THE POLITE FORCE

Egg

Canterbury Scene

4.12 | 489 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

Dobermensch
Prog Reviewer

Egg's best effort is a wonderful album of really tricky time signatures, great keyboards by Dave Stewart and wild experimentalism in the form of the universally reviled 9 minute 'Boilk'.

The opener, 'A visit to Newport Hospital' is a great tune reminiscent of Soft Machine - but is far better and more adventurous than the murky production and waywardness of the aforementioned band. 'The Polite Force' is where Egg came of age, delivering something unique and exciting.

'Contrasong' is a weird and wacky number with strangely off kilter brass instruments and drumming which, I defy anyone to drum along to in time, with its alternating 5/8 and 9/8 time signatures.

I can see why people might choose Caravan over Egg, being that they're a far easier listen, but if you want a more challenging propostion then Egg could be the fellows for you.

And then we have 'Boilk'. Poor old damned to hell 'Boilk'. Certainly not easy on the ear, but I love this kind of stuff. Structureless, with everything but the kitchen sink thrown in to create a mayhem of sound which borders on Musique Concrete. Personally I love it.

The Egg forerunners 'Arzachel' were certainly a breeding ground for this type of music. An album which I'd recommend to fans of this recording.

'Long Piece No.3' takes up the whole of side two. What I want to know is what happened to Long Piece No. 1 & 2. Anyway, Dave Stewart reigns supreme again in this rather odd 21 minute opus. I don't know why I like him so much, as I usually hate the organ sound, but he just hits all the right notes for me sounding like a more dramatic and important Rick Wright from 'Atom Heart'.

Some serious showing off by Clive Brooks on drums again makes this quite possibly one of the most difficult percussive albums I've heard - and that's coming from a drummer! Brilliant

Dobermensch | 5/5 | 2011-2-18

MEMBERS LOGIN ZONE

As a registered member (register here if not), you can post rating/reviews (& edit later), comments reviews and submit new albums.

You are not logged, please complete authentication before continuing (use forum credentials).

Share this EGG review

Social review comments () BETA

Review related links

Send comments to Dobermensch
Report this review (#402943)
Buy EGG music online with PA partners
Show all EGG MP3/Stream
Go to EGG page for videos, full discography with ratings, reviews and much more
Go to The Polite Force page for more details, where to buy and ratings/reviews
Search the Forum for EGG related discussions