GABRIEL BONDAGE

This is the second (and final) album from the Chicago-area would-be Prog band Gabriel Bondage, Another Trip to Earth, released in 1977 on Dharma Records. Gabriel Bondage featured a group of talented musicians and varied instrumentation, including sax, flute, clarinet, and prominent synths and keyboards in addition to the standard guitar, bass, and drums. They were trying to establish themselves in a similar lane as their fellow Chicago band Styx, with a mix of progressive rock and more mainstream pop/rock. Their first album, Angel Dust (1975), was a bit more folk-oriented, but with this album, they tried going more progressive, with mixed results. The main problem seems to be that the band couldn't seem to decide just what they wanted to be, as the album includes many quite different styles, from the full-on ELP-style prog of the album opener, Take It On a Dare, to a somewhat country-folk song, Long Time, some folk-rock/light rock songs and ballads, straight ahead blues-rock and pomp rock, to the psychedelic space-rock of the extended album closer, Fallen Angels, which also includes 4 minutes of trippy sound collage (ala Revolution 9). But strangest of all is the lounge act put-on song, All I Know, done in the mocking style reminiscent of the Beatles' You Know My Name, complete with pseudo audience chatter and clinking glasses, which just doesn't fit in here at all. However, several of the songs themselves are quite good, even if the overall album is a bit too scattered (which may be why the band never quite caught on). Fine musicianship, with fine vocals, nice keyboard work, and the welcome addition of winds (flute, sax, clarinet) throughout. Highlights are Take It on a Dare, No Winners, Birth of the Unconquered Sun, Living in the City, In the Daylight. Another notable feature of this album is that it was released on colored vinyl (in three different colors: translucent blue, translucent red, and white). Unfortunately, as with many other specialty vinyl releases in the '70's, the colored vinyl is softer and more prone to clicks and pops, which are ever-present numerous throughout this vinyl recording. I have the blue vinyl version of the album, which I bought back in 1977, and even though I've only played it a few times over the years, the background noise (clicks and pops) is substantial. Anyway, this is a true '70's curiosity. Worth checking out, uniquely idiosyncratic, but certainly not without its issues.

Make that 3.75 stars. I recently picked up this LP and was initially enthused. Upon observing the sparse and lukewarm review treatment this album has garnered on PA, I was hoping to be more favorable. I can't help gushing a bit. Prog., my first musical love as a teen, has conquered my heart in the last year, after having greatly shared it over the years with other less worthy musical forms. I am not finicky and don't see why I should be. Prog. seems to nourish the true beauty that moves my soul. Yet, I have to be fair to the material at hand here. Upon the very close listen I give anything I review, blemishes aplenty have come to light.

Largely I am treating this album in consecutive order of the tracks. That's because I believe each song is a building block of an overriding parable that intends to spread a spiritual message at the heart of this band's existence. The first track "Babylon" offers a lush, sweeping, inspired melody lovingly painted with acoustic guitar, sax and other instruments. The song evolves into a meditational dreamscape for the last couple minutes, fitting with the spiritual lyrical theme. The lead singer ? the band claims two alternates ? is always appealing and expressive. (The same two singers are claimed for the follow up album, Another Trip to Earth. Curiously there I found the vocals obnoxious ? not sure which singer, and didn't buy the LP because of it.)

The second track "First Stone in a Pyramid" unfolds soothing and mellow, a bit reminiscent of the Moody Blues. Flute and acoustic guitar really build it into a terrific sound collage. With the third track, the ethereal mood intensifies. This song, "You and the Wind" harbors the all the poignancy and folk finery of the band's fellow Illinoisans HP Lovecraft. There's windchimes, something autoharp-like and a crying and babbling baby in the background. It would be hard to believe that Gabriel Bondage wasn't well aware of Lovecraft.

"Take my Eyes" is the first track to break the hazy spell this album had me under for about twelve minutes. This radio-friendly song is sugar-coated. Piano, strings and churchy guitar lend a feeling of excess to a mood that already seems preachy. The theistic overtones to this band and album usually stay in check and seem part and parcel of the more general and quite enchanting uplift, now rudely interrupted. The shift to the next track "Ladies and Gentlemen" very slowly moves the album back to a cool place. The song starts a bit trite and Good-Newsy but after a flute interlude and spoken word in the background, it floats to the acid-soaked slice of heaven laid out at album start.

