DR. STRANGELY STRANGE

The downsides of this album are lack of maturity, competent instrumental playing and for progressive fans, not enough complexity. Also, there are not drums apart from simple percussions. Good for you, if you are more orthodox folk fan. Recommended to those preferring charming, passionate and slightly adventurous folk.

"Strangely Strange but Oddly Normal" - An excellent opener with some odd vocals around the middle of the track. The flute is quite lovely.

"Dr Dim and Dr Strange" - Starting out with spoken word, this track has a catchy melody with nice organ accompaniment. The chorus's tone is unique to say the least.

"Roy Rogers" - Wonderful background guitar in this song. Nice harmonies too.

"Dark Haired Lady" - First part has haunting melodies with nice winds solos. Second part of the track has a nice instrumental bit and a slight jazzy touch.

"On the West Cork Hack" - Rather catchy but not too memorable.

"A Tale of Two Orphanages" - Wordless chorus is beautiful, along with the lyrics throughout the song.

"Frosty Mornings" - Pleasant and good but not the best track.

"Strings in the Earth and Air" - The theme reminds me of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". No clue if that was their intention. Nice nonetheless, with some interesting lyrics and mallet percussion.

"Ship of Fools" - Sweet upbeat folk song. It's one of my favorites on the album.

"Donnybrook Fair" - Lovely flute solo in the beginning. The rest is good too. I'd say the most progressive track of the album.

Dr. Strangely Strange formed a bit of a following in the very early seventies from what I understand, although I never heard of them until just a couple years ago when their late reformed lineup released the 2007 CD ‘Halcyon Days’. Turns out I didn’t miss much, and neither will you if you never bother to pick this thing up. Most of the arrangements here are not particularly well thought-out, and the sporadic spoken-word bits serve only to make the music sound even more dated than it would have anyway. This is especially true of the directionless opening track “Ballad of the Wasps” as well as “I Will Lift up Mine Eyes” with its off-key singing and just as sour organ notes.

The one bright spot is the lengthy “Sign on my Mind”, an almost Dylanesque meandering folk tune embellished with plenty of acoustic instruments (mandolin, guitar, fiddle) as well as thick with the band’s penchant for all manner of whistles, recorders and flutes. This is an easygoing and breezy springtime tune with a light air to it that makes for a pleasant enough listen, but it’s hardly enough to save the entire album. “Gave my Love an Apple” starts off with a bit of promise as well, but quickly morphs into a jaunty and somewhat silly jam session with rather nonsensical lyrics and no sense of purpose whatsoever. Truth be told by this point in the album I’m a little bored and setting through the rest of it becomes a tad chore whenever I manage to play the whole thing. The abrupt ending comes none too soon as far as I’m concerned. I don’t mean to bash this record really, but it wasn’t worth what I paid for it and in the end I’d rather be honest than accommodating.

With the exception of the blues-guitar infused “Mary Malone of Moscow”, the back half of the album is quite tepid and lackluster, with no standout tracks at all. That one song could be considered a very early example of what bands like T. Rex would develop into the glam rock sound that emerged from acid folk a few short years later, but I think this is more by accident than any sort of artistic epiphany.

In all this is hardly better than a collector’s curio, an album whose cover has stood the test of time far better than the music it encases. I can’t say I’d recommend this record to anyone in particular, although if you are someone like me who likes to immerse yourself in prog folk music of all kinds, it might be worth a taste just for the experience. Two stars are about all I can muster though, so there’s no ringing endorsement forthcoming.

peace

The sound on this album is not really progressive, favoring instead decidedly Irish tones and the most contemporary feel of all their albums. This was to be expected considering the passage of time since their heyday. The lineup includes Gary Moore, who also appeared on their last album, although that one dates all the way back to 1970. The rest of the lineup are all new, presumably friends and family of the original members; and speaking of the original members, all of them save Neil Hopwood are back together here for the first time since a brief reunion in the early seventies.

The instrumentation on this album is both more refined and mature than their early albums, but also more sedate and conventional. Gone are the acid-folk sensibilities of their youth, replaced by carefully constructed arrangements and well-articulated vocals. The lyrics are fairly standard folk fare, storytelling with sometimes introspective and slightly sad ambience. Moore’s guitar gives several tracks a rather heavy blues feel, especially the appropriately-named “Whatever Happened to the Blues”, and “Hard as Nails” with its doo-wop backing vocals.

