CANTERBURY SCENE

Long abandoning any traces of the classic Canterbury sounds of yore and sorely missing the unpredictable zaniness and whimsy of GONG's founder, the new GONG has fallen firmly into the camp of psychedelic space rock and in the span of eight tracks, UNENDING ASCENDING tackles the concept of a pan-galactic suite and draws upon the most tripped out spaciness of the former GONG playbook only under the guise of a carefully crafted reincarnation of the band's past glory. Granted this is GONG in name only and an entirely different beast that rightfully should have found a secondary appellation attached however moniker quibbles aside, the new GONG handpicked by Allen himself does a decent job in crafting its own brand of unique space rock that throws enough nods to Allen's roots while remaining steadfastly looking towards innovating the band into a distinct musical force in its own right.

This modern version of GONG showcases a wide variety of sounds ranging from the punchy instantly lovable hooks of the opening "Tiny Galaxies" to the more cosmic excursions that immediately follow with "My Guitar Is A Spaceship," "Ship Of Ishtar" and "O, Arcturus," however a conscious effort seems to be a mandatory ingredient for the new GONG as if the members are always on alert to pay tribute to its now ascended mentor as if Allen is constantly peeking through the veil and supervising the entire affair. This seems most pronounced on "All Clock's Reset" with an almost forced obligatory bouncy groove and jazzy sax / woodwind section that harkens back to some of the moments on "The Radio Gnome Invisible Trilogy." But these moments are fleeting if not a tad awkward as the band has no problem moving on with heavier doses of guitar rock as heard in the riff-heavy "Choose Your Goodess" which takes on a funky bass groove accompanied by a guitar glissando backing and propensity for abstract mystical lyrical deliveries.

The album does work on many fronts. The tracks are diverse, the musicians are talented and the passion to keep the GONG experiment alive is evident. The diversity of the dynamics, tempos, musical styles and balance between innovating the future while offering homage to the past is also presented in a respectable manner. In many ways the album feels more like a Steve Hillage solo album than anything from the GONG playbook and the band does succeed in crafting a stylistic approach that is all its own. As far as a psychedelic rock album with progressive elements woven in throughout, UNENDING ASCENDING is quite fluid and well-rounded in its approach and offers a mix of elements more out of the Pink Floyd, Ozric Tentacles or Hillage heritage than GONG itself, however the one big problem i have with the NEW version of GONG is that without a charismatic singer / frontman the album sounds deflated a few notches and therefore doesn't resonate as highly on my radar as i would hope. While Allen is sorely missed a more dynamic frontman would serve this new version of GONG substantially. Overall this is a not a bad album but ultimately it falls short of something that really beckons for a return visit. Pleasant but not quite up to speed.

I don't have a favourite Softs period. I appreciate the first 2 psych soaked efforts and the latter full on jazz rock of Bundles but the 3 albums and live releases with Elton Dean in the band , if pushed, would be the ones that came to the desert island with me. This isn't due to Dean himself as such but it is a fairly big part of it. As an aside Dean was in Long John Baldrys blues/soul/rock band and the keyboard player was one Reg Dwight who said he took his future stage name from Baldry and Dean. You have all heard of Long Dean Baldry yes?

So what have we here? I would suggest Softs and their live peak. A bigger wind section than usual so the freewheeling improv of Ratledge and Hopper had to follow the dots a bit more. Wyatt is sublime, but he always was/is. Their set list was as unpredictable as always with a part of Out Bloody Rageous from 3rd a few selections from 4th and an outing for stuff such as Pigling Bland from the not yet released 5th. They also include Deans Neo Caliban Grides from his '71 solo album Just Us...or the long lost Soft Machine album if you prefer. Trust me, find a copy. The band err 'rocks' if that is possible for a jazz/rock freejazz related infused complex set. The two longer tracks allow the band to stretch out but nothing fall short of excellence. I am just surprised they didn't introduce Neo Caliban Grides with 'here's one to stroke your beards to'...

Apart from 3rd, this is my most played Soft Machine album although I confess i don't have at least half of the retro live output. I would recommend it ...along with Elton Deans Just us....to any/everyone.

