Blackfeather

 

John Robinson (guitar)
Neale Johns (vocals)
Robert Fortesque (bass)
Alexander Kash (drums)
with
Bon Scott - Recorders (Seasons of change) , Timbalis , Tambourine [AC/DC]
John Bisset - Electric Piano (The Rat)

 

Formed in Sydney in 1970 out of The Dave Miller Set, this was one of Australia's top early seventies acts.

The album "At The Mountains of Madness" (1971) is an offering where the emotive, the serene, and the heavy congregate to shape a maturity that hasn’t gone unnoticed to those steeped in the time’s underground.

In no way are they slouches when their goal is to caress the listener into mesmerizing bliss, nor are they laypersons in stirring a cauldron of hardness as the rampant, oddly sung title cut can testify.

Erupting from its ghostly beginning narration, vocalist Neale Johns explodes in a raucous Mr. Hyde routine, his voice a distorted, aggravated creature when compared to the normal Dr. Jeckyl/unruffled, unsoiled tone listeners will come to expect from him with the advent of “On This Day That I Die” and beyond.
“On This Day…” is a compelling little story the above “” caption is excerpted from, a slower number with a strange uneasy aura born from John Robinson’s strangely unclear, almost quivering solos and a marching piano backdrop.

Acoustics and alluring flute lead the swooning charge of “Seasons of Change Pt. 1”, and with its violin-supported chorus and exultant gait, it’s easy to see how the track charted.

“Mangos Theme Pt. 2” is a steadily paced, bass thumping instrumental that finally builds to a dynamic end, showcasing not only the soloing talents of Mr. Robinson and the unnamed violinist, but also the tightness the band as a whole can conjure.

Perhaps my fave track is “Long Legged Lovely”, a burly rocker with a slight veer of melancholy at times.

“The Rat (Suite)” is clipped into five sections, only two of which I can make heads or tails of. “Main Title” is a slow, punchy number with a memorable chorus and a pair of congruent, keening solos.

Much more bluesy is either “Trap” or “Spanish Blues”, sounding more like Black Cat Bones or Zephyr with a male Janis Joplin or Candy Evans singing and ends in a tumultuous clash of sound. Now it gets hazy, ‘cause apparently this near unending din masks (possibly) “Spanish Blues”, (but most definitely) “Blazwaonden” and “Finale”, the final three pieces of the puzzle.