LADY LAKE

One of the most productive things about prog is that it allows bands that assume it more as an artistic attitude for themselves than rather a genre to subscribe in, to explore their musical ideas with more fruition and gull than a conventional approach to rock would generally allow. That was the case with Gnidrolog, a British hard blues-rock band whose major influences seemed to be Uriah Heep and Traffic, yet they stretched out their basic style in order to let enough room for musical freedom to enter and found a solid tendency for expansion. This thing is openly clear from the first two tracks: 'I Could Never be a Soldier' and 'Ship' exhibit the straightforward strength of the early days of hard rock in fluid combination with the bluesy-folkish approach to old-fashioned psychedelic rock that Traffic epitomized so well, yet Gnidrolog takes this envelop to new limits by incorporating a more artsy colorfulness to the instrumentation and arrangements. The progressive trend is further exploited in the elating title track and the cleverly crafted closing number: both of them show wind player John Earle somewhat emulating David Jackson's tenor sax multi-layers and frantic soprano leads, while the dual guitar riffs and raw-edged rhythm section clearly remind us of 70-71 VdGG at their most intense. 'Lady Lake' is, in many ways, the central piece of the album's repertoire, showing the band's roughest side, which really gets creepy for the last passage. Later on, 'Social Embarrassment' leans closer to the realms of jazz-rock, yet Stewart Goldring amazing final guitar solo (he saved the best for the end) and Cowling's pounding bass lines for the hardest sections keep thing quite rocky. Another featured aspect concerning this particular song is the inventive use of interaction between baritone sax, cello and oboe in some passages - this is as orchestral as Gnidrolog allows itself to get. The tender, bucolic 'A Dog with No Collar' and the Cat Stevens-esque 'Same Dreams' allow the listener some room for emotional relief among the whole sonic power constantly incarnated throughout the remaining repertoire. While I don't regard this album as really essential for a prog collection, I truly appreciate it as an effective art rock work. It is very likely to appeal to those who already love Still Life, Catapilla and other rock-blues oriented band with added prog tendencies, but generally speaking, "Lady Lake" might be really interesting for every serious treasure seeker across the land of prog rock's early years. I personally give it a grade between 3 and 3 ½ stars.