In February 1971, Soft Machine performed two concerts at the Henie Onstad Art Center near Oslo, Norway, as part of an art exhibition by the Boyle family, with Mark Boyle's films projected during the performances. Mark Boyle, with his partner Joan Hills and their Sensual Laboratory light show, had accompanied Soft Machine on many of theirs gigs in the band's early years, and this was a reunion of sorts. The set came mostly from 'Third' and the newly- released 'Fourth', with a few extras?"Neo-Caliban Grides," soon to appear on Elton Dean's self-titled solo album; 'All White', the only new composition in the set (and the only one to utilize Ratledge's newly-acquired Fender Rhodes piano); and "Pigling Bland," which, despite appearing alongside "All White" on 1972's 'Fifth', actually dated back to 1969, having been written as a new ending for the septet arrangement of "Esther's Nose Job." Both nights were recorded by Meny Bloch with a tape machine connected to the mixing desk, but it was some years before they were made available, with Michael King releasing the second night as 'Live At Henie Onstad Art Centre 1971' in 2009. That has long been unavailable, while the first night has not previously been available at all, but that has now changed. Ian Beabout was given the job of mixing and mastering the tapes, and an amazing job he has done. The best way to listen to this is on headphones, and when one really has the time to do just that, as this release is nearly three hours long, broken into four sets of continuous music. There are long periods where Wyatt shows incredible restraint and control by not playing at all, leaving it to the musicians in front of him to bounce ideas off each other. There is no doubt that the best way to appreciate The Softs is in a live environment, and thanks to Cuneiform we now have the opportunity to revisit four musicians at the height of their powers, and from their performance no- one would believe that in a few short months after this recording that this line-up would be no more with the departure of founder Wyatt.

It is arguable that the second night has more of a togetherness about it, but one would expect that given they had played in the same venue the previous night so were able to get back into the connections more easily, but all four discs show a band very much at the height of their powers. This is Canterbury progressive rock at its very finest, and Cuneiform have provided a lot of information and photos in the booklet, telling the story of the nights and how the recordings were rediscovered. The result is something which is absolutely indispensable to anyone who enjoys this style of music, as Ratledge and Dean combine to create interweaving melodies which bounce off each other, Hopper does much more than "just" play bass as he provides incredible foundations and groove and then at the back is one of the more under-rated drummers from the scene who was then in the prime of his health.

Here we have a wonderful set showing just why Soft Machine have had such a major influence on so many others and why they continue to be an important force in the present day, even if the current line-up has no-one in common with the one from 1971. According to ProgArchives, the most highly rated album by the band is 'Third' (and rightly so), and here we have that line-up doing what they did best, performing incredible music in front of an appreciative audience. Now we are able to experience it for ourselves.

As we know, progressive rock music was born in the end of the 60's. During the 70's it was essentially a phenomenon that occurred in the UK. Despite of that, it also appeared in many other countries all over the world. But, it had an important expression in other European countries, especially in Italy, France, Sweden and the Netherlands. The most key Dutch bands at the time were perhaps Focus, Finch, Kayak, Trace, Earth And Fire, Golden Earring and Supersister.

Supersister was formed as a sextet in The Hague in 1967/68, albeit with the strange name of Sweet OK Supersister. At some point in the late of the 60's, "Sweet OK" and two band's members were lost. The four remaining members Robert Jan Stips, Sacha van Geest, Ron van Eck and Marco Vrolijk pursued with their musical project. With this quartet the band released three studio albums, "Present From Nancy" in 1970, "To The Highest Bidder" in 1971 and "Pudding And Yesterday" in 1972. However, after the third work the band broke up. Stips and van Eck, who wanted to change the band's sound more towards jazz, continued, Vrolijk and van Geest went their separate ways. With different lines up the band released two more albums in the 70's, "Iskander" in 1973 and "Spiral Staircase" in 1974, the last under the name of Sweet OK Supersister. In 2019 a fifth work was released, "Retsis Repus" under the name of Spersister Projekt 2019.

So, "To The Highest Bidder" is the second studio album of Supersister that was released in 1971. The line up on "To The Highest Bidder" is Robert Jan Stips (lead vocals and keyboards), Sacha van Geest (vocals and flutes), Ron van Eck (bass guitar and fuzz bass guitar) and Marco Vrolijk (drums and percussion).

