, from a band that had several better albums to offer very soon after this one.

Two stars.

I know that Man was frequently of a divided personality, and I can generally lay blame on the band members who appear to have conflicting tastes, it's little wonder it's a miracle if they keep the same lineup for more than one album, kinda like Hawkwind (who also happened to share the same label, and even billing with them at one time). At least Hawkwind has been pretty consistent in what they done, you know what to expect. With Man, it's obvious that they're divided by blues, country, and '50s favored rock and rollers, and extended proggy and psychedelic piece, on the same album, no less, so it does make for a jarring experience, and nothing shows that more than their third album, a self-entitled album from 1971 on Liberty. This album was the first to bring in drummer Terry Williams, who, in the 1980s, found his fame and fortune in Dire Straits (he joined in 1982 just right after Love Over Gold came out). The album starts with "Romain", which apparently death with police treatment in Belgium, it's a blues-oriented rocker. This doesn't sound too encouraging. Worst is the next song, "Country Girl". Here they go all country on us, complete with pedal steel guitar, from Deke Leonard. What were they trying to do here? Get on the Grand Ole Opry? But then they take a drastic turn in direction, to my relief, for the next song, "Would the Christians Wait Five Minutes? The Lions are Having a Draw", much more in the psychedelic vein. How was this done by the same band? "Daughter of the Fireplace" is by far the best rocker on this album, I especially like that use of "liberty bell" in the middle. "Alchemist" clocks in at 20 minutes, and it's a really strange piece, it's as if Man was going all Krautrock on us. There's some nice use of glissando guitar (I'm sure was Deke Leonard using his pedal steel guitar in a similar manner that Daevid Allen did with his standard guitar). Pretty strange and ominous, might not be to everyone's liking. It's really obvious just how uneven this album is, it wouldn't be the first choice for the uninitiated (try Be Good To Yourself At Least Once a Day first), so it's one of those approach with caution albums.