HATFIELD AND THE NORTH

This is the first album from Hatfield & the North. This album is very progressive, and it has the Canterbury subgenre. There are TONS of typical electric piano parts. There is also the typical Canterburian wah-wah organ, which occurs on some Caravan's albums too. The keyboards played by Dave Stewart mostly consist in melodic series of short notes, as reveals the omnipresent electric piano. The drums are very complex and never the same. The special male & female backing chant definitely give a unique character to the album. Richard Sinclair's lead vocals are OUTSTANDING, as always. "Rifferama" has a series of weird wah-wah effects applied on dirty organs and inoffensive electric guitars riffs through VERY fast and funny elements, which should remind Frank Zappa's complex and fast music. Robert Wyatt's singing on "Calix" are very delightful. The epic "Son of "there's no place like Homerton"" has beautiful & graceful celestial female backing vocals; this track has a strange final bit consisting in dissonant horns improvisation-like a la King Crimson's "Lizard". "Aigrette" has awesome complex vocals arrangements a la Pat Metheny. "Shaving is boring" starts with an impressive moog and bass combination; it continues with a bit too experimental and disorganized for my taste; however, the second part of the track is AWESOME: it has the structure and style of Caravan circa "In the land of grey and pink": it is also the case for the mellow "Lick for the ladies", and for "Big jobs No 2". "Lobster in cleavage probe" has beautiful & graceful celestial female backing vocals. The best track of this record is definitely "Gigantic land-crabs in Earth takeover bid": it gradually reaches quintessence, as all the instruments are perfectly synchronized inside a fully interlocking Canterburian texture.

Rating: 4.5 stars