If anything can be said about the successor of their debut album is that its 1971's follow-up, "To The Highest Bidder" is probably even better still, concentrating the band's considerable energy into just four numbers. It's hard to pick a favourite from the three lengthy opening numbers as they are all great. With their second work, Supersister have largely freed themselves from the Soft Machine influences and creating their own Dutch version of the Canterbury sound with a lively, slightly floating jazz rock with at times clear classical influences, especially with regarding to the keyboard work. This is accompanied by rather reserved vocals quite reminiscent of Richard Sinclair. Immediately upon its release, listeners and critics at the time were surprised by the progression the band had made compared to their first work. The songs were of decent length and the lyrics were also a lot more mature, if not more pessimistic. But above all, the band's sound seemed to be much more compact. Finally, the production of the album can be called an excellent work.

"To The Highest Bidder" has four tracks. The first track "A Girl Named You" is one of the band's very best tracks. It's a lively carousel ride made up of psychedelic, classical and jazz rock, with one leg still in the 60's and the other already in the progressive rock of the 70's. It starts with a lengthy instrumental section where the piano and flute play energetic themes and riffs before the track seamlessly changes form into the vocal part that features one of the most infectious and memorable vocal melodies the band wrote. The second track "No Tree Will Grow (On Too High A Mountain)" strikes completely different, darker tones than the opener. It's slightly untypical, being a slow and not all that complex ballad with a progressive edge. With the quiet and relaxed vocals to the more solemn jazz rock, flute sounds, vibraphone and Mellotron strings, the result is quite peculiar track. The third track "Energy (Out Of Future)" is possibly the band's most demanding and intricate piece. The music becomes very varied, sometimes quite free. Here they blend a complicated web of quirky themes, melodies, chord changes and rhythms, taking each style to the very limit. The piece offers the brisk, perfect interplay of the band, which rushes from melody to melody, from section to section and from sound to sound. This is a very entertaining piece, despite its length, which becomes a bizarre, electronic orgy of sound in the last few minutes. The fourth track "Higher" is very short, a contemplative and relaxed track, which is quite reminiscent of the somewhat more pop numbers by Caravan like "Hello Hello". This short light ballad seems like a very modest finale compared to the rest of the album. It proves that a big part of prog rock is also about contrasts, dynamics and variation.

Conclusion: "To The Highest Bidder" is really a nice work that can be recommended to any Canterbury lover. Overall, this is an album with great complexity. It's very unique and great what Supersister has developed here. This is an album that just oozes the joy of playing and delivers a work that is fun from the beginning to end. It's an album with many fine moments that are fun and clever too. But what it mostly accomplishes is to exorcise the band's interest in the studio experimentation, paving the way for more focused song writing on their next third work. If you're looking for an album that delivers a beautiful melodic and instrumental sound without being kitschy, you shouldn't go wrong with this album. So, this is a great album, an excellent starting point to further discover the music catalog of the group from The Hague.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

Here Am I and Chiefs and Indians both have excellent instrumental sections and solos, especially the latter which is essentially a minute and a half of soft lyrics about not fitting in and then a ~3 minute instrumental jam with catchy solo followed by catchy solo, with a return of the soft beginning at the end.

The next 4 tracks work as a suite, as there is continuous music throughout, and I wish they had been conceived as one song. Oik showcases the classic Caravan humour, Bobbing Wide is a great laid-back instrumental (the only one on the album), Come on Back is a cute love song (this album's equivalent of Love to Love You) and the Oik reprise isn't really a reprise because the melody is that of Come on Back, and the high-pitched ladies' voiced singing are a bit repulsive.

Jack and Jill is a funk, story-based song, similar lyrically to Hello Hello or Cthulhu Thlu. The "you're in the wrong key" at the beginning always makes me laugh. Great bass tone (I don't play bass, so idk if this is the correct term). The ending with the dog barking is the only truly interesting thing about this song though, but I don't not like it. On my first few listens to the album mid last year, this was my favourite song on it.