Elsewhere the boys experiment a bit, with a very latter-days Johnny Cash sound on the acoustic tracks “The James Gang” and “Epilog”; the pastoral piano/organ/violin instrumental “Planxty Roland”; and highly-percussive and peppy “Strange World”, another track with harmonized female backing vocals and fiddle. Elsewhere the Irish brogue comes through, such as with the danceable “Hale Bopp (Jig for Jack)” and the hard-luck tale “Hames and Traces”.

The length of the album (more than an hour) leads me to believe the band must have had a fair amount of material stored up waiting to be recorded, again not surprising considering how long they had to create these songs. One has to wonder what fell on the editing-room floor that might have been of interest to hardcore fans. No matter, what did make it onto the album is worth a few spins from anyone with a nostalgic spirit and a penchant for mellow folk.

I wouldn’t recommend this album to anyone who doesn’t already have a spot in their collection for laid- back, middle-aged folk singers. But if you still find yourself reminiscing while listening to an old Shirley Collins or Pete Seeger song once and a while, you may find this an album worthy of your time. Three stars in the interest of people like that, and here’s hoping if your one of those people that I run across you some time – I’m guessing we have things to talk about.

peace

Most fans of this album will describe the music as bonkers, mad, bizarre and inventive, but I will use directionless, lacking fire and drive, amateurish and involuntarily cacophonous and certainly not mad in the Comus or JDDG style. In terms of folk, they would approach the more "Barochial" song-based Amazing Blondel and be a less-impressive ISB, but lacking the latter's zaniness or maybe trying too hard to match it.

It's not to say that things are completely offbeat, but the few things progheads like good interplay, virtuosity and complex rhythms or arrangements are just not really met to our fills/needs. What I mean is that the prog junkie will not get his kicks from this fix. Clearly the better tracks on the album are the longer ones and the 8-mins Sign On My Mind (closing side 1) is the album's cornerstone, but the flipside's opener, the 6-mins Gave My Love An Apple as it develops into a boogie after a rocky roll-out- barrels barroom song. But it's definitely too little & too few for real proghead interest. As for the folk side of things, it is average with a very pleasant flute, mandolin/bouzouki and harmonium/organ, but it never drives you out of your mind.

In some ways, one thinks that DSS actually could've come close to an essential piece of folk, had they not messed up on patchy moments and disputable chaotic ideas; they had it half right, but completely missed out on the second half. Half ISB, half AB, DSS made two half-fine albums since this was already the case with their previous effort..

DSS' debut album KOTS is often (and unfairly) overlooked by its successor HP, partly because of the Roger Dean gimmick artwork on the very collectible Vertigo Swirl label, but let's not overlook that this highly bizarre debut appeared on the Pink era of Island records , which should be just as collectible. The multi-instrumentalist quintet (of mainly Irish origin courtesy of the songwriting trio Pawle, Booth & Goulding) recorded their first album under the patronage of the now-legendary Joe Boyd. But from their Gaelic heritage, you'd expect from DSS some kind of Celtic ballads & jigs; but it's more the kind of acid- folk of the Scot duo ISB (minus the "acid" vocals); or the Baroque song of the utmost "Anglitude" of Amazing Blondel that seeps from the pores of your speakers.

Opening on their better-known track Strangely Strange But Oddly Normal (it appeared also on a famous label compilation), a track that could've escaped out from the XIX century pubs' doors. It seems that most of the songs proceed to a general concept hinting at the previous centuries' realities facing the common man as the back cover nutcase galleon drawing might indicate, although I have no idea what Roy Rogers would do in this tale. No doubt those with enough patience would be able to get great enjoyment out of the nonsense turns of languages throughout the album's ten songs. Instrumentally the band is a little amateurish, but never boring, almost entirely acoustic easily my fave on this album is the closing almost 9-mins Donnybrook Fair. Clearly throughout most of the album's tracks, ISB's Hangman's Beautiful Daughter is the blueprint of DSS.

Unlike many, I prefer the debut that seems to have more "chewing" substance, the album flows along alternating bigger longer numbers with some shorter songs. Although there arelesser moments of interplay, KOTS manages a more interesting climate and songs like Two Orphanages are somewhat equivalent to ISB's best songs. These pure pastoral hippie albums must be seen as basis of the Wyrd folk that disseminated in the later 90's and through this decade.