"Bondage," the next chapter in the trip, is a long multi-part song that gets ambitious and a bit experimental with its moody sax and wah-wah guitar. The key takes a dramatic turn perhaps to the harmonic or Hungarian minor. Strategically placed synthesizer heightens. Trouble is the sax is always a little contrived, as if to accompany a silly skit. To me sax is a hard instrument to integrate into rock anyways. Many mishaps have occurred with it, King Crimson being one of the few bands to have mastered its use in heavy music.

Apparently "Bondage" is supposed to set a frightening stage ? the title suggests so much, perhaps a state to be overcome by the album's spiritual prescription. Screams can be heard in the middle. They and the robust vocal to follow, along with special effects and heavy bass for a time, all but drown out the unfortunately continued sax serenade. The soloing sax does manage to wreck things a minute or two, but then guitar and synthesizer rescue the composition. Sadly no true jam with these instruments ensues. The song ends pretty abruptly. This sets up the next song "Island" for a rocky journey. Luckily the track is able to snap out of the poor framing initially provided it. This occurs by means of a funky flute and equally funky vocal. Rhythm here is superb. A certain inexplicable weirdness pervades this neat tune.

Unfortunately the hokey "Sing me a Song" is placed last, in the position where the band's final message should be forcefully driven home. This steals focus from the band's directed mission that is "Angel Dust." Things ends in a tenuous state.

This album really took me by surprise. Another Trip to Earth featured the wonderful "Take it on a Dare" (sounds like a totally progged version of Styx with James Young singing lead), but much of the album really left me with a stomach ache. it's understood why that album is so maligned in prog circles. I get the impression they're not exactly sure what to play..

Their previous offering, Angel Dust I really feel is MUCH better overall. The music, for the most part is more genuine prog. Some of the music is acoustic, sounding like a totally progged Crosby, Stills & Nash. There's some great stuff on here like "First Stone in the Pyramid" and "You and the Wind", plus the prog suit of "Bondage". Love the use of mandolin here. The only song I can do without is "Take My Eyes". This is a seriously underrated album. I guess if you heard Another Trip to Earth and thought it was lame, your impression of the band is not going to be favorable, but I found Angel Dust surprisingly great, one of the more underrated albums I have heard.

Chicago-based religious-inclined (and not necessarilly Xian) Art Rock band, formed in 1973.The core of the group was multi-instrumentalists and vocalists Rex Bundy and Tony Stram, guitarist Larry Biernacki and flutist/sax player/singer Bill Wisniewski.For their first album they were supported by drummer Tony Antinarelli, keyboardist/guitarist Conrad Green and keyboardist Ken Sadjak.''Angel dust'' was recorded at the Castle Studios in Chicago with Zaido Cruz helping out on backing vocals, while most of the material was written by Rex Bundy.It was released in 1975 on the obscure US label Dharma Records.

With a fair interest in religious themes and plenty of biblical references in the lyrics, Gabriel Bondage produced a rather soft Progressive Rock with commercial leanings, a bit similar to Canadians KLAATU.The opening ''Babylon'' has a dramatic BARCLAY JAMES HARVEST/VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR atmosphere, led by grandiose keyboard textures and melancholic sax playing by Wisniewski, followed by the folky ''Pyramid'' and its interesting flute parts combined with Bundy's acoustic guitars.''You and the Wind'' is a laid-back but rather uninteresting ballad in a STYX vein with mandolin and piano in evidence, while the acoustic workouts continue with the accesible ''Take My Eyes'', that has a Gospel approach during the chorus, led by the Christian-inspired lyrics, its orchestral arrangement and the good guitar solo.Same mood with the first track of the flipside, as ''Ladies and Gentlemen'' has a calm atmosphere, characterized by the mellow piano lines, the multi-vocal harmonies and the acoustic textures.With the long ''Bondage'' the group manages to skip into more YES/VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR-influenced territories with a nice opening instrumental part full of complex guitars and saxes, which will show up again later after an unecessary break.Good instrumental ideas, accompanied by synths and a solid rhythm section, and expressive vocals proove that this piece is one of the best ever written by the band.The folky inspirations return with the flute/mandolin-driven ''Island'' and its repetitive atmophere, while the closing ''Sing me a song'' has again a definite BARCLAY JAMES HARVEST ballad-esque approach with melodic saxes and keyboards next to a sensitive voice.

