LIVE MUSIC FROM THE TWILIGHT ZONE

Recorded only a few month before the known departure of Gustavson and Pohjol, "Live Music From The Twilight Zone" captures WIGWAM at their creative height. Originally released as a double vinyl album, this is some pretty amazing music recorded over 3 nights and according to documentation was the last live show for WIGWAM with their mark One progressive line-up. Members included Ronnie Österberg (drums), Jukka Gustavson (vocals, organ), Jim Pembroke (vocals, electric piano), Pekka Pohjola (bass), Pekka Rechardt (guitar). WIGWAM were known for delivering some pretty crafty live shows often not really playing a lot of their studio tracks but instead improvising and building on themes of other songs... someone once suggested WIGWAM were the GRATEFUL DEAD of Progressive rock !

Fitting true to this state, WIGWAM open up side one with a shattering and explosive 17 mins cover version of "The Band's" "The Moon Struck One" which originally appeared on The Band's 1971 Cahoots album as a 4 mins song!. The Beatles are borrowed for "Let It Be" and "Imagine" which are very tastefully re-done with heavy organ grinds and guitar soloing. Again a lot of live energy is put into these tracks and I love the heavy deep organ welts that kind of make your speakers resonate and vibrate. What is amazing on this live concert is that only 1 track is from any of their previous studio albums ("Pig Storm" from Nuclear Nightclub). Lots of improvisation here and these guys get into some pretty heavy and tripped out grooves... without a question WIGWAM were something pretty special and one of my fav's from the Euro 70's prog era.

This is a very recommendable album fromy Wigwam, though it contains few quite poor songs. The Wigwam of the early 70's played lots of covers at their live gigs, as I have understood they felt being unable to perform satisfying versions of their own compositions on stage. I guess they had some personal problems concerning these matters, along with possible desires from venue bookers, and all of the core members of the band were doing songwriting, having very different approaches towards this process. The cover version of J.R.Robertson's "The Moon Struck One" is an amazing version with extended jams and nearly remembered lyrics, but then there are also song like "Let it be", "Imagine" and a medley of Sonny Boy Williamson tunes. Sadly I found these as absolute rubbish, and they lower the artistic value of this album and the band as well from my own perspective. The rest of songs are luckily excellent, including "Groundswell", an instrumental track written by the guitarist Pekka Rechardt, powerfully symphonic "Nipistys" by the bass player Pekka Pohjola, and the awesome "Grass for Blades" by Jim Pembroke, reaching the deserved monumental treatment lacked from Jim's solo recording. So it's a good but controversial album, 75% of it being solid gold, and the rest 25% being very poor.

3.5 stars. I hate not giving this 4 stars being a big WIGWAM fan but I was disappointed with the direction they went for this live release. My two favourite WIGWAM albums are "Fairyport" and "Being" with that trio of Pembroke, Gustavson and Pohjola sharing the writing and composing, and this is the last evidence of that as Gustavson and Pohjola would leave only months after this performance. I just don't know why they did 3 covers and a few bluesy numbers here, and also there are no songs from the two previous albums and those are my favourites! We get one song from "Nuclear Nightclub" which was released the same year as this live record but without Gustavson and Pohjola. Oh, I do like that album cover.

"The Moon Struck One" is a cover of THE BAND song and they extend it to over 17 minutes with about a 10 minute instrumental interlude. Actually I like this one though I wasn't familiar with the original it's just good to hear Pembroke's voice. The organ, bass and guitar all get the spotlight here. "Let It Be" is THE BEATLES cover a song I don't like to begin with and they extend it to almost 8 minutes with an extended instrumental break in there and lots of organ. Not into this at all.

"Groundswell" is a top three for me. I enjoy the acoustic guitar, bass and drums but when that distorted organ kicks in I'm smiling. Good song. "Pig Storm" is from "Nuclear Nightclub" and it's catchy and energetic which would go over well live. It's fairly straight forward and bluesy too though.

"Nipistys" was a treat as it's from one of Pohjola's solo albums and this is a top three for me. Organ to start but I love when it picks up with guitar before 1 1/2 minutes. We get a brief calm with organ after 3 1/2 minutes then it picks up again with guitar followed by organ. "Imagine" is the Lennon song. Sure it's a great song but I can't get into it.

"Help Me/ Checkin' Up On My Baby" is a bluesy number including the vocal style. They seem to jam here. It's okay. "Grass For Blades" is a Pembroke song and a great way to end it. My final top three. Floating organ to start as quiet vocals join in. The vocals turn passionate and theatrical around 2 minutes. It's pretty much bass and a beat after 8 minutes as the organ floats in. I like when the tempo picks up as they "rock out" for a while. A calm after 10 1/2 minutes with some nice guitar. The vocals are back after 14 minutes.

If your into this band I'd suggest checking this album out. I'll stick with "Fairyport" and "Being" myself but there's lots to like here.