YOU'LL NEVER COME BACK

Led by the Drogies brothers, Thirsty Moon were a Bremen-based progressive rock outfit who played a spacey, fusion-prog mixture that featured elements of jazz, Pink Floyd-style cosmic rock and intense psychedelic flourishes. Often lumped in with the broad-ranging 'krautrock' crowd - a mistake - Thirsty Moon actually existed in the hazy area between full-on progressive rock and jazz-influenced psychedelia, making them a hard act to categorise. Their first two albums were very much remnants of the 1960's, yet by 1975's 'Blitz' the group had adapted towards a less experimental and more streamlined form of rock designed to capture the attention of radio programmers nationwide. However, for the real Thirsty Moon experience, it is both the group's self-titled debut from 1972 and 1974's superior 'You'll Never Come Back' that prove the key albums, showcasing the German outfit, albeit briefly, at their very best. Issued on the legendary Brain imprint, 'You'll Never Come Back' finds Thirsty Moon eclipsing the imaginative- yet-jumbled form of their debut album, and instead composing lengthy flights-of-fusion-fancy tinged with Eastern mysticism, the key proponent of 'You'll Never Come Back' being the fuller, richer production. The highlights include the fourteen-minute space-time marathon 'Trash Man', and even more so, the epic, cosmic psych-fusion of the wonderful title-track, a twelve-minute freak-out of rather beautiful sonic proportions. A lushly-realised slice of ambient progressive fusion, 'You'll Never Come Back' proves a masterful experience from a group who deserve a higher profile; fans of Ash Ra Tempel, Pink Floyd, Eela Craig, Agitation Free and Soft Machine are urged to investigate right away. STEFAN TURNER, STOKE NEWINGTON, 2013