MICE AND RATS IN THE LOFT

Every time I find one of hidden/lost early 70's gems, I find myself always carried some 30 years back even if I discover them now. Of course only a small percentage of those gems turns to be diamonds, but I believe this is one of them. How is it possible that such grandiose masterpieces are still not common knowledge among progheads? Because we are dealing with one of those masterpieces of Folk Prog to be classified along with other pearls such as Comus or Algarnas Tradgard.

The music is of an incredible and highly original nature that bond high vocal prowesses ala Tim Buckley with a rather sombre timber reminding you of Audience's Howard Werth (Hammill is not far away, either and so is Van Morrison) and outstanding musicianship so much that both original members Noy and Bairstow play multiple instruments and apparently with great ease. The third member, drummer Conlan has his hands full accompanying his comrades and I believe he also plays congas, although this is not mentioned on the credits. The only outside help they got are additional strings for the last 12 mins of their magnum opus Sun Synfonia.

And what a masterpiece this tune turns out to be!! If the first six minutes develop a good mix of folk rock somewhere between the Comus and Jethro Tull (circa Brick album), the strings come in and the music plunges into a deep madness likely to sink you into insanity if the strings were not to bring you back to the surface for a breath of fresh air every so often. The melange between the 12 string guitar strums, superb drumming all underlined by a swirling cluster of wind instruments and the strings (it does not mention the size of the orchestra, but my guess is a quintet) is one of the most perfect blend ever achieved far from the many catastrophes of the era (I will not name the guilty groups but only Procol and Caravan fared correctly). As Travis/Con Safo mentions in his excellent review below, the lyrics become intensely disturbing also, but do not reach the eerie call for murder and rape that Comus does in their song Drip Drip but they do curdle the blood. The beautiful atmosphere is completely different than Traffic's John Barleycorn Must Die masterpiece but one cannot help thinking about it as those wild and sombre ambiances are driving you to the outer edges of reason. Nevertheless, the superb 12 min finale is completely spine chilling, hair raising, shivers and goose bumps being also on the menu as the abrupt end leaves a empty feel that can be assimilated to the last glass of wine of a 1947 Grand Cru Cos D'Estournel is emptied.

The second side pales a bit in comparison, but by no means are those two tracks anything else than gems themselves. Call Of The Wild is probably the folksiest of the three tunes, starts off with a great acoustic 12-string guitar beautifully underlined by a splendid yet serene flute. Again Comus is not far away from the mind even when the track moves through a series of wild tempo changes sometimes hinting at Indian Classical music. Yet another perfect call! A strange siren alerts you that the third and final track (the title track depicted by the strange artwork sleeve) just got under way, and that you are not yet through with madness as comes in a psyched guitar and great sax and insane vocals. The last part of the track is dedicated to improvisations on that theme and they come out grandiosely successful at it.

This is the kind of album I will personally make sure more people will know within the following months - a bit the same as I did for Comus, Circus and a few other gems. Run, walk, fly to your first vendor and order it (it is distributed by Sanctuary Record - a fitting name for such a masterpiece), because your life cannot be complete without having heard this. A pure moment of intense orgasmic pleasure!!!!!!