Can You Hear Me? is ANNOYING. It's incessant, repetitive, driving funk-pop that is copy and pasted for the first 4 minutes. Good viola solo in the second half however.

All The Way - A stunning, heart-wrenching closer. Sings about lost love and I get close to tears on listening occasionally. The instrumentation is much better than most of the rest of the album too; I can hear the synth used in a lot of Camel songs (eg the opening of Lunar Sea), and the flute and viola coming in at various points keep it together as it's almost 9 mins.

The major irk I have with BDASD is the bright mastering and consistently poppy melodies get quite tiresome after many listens - even though they are much more pleasing if you're listening for the first time, they seem to get worse for me over relistens (something that is the complete opposite for Caravan's first 5 albums). Nonetheless, I'll probably listen to it every 2 or 3 months from now on Best songs: All The Way, Chiefs and Indians, Here Am I

The band tackled a completely new sound on its fourth album ISKANDER, a concept album about Alexander The Great. The album title is the Turkish name for the Macedonian king who reigned from 336-323 BCE. While not totally abandoning its Canterbury creds as heard on the Soft Machine organ and bass work, the album took on the most serious nature of SUPERSISTER's career with a wildly unpredictable ride through a mostly instrumental album that narrated the emperor in nine tracks that added up to just over 42 minutes of playing time. The album found a cameo from Pierre Morelen on marimba and percussion on "Bagoas" as well as former member Sacha van Geest dropping in for a flute performance on the closing "Looking Back (The Moral Of Herodotus)."

The album has been a divisive one with many fans of first three albums finding it to be too dramatically different from the first three but for those with a sense of adventure and an appreciation for a brilliant album outside the usual scope of a band's established sound, ISKANDER is actually a phenomenally brilliant album showcasing extremely strong musicianship and clever composiitons but then again unlike many of its Dutch counterparts, SUPERSISTER never released a single bad album out of the five that emerged under its name in its 1970s run. ISKANDER begins and ends with the sounds of antiquity with the opening "Introduction" and closing sounds of "Looking Back" but quickly embarks on a superb journey of jazzy progressive rock that showcases the band's new style as well as allowing the new members to prove their worthiness.

The first true track "Dareios The Emperor" establishes the sax as having replaced the dominant flute sounds on previous albums and also displays a firm control on excellent compositional fortitude with clever arrangements that offered diverse motifs, plenty of shifting time signatures, tempo changes and abrupt hairpin curveballs into completely unrelated yet logical extensions of the varying musical motifs that alternated into a greater sum of the parts. The music adds an exotic ancient Greek feel with various musical scales being implemented but for the most part ISKANDER is a veritable mix of jazz-rock, symphonic prog, scatterings of Canterbury jazz and wild eclectic styles from various sources. While sounding nothing like the previous SUPESISTER albums, Stips' keyboard antics are imprinted all over the album's run. The music is as dramatic as what one would expect from a great king from a faraway time and place with mood swings and stylistic shifts that dominate the soundscapes offering a journey through sound into that world. The album is surprisingly effective in evoking the spirit of its subject matter.

The album should by no means be compared with SUPERSISTER's previous albums as its really a stand alone in the band's canon but one that showcases an amazing display of prog virtuosity as well as an ability to convey a concept primarily through tones, timbres, rhythms and dynamics. The album finds scattered vocals throughout with "Bagoas" and "Babylon" featuring the most lyric oriented moments but even here the vocals are subdued and very subordinate to the musical prowess of the four members delivering an amazing powerhouse of a concept album. I honestly cannot fathom why everyone doesn't love this album. While the stylistic approach may not have been expected during its time of release, this album is absolutely brilliant on so many levels and best of all highlights how SUPERSISTER could totally reinvent itself and still deliver an above average product unlike fellow Dutch prog act Focus which quickly dropped the ball after "Hamburger Concerto." While not up to par with the band's first two masterpieces, ISKANDER is an album i enjoy thoroughly from beginning to end and am truly exhilarated by its ingenuity every time i experience it. One that deserves much more appreciation than its gotten so far :)

Around 1978 Allen found himself in The Big Apple, a time when not only funk, disco and dance music were all the rage but also an uglier underground such as no wave, hardcore punk as well as their friendlier cousin new wave. Initially starting out as the Zu Band and created in 1978 by producer Giorgio Gomelsky who moved to New York in the hopes of promoting progressive rock bands, the changing musical tides dictated otherwise. The band included bassist Bill Laswell, guitarist Cliff Cultreri, keyboardist Michael Beinhorn and drummer Fred Maher but spontaneously and suddenly at an October 1978 performance at the Zu Club, lead singer David Allen adopted the band name NEW YORK GONG and it pretty much stuck after that point.

