ALL OF US

"The existence of chance is everything and nothing, while the greatest achievement is the living of life, and so say ALL OF US"

Following the release of their debut album "The story of Simon Simopath", principal songwriters and performers Patrick Campbell-Lyons and Alex Spyropoulos decided to disband the group and continue as a duo. Before they did so however, a couple of further singles were recorded and released. Those singles are included on this album, which is therefore a mixture of songs by the line up from the first album, and by the duo which remained. The duo called upon the services of members of other Island Records bands such as CLOUDS and WYNDER K FROGG to play as session musicians when required.

The album opens with the stunning "Rainbow chaser". This psychedelic extravaganza is one of the most wonderful songs of the period. It rides on a sea of majestic phasing and orchestration, which at the time of it's release was nothing short of ground- breaking. The song may now sound rather light and pop, but the phased symphonics still get me every time.

"Rainbow chaser" is not particularly representative of the band's work around this time, which is generally closer to the second track "Tiny goddess". This beautifully delicate love song is very much of its time. It has the sound of BARCLAY JAMES HARVEST's "Early morning" with a high vocal and fine harmonies. The title track was originally commissioned as the theme for a film called "The Touchables", and subsequently released as a single. The song is a fine piece of harmonic pop from the flower power era, but is rather at odds with the striking sleeve image of a gang of ruthless warriors.

The remainder of the album follows the melodic psychedelic pop trail with tracks such as "Melanie blue" having a BEE GEES ("Melody fair") type sound. "The show must go on" is slightly different, being a folk sounding flute led instrumental with harpsichord and pleasant orchestration.

"All of us" is now very much an album of its time. The simplistic pop on which it is based disguises some fine harmonies and excellent instrumentation. What makes it essential though is the presence of "Rainbow chaser", one of the most remarkable songs of the period.

The short-lived ‘band’ version of Nirvana was gone by the time the studio sessions for this album commenced, although there are a handful of tracks with the former bassist, cellist and French horn player. The rest are made up of the original band duo of Patrick Campbell- Lyons on vocals and most of the guitar work, and Alex Spyropoulos on keyboards (and a fair bit of the song arrangements).

This album gets a lot of gushy praise for the opening “Rainbow Chaser”, and particularly for the ambitious string arrangements. Those of us who grew up on ELO are probably a bit jaded when it comes to strings in rock music, but for the time period this was pretty innovative stuff. The rest of the album isn’t quite as grand, although a few tracks like “Melanie Blue” and especially “Girl in the Park” (my personal favorite on the album) are also great examples of tasteful melding of mildly progressive pop and real orchestral strings. There are a few places where I’m pretty sure the ‘strings’ are actually a Mellotron, but for the most part these are the real deal.

While the duo’s first record was a concept album, this one is simply a collection of pleasantly poppish tunes though in much the same vein as their debut. The record spawned a handful of singles with “Rainbow Chaser” managing to break into the Top-40 the year of its release. There isn’t a ton of variety here and some forgettable moments like the rather tepid “Trapeze”, but in all the record at least has some continuity of sound and is a great example of what was a fairly popular sound at the time. One other song worth noting is the mellow and flute-laced “The Show Must Go On”, another heavily stringed piece with very nice violin and cello accompaniment.

I have to rate this album about the same as their first, which was also good but not great, so three stars it is. This is a band that had their fifteen minutes of fame in the latter sixties but hasn’t aged all that well. Still, I’ve started to hear groups emerge even today that trade on the breakthrough sounds of bands like Nirvana (Pugwash and the Moore Brothers come to mind), and while I’m not sure Nirvana influenced them the fact that the same sort of easy pop rock with traces of orchestral and psych influences persist today mean the sound is still attractive to at least some folks. Mildly recommended if the words above intrigue you at all.

peace