ARZACHEL

The English band Arzachel (previously known as Uriel) had an excellent line-up. Their self-titled only album release featured legendary guitarist Steve Hillage and keyboard player Dave Stewart who later went on to achieve great success when he teamed up with Barbara Gaskin for "It's My Party (And I'll Cry If I Want To). Mont Campbell performed on vocals (also a vocalist with Egg and National Health) and the Impressive drummer on the album was Clive Brooks. They all appeared on this album under assumed names. Arzachel will appeal equally to fans of Psychedelic Rock, Progressive Rock and Space Rock.

The first track "Garden of Earthly Delights" is a very promising and impressive opening to the album and nicely sets the scene for the album as a whole. The track features a very pleasant rock organ playing in the background overlaid with electric guitar and fine vocals. The track ends with some appealingly far-out psychedelic guitar playing from Steve Hillage. Track 2 "Azathoth" has a very religious feel to it, opening with a resonant church organ and charming ethereal vocals. The middle section of the song features some powerfully heavy and freaky guitar riffs, before returning to the more sedate sound of the church organ towards the end. Track 3 "Queen St. Gang" is an instrumental and it's the stand-out track on the album for me. Again, it features the magnificent sound of the organ under-laying the music as a whole, together with some gently laid-back drumming. Track 4 "Leg" opens with an impressive organ solo before launching into heavy electric guitar riffs, twinned with powerful bass and drumming in the rhythm section. After the deceptively quiet beginning, this track turns into a real out-and-out rocking barnstormer of a song. Track 5 "Clean Innocent Fun", at over 10 minutes long, begins as a slow and heavy, full-on psychedelic jam which gathers in pace and dramatic intensity as the song progresses and should appeal to fans of Jimi Hendrix. The final track on the album "Metempsychosis" is the longest number at over 16 minutes in length. The track opens with some freaky sound effects before launching into some powerful and throbbing Space Rock which is very reminiscent of Hawkwind's early albums. This is by far the heaviest track on the album and features some wonderfully freaky psychedelic guitar licks. The song has a hauntingly reflective middle section before returning to the heavy pounding rhythm for the grand finale to the album.

Overall, this album deserves four stars, but would have deserved five stars if it wasn't for the poor production quality of the album.