As NEW YORK GONG only one studio album resulted, the 1979 release ABOUT TIME which offered a very strange mix of GONG inspired psychedelia mixed with punk rock, new wave and mutant disco. The project also proved that Allen wasn't the kind of artist who could adapt to a band situation very well as his idiosyncratic personality guaranteed it sounded like an Allen project but nevertheless ABOUT TIME showcased a rather unique chapter in the greater GONG universe. The album of nine tracks at nearly 37 minutes found Allen writing the majority of the tracks but also found a few collaborative efforts from other band members. Starting with the psychedelic intro "Preface" where Allen welcomes all aliens, humanoids and other freaks of nature, the album jumps into an accessible form of punk rock with "Much Too Old" but finds Allen delivering his unique psychedelic rapping style that was prevalent in his early GONG days. "Black September" sounding more punk in nature actually finds Allen singing but he proved to be no Joe Strummer, Johnny Rotten or Jello Biafra.

The album's inconsistent nature is one of its charms as well as a hinderance at least for any points in trying to be a New York punker! "Materialism" jumps into a mutant disco style that's both danceable and psychedelic with some nice progressive moves as far as changing up the musical motifs and completely instrumental with some jittery guitar riffs. "Strong Woman" drifts into a more 70s hippie vibe with Allen's classic glissando guitar antics accompanied by tribal drumming and that sort of Talking Heads inspired sound that King Crimson was experimenting with in the 1980s. Allen's contemplative singing also finds him in outbursts of what sound like shamanic chanting trying to break into some sort of throat singing! The short "I Am Freud" breaks into unadulterated new wave synth-pop only with brief moments of sax squawks inserted into micro-breaks.

"O My Photograph" at over 9 minutes long is the strangest track on board as it showcases Allen as the hippie punk rocker with a punk bass groove accompanied by Allen's psychedelic guitar and his greatest poetic prose turned into as many ways as expressing it as possible. The longevity of the song allows the mutant disco bass groove on high energy throughout its entirely to allow many psychedelic moments with Allen and is surprisingly danceable all the while as trippy as anything Allen conjured up in GONG! The closest thing to an actually GONG song of yore was the early 70s sounding "Jungle Window" which wouldn't have sounded out of place on 1973's "Flying Teapot" as it sounds like one of those classic moments where Allen raps about multi-dimensional creatures backed by Laswell channeling those classic Gong bass grooves along with funk guitar and a feisty tenor sax cameo provided by Gary Windo. "Hour's Gone" finishes the album starting off with a strange guitar style and then sounding like an electrified Bob Dylan before bursting into a punk rock song!

While touted as a Daevid Allen punk album, this sole offering from NEW YORK GONG is really a smorgasbord of various ideas with punk as one of the ingredients. I'm sure it became obvious to the other members that this quickly became the Daevid Allen show and that his collaborative efforts always found his dominate persona and stylistic approach steering everyone into that that psychedelic mindset. Once Allen departed the rest of the band would continue as the dance-punk / mutant disco band Material but for a brief moment NEW YORK GONG offered a wild ride through the lens of Daevid Allen interpreting the world of punk rock and new wave. The album is actually quite fun if you don't take it too seriously. No this is not an essential piece of the greater GONG universe but it certainly is one that sounds like no other and given all the styles juxtaposed together in strange new ways it's actually must've sounded a bit refreshing for anyone dissatisfied with any formulaic approach of the era. Definitely worthy of a spin now and again as it showcases Allen in both fully psychedelic hippie mode only with a bit of attitude thrown in for good measure.

