DEATH MAY BE YOUR SANTA CLAUS

"Death May Be Your Santa Claus" is the second full-length studio album by UK psychedelic/progressive rock act Second Hand. The album was released in April 1971 through Mushroom Records. It´s the successor to "Reality" from late 1968. Disappoinged by the lack of label support, Second Hand left Polydor Records after the release of "Reality". They toured Europe several times trying to gain attention through playing live but had lineup changes during the period which disrupted their progress. During this period Second Hand befriended producer/record owner Vic Keary who set up the Mushroom Records label to offer a platform for Second Hand to release "Death May Be Your Santa Claus".

One of the aforementioned lineup changes meant that Second Hand went into the studio without a guitarist and "Death May Be Your Santa Claus" therefore only features guitar on one track which is performed by sessions musician Tony McGill. Stylistically the material on "Death May Be Your Santa Claus" is an adventurous, technically well performed, and sometimes almost comedic circus atmosphere type of psychedelic/progressive rock. I´m immediately reminded of The Crazy World of Arthur Brown/Kingdom Come (especially the 1971 "Galactic Zoo Dossier" album). Lead vocalist Rob Elliot has a madman/crazy loon/entertainer vocal style which is reminiscent of Brown´s ditto. The music is otherwise dominated by Ken Elliott´s organ and mellotron playing, especially his organ is omnipresent. The organ playing is creative and with his occasional use of the mellotron this makes for an exciting listen. The rhythm section is also well playing and drives the music forward.

Considering the relatively mediocre quality psychdelic rock of the "Reality" album, Second Hand explode with creativity, unconventional songwriting, and high level musical performances for the duration of 12 tracks, 44:03 minutes long album. If you didn´t know it, you would never have guessed it´s the same band playing. "Death May Be Your Santa Claus" features an organic, powerful, and detailed sound production which is actually quite impressive. As a result the material is given the perfect conditions to shine...and shine it does. If I have to put in a slight complaint it would be that the album features some parts which are just experimental organ noodling and it´s definitely the more structured parts of the album which are most interesting. When that is said "Death May Be Your Santa Claus" is still a high quality psychedelic/progressive rock album from Second Hand and a 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

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