OUT OF THE COMA

The acid folk (death folk?) cult favorites reappear to pay homage to their longtime fans with three new songs, along with a rare never officially recorded opus that points the way to what could have been.

After regrouping for a Swedish festival in 2008, the original members of Comus decided to a issue this postcard to fans in 2012. Minus original woodwind player, Lindsay Cooper, the group compiled the three studio tracks piecemeal, with the basic tracks on Out Of The Coma recorded in the UK and Colin Pearson's violin overdubbed in Berlin. Additional guitar parts were overdubbed in yet another UK studio by Glenn Goring. This, I believe, is why these songs, "Out of the Coma", "The Sacrifice" and "Return", as welcome as they are, lack the organic spontaneity of the material (recorded live) found on the band's seminal debut album First Utterance from 1971. While all perform admirably, Goring's failure to produce warped demonic slides and hypnotic Bert Jansch styled finger picking, which was so prevalent on First Utterance, is definitely missed. Roger Wootton's vocals have not improved with age, which I suppose is a good thing for this material, but female vocalist Bobbie Watson's eerie soprano has and she's a revelation on this material, as well on the long lost copy of a live performance of the band's intended follow up suite song/album to First Utterance tilted "The Malgaard Suite."

Recorded on a cassette tape in 1972 (according to the liner notes), "The Malgaard Suite" is a greater leap by bounds over anything recorded on First Utterance. Poorly recorded due to the source equipment and medium, it is a fantastic blend of malevolent progressive folk music with a heavy emphasis on operatic singing and song arrangements, that quite frankly, makes "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen sound like a pop song. Running over fifteen minutes, Watson is the star of this piece with her ear shattering soprano singing and classical sounding scat vocals that easily give Annie Haslam a run for her money. Roger Wootton is able to shadow Watson without sounding sour and indeed gives much of the evil overtones to the music about a stalking midlevel ogre named Malgaard who's out to capture and have his way with a maiden of his fancy. Pearson's violin adds much to the eastern European "Transylvanian" vibe that's perfectly complemented by Cooper's spooky bassoon.

Much of what is sung is indecipherable, but like listening to an opera in a an unfamiliar language, this works to the song's advantage, and gives it a romantic edge seldom found in much of prog music. And frankly, "The Malgaard Suite", even in it's warts and all recorded condition, is some of the best prog music that I've had the pleasure to hear in the last forty five years.

It leaves one to ponder what a sympathetic record company could have done with the proposed two sided album long suite had not commercial concerns intervened and eventually forced the band to split up prior to the side two conclusion from ever being played after it was written, let alone recorded.

A must have album of prog? Hardly, but it's a must have for fans of Comus' cult classic debut album.