The debut album TOOT was released in 1995 and was guided under the tutelage of Robert John Godfrey of The Enid who helped the band go through the processes of recording and releasing albums. TOOT is a wildly strange ride of varying styles and although the band has latched itself on to the Canterbury Scene for moments that are reminiscent of of Hatfield & The North and other moments of the 70s scene, the album is actually all over the place with just as much time dedicated to alternative rock, folk, American jam bands and even references to Zappa.

After the short prelude, "Sally" showcases a feisty funk guitar sound that eventually shifts into a vocal led resembling classic Caravan with classic Canterbury keys and a bit of whimsy. The track also features some nice classic guitar licks. While "Sally" indicates a connection to Canterbury, the album quickly deviates into a world of organ dominated sound of a singer / songwriter with a bit of country twang with steel lap guitars on "Astronought" and the following "The Void Is Clear" offers a bit of ska syncopation but offers varying parts with keyboard led rock as well as faster guitar soloing segments. "Babbashagga" does evoke a classic Hatfield & The North sound only set to an easier listening style that sort of mixes Canterbury with 90s Britpop. At its heart MOOM was just a more adventurous pop rock band that was more creative than the average act of its day.

"The Higher Sun" is actually pretty psychedelic with some sort of didgeridoo type of instrument towards the end. "The Crocodilian Suite" does indeed start off with those herky jerky Canterbury rhythms only set to an alternative rock context however the organs do bring a neo-psychedelia band like Phish to mind for its long psychedelic jamming at the end. This is actually one of the more interesting tracks notable for its quirky rhythms, nice melodies and the Canterbury warmth not only in the musical scales but in the keyboard tones. The guitar soloing is tasteful and the vocals aren't as annoying as they can be as on some other tracks.

"Eye" is another quirky one with stellar bass grooves, trippy organs and lots of progressive time signature guitar moves including a long dub sequence with trippy synthesized sound effects. The lengthiest tracks is the closing "I Can't Remember the '60s... I Must Have Been There" and despite the lengthy playing time is more reminiscent of a more progressive Grateful Dead jam than anything with lengthy Jerry Garcia type guitar solos however the trippy keys and organs offer a touch of modern neo-psychedelia and the Canterbury warmth is present in the key tones and bass grooves.

MOOM's music is as quirky as the band name and TOOT, the debut is very strange indeed. Existing somewhere between an amateurish garage rock band, a Vermont hippie jamming collective and a fully dedicated prog band, MOOM excels at nothing and yet delivers a little of everything. The album is lighthearted and never delves into serious subject matter and TOOT offers a playful approach of mixing all the various styles in a new way that nobody had thought of before. While the ideas are pretty cool, the execution isn't as proficient as i'd hoped and although i'm totally fine with slacker band types tackling musical styles from a different angle, MOOM rubs me wrong the most in the vocal department. It's certainly an entertaining album in its own right but not really want that beckons return visits either. A strange anomaly in the extended Canterbury family, MOOM certainly delivered something unexpected and unique with TOOT in 1995.

TWENTY-FIVE VIEWS OF WORTHING or more affectionately known as The Worthings found life after the ashes of the psychedelic cover band Primrose Path were still smoldering. That psychedelic band was only a cover band but displayed a theatrical knack of Arthur Brown inspired pyrotechnics and flamboyant live performances however never engaged in the art of self-penning its own songs or musical output. Primarily the brainchild of drummer and vocalist Mark Sugden whose infatuation with the early Soft Machine albums left him smitten and infected him with the Canterbury Scene bug, he and Watford, England high school buddy keyboardist / vocalist Roger Hillier were amongst the early birds to dip into the world of the fledgling Canterbury Scene when they formed TWENTY-FIVE VIEWS OF WORTHING as far back as 1970.

With a keen ear for a stylistic approach that mixed the Canterbury jazz sounds with early progressive art rock that was taking England by storm at that time, the duo quickly recruited the jazz talents of saxophonist Paul Devonshire along with bassist Paul Lindsay and formed the first chapter of The Worthing's seven year run. Quickly attracting the attention of Island Records for an uncanny ability to deftly blend Mike Ratledge keyboard sounds with exquisite jazz and early Soft Machine psych-pop tinged art rock, The Worthings were signed to a management deal with Island Artists and in 1972 supported many of the greats of the era including Genesis, Caravan, Mott The Hoople, Amon Düül II and Roxy Music courtesy of the connection to Island Records' live agency.

