Prog Britannia - Album Reviews

ROSEMARIE TAYLOR      The Irish Joni Mitchell? Sweet Rosemarie was also in The Great Saturday Night Swindle for a brief Thyme. No, me neither. 

 1977: The Great Saturday Night Swindle - The Great Saturday Night Swindle - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yvHP14E9j4

SYNANTHESIA      Another long-lost Psych-Folk treasure from the London underground of the late-1960's, Synanthesia received no radio airplay and no backing from their RCA record company, but now,  thanks to the modern wonders of YouTube and the Internet, Synanthesia have finally emerged above ground again over fifty years later, Just as the Curtain Finally Falls. 

THE SUN ALSO RISES     Named after a novel by Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises comprised of married couple Graham and Anne Hemingway (see the connection?), whose particular brand of mystical, minimalistic folk music told Wonderous Stories of elves, fairies and dragons, so no doubt they'd have enjoyed a magical night out in the forest with Jon Anderson singing Songs from the Wood, and coincidentally, their one and only self-titled album was produced by Ian Anderson (no relation) of Jethro Tull fame. 

STRING DRIVEN THING       A raucous, hard-bitten, string-driven Scottish folk rock band (consisting of married couple Chris & Pauline Adams) who played almost any stringed instruments they could lay their hands on, including the electric violin, and it's rumoured their recording contract with Charisma came with strings attached too. 

STRANGE DAYS      Maybe the proggiest of all the Prog Folk bands, Strange Days once infamously sailed 9 Parts to the Wind by sharing the same stage with The Sex Pistols. Strange Days indeed. 

STORM CORROSION       I was 'opeth for the best from these two giants of prog (Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree & Mikael Akerfeldt of Opeth), but the end result is less than the sum of its parts. Storm Corrosion is a listless and uninspiring Post Rock album that's likely to gather rust through lack of use. 

AL STEWART      A Scottish singer/songwriter whose signature song "Year of the Cat" was actually written and recorded during the Vietnamese Year of the Cat. Not a lot of people know that. 

CAT STEVENS      A best-selling English folk singer/songwriter who bizarrely decided to convert to the Islamic faith at the tail end of 1977 (adopting the name Yusuf Islam), thereby wrecking his successful career, but we all make mistakes in life. Personally, I much prefer Cat Stevens' traditional "Morning Has Broken" over Yusuf Islam's radical "Ramadan Moon". 

STEALERS WHEEL     Long before Baker Street made him an international Star, Gerry Rafferty was Stuck in the Middle with Joe Egan in the early 1970's Folk Rock duo Stealers Wheel. Younger audiences may remember Stealers Wheel best of all for their signature song accompanying the iconic torture scene in Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs (1992). That gruesome scene is far too disturbing to show here though, so here's something altogether more pleasant instead, where the only shocking thing are the 1970's fashions on display in the studio. 

BRIDGET ST. JOHN     She's the female equivalent of Nick Drake, so don't expect Bridget St. John's albums to be overflowing with joy and happiness.