The two long tracks of ''Angel dust'' along with the nice closing ballad show that Gabriel Bondage were able to produce something really good.However the album is mainly dominated by the rural influences and the music is mostly too soft for its own good.I would recommend this to starving collectors of Progressive Rock or someone wanting to enter the prog realm in a safe mode...2.5 stars.

Having delved briefly into the history it seems Gabriel Bondage was a Chicago-based outfit, active between the years 1973-81, that formed when lead singer Rex Bundy recruited bassist Tony Stram from a local Pink Floyd tribute band. In their early days they supported Rush and a couple of their personnel had also played with future members of Chicago. They actually cite Chicago as one of their main influences along with the likes of Genesis and ELP but just don't expect anything like that here. Their own music is very folksy, mainstream even, and personally I think they sound more like a soft-prog Crosby, Stills & Nash than anything.

'Angel Dust' was the first of their two albums in the mid-seventies, the second being 'Another Trip To Earth' which was released in three different colours of vinyl. A third album was planned but had to be shelved when the Dharma label folded and, in spite of Dharma's collapse, the label refused a buy-out of the band's contract by Columbia. Both albums hint at a blending of the sacred and the profane with the colloquial references to drugs in their titles and the religious subject matter of some of the lyrics.

For example 'Babylon' is a song that to me portrays the deterioration in man's character with the Babylon of Revelation serving as a symbol of the US. The opening bars remind me of 'Sandman' by America (I was sad to hear that Dan Peek had died at the age of 60 in July this year) except it soon gets spacey with wind effects, saxophone and droning synthesizer. It has a majestic air that's filled with some rather overwrought vocals, and these give it a theatrical dimension that suits the theme of human perspective set against that of a supernatural power.

'You And The Wind' is vaguely reminiscent of Simon & Garfunkel's 'Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme' complete with mandolin, harpsichord and flute, while 'Ladies And Gentlemen' progresses from its subdued CSN beginnings of acoustic guitar and spidery flute to surging Mellotron that's perhaps in imitation of The Moody Blues. These guys seem to have been aiming for some kind of ambitious English-American crossbreed but there's not quite the former's distinctive harmonies or the latter's cosmicism, nice though the music is.

The West Coast spirit is completely abandoned on the free-roaming terror of 'Bondage', a chaotic-sounding piece and the only track that lives up to the kind of PCP-induced nightmare hinted at in the album title. It sounds like a battle being fought deep in the psyche and involving malevolent sax and aggressive riffs. Apart from this track 'Angel Dust' isn't exactly overburdened with progressive moments and the religious nature of several songs may put some listeners off. However if you're looking for music that inhabits a melodic world somewhere between prog rock and folksy West Coast then the fat lady has well and truly sung.

Gabriel Bondage was a band from Chicago that released two albums on the Dharma label. 1977's Another Trip to Earth was their second (and final) album. This was made available on colored vinyl (blue, red, or white, depending on what version you have). It's became a minor collector's item, but hasn't shot through the roof, price-wise.

Mostly this album is worthy for it's opening cut, "Take it on a Dare". This is a truly great, full-on prog number, lots of great use of guitar and synth. It sounds like a more proggy version of their local contemporaries, Styx. Even the vocals sounds a lot like James Young. But the band quickly dropped prog with mixture of country and soft rock, in a not most appealing fashion either. "Long Time"? A country ballad with steel guitar? What on Earth? Most of these other songs might not have the country overtones, but nothing all that great either. "Fallen Angels" is the final piece and at least they try to go back to prog territory, but not as successfully as "Take it on a Dare".

Personally, I find the folky Angel Dust to be the better album. Basically just get Another Trip to Earth for "Take it on a Dare".