The band was given access to Island Records' legendary Basing Street Studios during the off hours and in 1972 the band successfully recorded a half album's worth of tracks before Island suddenly went on a great purge of unsigned artists of which The Worthings were unfortunately included. Having deemed all other options off the table especially for such a quirky niche market art rock that the band was not willing to compromise, the dismayed band continued into 1973 but with the mid-1973 departure of bassist Paul Lindsay, the first phase of TWENTY-FIVE VIEWS OF WORTHING basically came to an abrupt halt. The band sallied forth through what is now considered their transitional phase with the recruitment of bassist John Knox and the unlikely inclusion of trombonist Pete Teychenné who changed the band's overall sound significantly.

The transition phase was short and when Paul Devonshire left the band put things on hold for a year before recruiting Paul Gillieron on sax, Harlan Cockburn on guitar and Malcolm Barrett on bass. Chapter 2 was born! This chapter saw a radical change which for the first time found a guitarist in the band since like the earliest Soft Machine albums, TWENTY-FIVE VIEWS OF WORTHING focused on the mix of jazz, psychedelic and art rock that didn't have the need for guitar sounds. Also while the earliest Island recordings were primarily instrumental (with the exception of crazy tracks like "Freak Show), Chapter 2 focused more on a vocalist-led songwriting formula that included guitar feedback, riffing and the occasional solo. Under this incarnation The Worthlings managed to release its only artifact of the 70s in the form of the 7" vinyl EP titled well 7" - haha. The whimsy was extended to the cover art which only showcased a blank cover sleeve with 7" and two arrows drawn on each side to the ends to convey the length! Canterbury whimsey at its most jocular.

The release of the 1977 7" vinyl effectively saw the end of the road for the band with progressive musical styles suddenly tanking in favor of the new wave of varying art forms. The recordings, most of which were completely unreleased remained in the vaults for decades until the label Wind Waker Records label was suddenly formed for the not so simple task of restoring and compiling all the archival music of TWENTY-FIVE VIEWS OF WORTHING in a lush gatefold vinyl edition that finally hit the scene in 2020 showcasing all the band's recordings from 1972 to 1977 and covering both chapters and even the short-lived transition phase which yielded a single recording. The album was released on CD in 2022 own the Seelie Court label with two bonus tracks ("More Feathers, More Dogs," "Ratification"). Needless to say Island Records missed the mark with this excellent band. What were they thinking?

This band excelled throughout its entire existence and this album represents various styles of Canterbury-tinged art rock that were all worthy of being heard during the band's heyday. Of course the music industry is a roll of the dice but thankfully treasures like this have been resurrected from inaccessible vaults of some undisclosed location and allowed to bask in the light. TWENTY-FIVE VIEWS OF WORTHING archival album is on the more accessible side of the Canterbury sound with early Soft Machine and Caravan the obvious primary influences but don't think of them as even remotely falling into the dreaded clone territory as this band was innovative and creative at every juncture not to mention offering a warm production that fits right into the greater world of Canterbury. As the love of all things progressive from prog's classic days only grows stronger as time elapses, TWENTY-FIVE VIEWS OF WORTHING has finally found its rightful place in the annals of history and reveals a band that was energetic, captivating and deeply dedicated to its craft. With the psych-pop sensibilities of early Soft Machine, the crossover characteristics of Caravan and an unpredictable whimsey of bands like Supersister, TWENTY-FIVE VIEWS OF WORTHING was / is one of a kind! Excellent archival release this one!

CHAPTER ONE

1. Vamp Till Ready (8:36)

2. Joke Without Words (12:07)

3. Freak Show (2:26)

TRANSITION

4. In for a Quick One (5:26)

CHAPTER TWO

5. You Are What You Eat (5:37)

6. Do the Azimuth (4:40)

7. Rat Brain Incision (2:02)

8. More Feathers, More Dogs (3:50)

9. Ratification (3:17)

01 - 03 (1972-73), 04 (1973), 05 - 07, 09 (1977), 08 (1976)