KOWTOW

Well , If I had discovered and followed Marillion and IQ 's carreer throughout the eighties (with very mixed feelings for each ) I was not aware of either Pallas or this group Pendragon at all !! I became aware of them (and Twelth Night also ) in the early 90's and did not think much of those "finds" at the times but they were up to stiff and absolute quality competition from the Swedish Viking Invasion (Anglandberkdotengard) and poor albums such as this one did not stand a chance. I did give it a fair try , though but to no avail . One must also recognize that thios is not their better album but I did not get into the Jewel also , and the real neo-prog albums such Masquerade , Window of life were for much latter. I would kindly recommend most progheads to stay away from this very poor album even if you are a neoproghead.

Pendragon's first studio album with the classic line up is the least successful CD among fans. No wonder, the group was facing a transition period and did not know if they'd soldier on as a prog band or turn the tables and try a new image as a pop rock group. Unlike most of his peers of first wave neo prog bands, Pendragon did have talent for writing simple, catchy, pop rock songs without sounding lame or corny. Red Shoes was a single they had released early on to show this side of the band since their very start. So, Kowtow was not really a betrayal of their roots as many have put it.

The album was not entirely pop either. Half of its songs could have easily be included on their first LP, The Jewel. The first half anyway werer simple songs, very much 80's flavoured commercial tunes and, in that field, very good ones, they are still listenable. On the other side, the prog songs are clearly transitional, showing glimpses of the great pieces they would produced in the 90's (The Haunting, Total Recall). With those remarks in mind I found this CD to be very much pleasant and enjoyable. A document of a difficult time for almost all pioneering neo prog bands, it shows that Pendragon could either be a fine prog band or maybe also an excellent pop group. Fortunatly they made what I consider a better choice (although at the time a hard one, since prog music scene by the late 80's did not offer a promising future).

If you're new to Pendragon, this is not the album to start (A História, is an outstanding overview of their career up to The Masquerade Overture). But if you have all other of their classic stuff, you should try this one too. Different, yes, and very good too.

The least we can say is that Pendragon is not very prolific those days, and won't be throughout their career if you except their awful lot of compilation and live albums : respectively eight and six referenced on this site; for a total of seven full studio albums !

Their last studio effort was released three years before this one. And the fans will wait for another three years to get the next one. I remember when seeing them live, that Nick mentioned that they were probably lazy guys. My opinion is that he is probably too much left alone by Clive who has too many projects running at the same to really support him. It is even more true from 1995 onwards and his commitment to Arena (amongst others).

I have expressed my admiration for Pendragon and its very melodic music and wonderful guitar breaks. I must admit that "Kowtow" is probably their weakest effort. During the same concert (June 2006, at the Spirit Of 66, of course) Nick announced "and now one very old song. From Kowtow". He was expecting enthusiasm from the audience but none appeared. This says sufficient.

The opener "Saved By You" and "the Mask" are poppy songs vaguely disco influenced. Rather poor. But nothing in comparison with "Time For A Change" : AOR with sounds remininding me of "Owner Of A Lonely Heart". Pendragon at its low.

What I like most in Pendragon is their melancholic but passionate ballads. "I Walk The rope" is anything but passionate. A dull and poorly mellowish number. "Kowtow" is extremely weak so far.

The jazzy "2 AM" is very quiet, with a gentle sax part. Sad mood all the way through. Even if one feels depressed after having listened to this song, it is a nice and peaceful break.

The same mood is shared in the intro of "Total Recall". Even if it sounds a bit flat, I prefer this type of songs than the poor attempts to disco-pop ones I had to suffer earlier on. A bit more emotional and a good guitar solo could have turned this song in a good one; but as such I must say that it is not very brilliant. One has to turn up the volume seriously to hear something. Nice to get faster asleep.

"The Haunting" is the longest piece of this album. Usually, when Pendragon produces a long track, it is very often a good one. Considering the very low level of "Kowtow" so far, it is one of the best numbers on the album. Actually, if we except again a (too) tranquil intro, the song shows a nice development and finally features the so recognizable and beautiful guitar solo from Nick. Pendragon is back again, but it was about time !

"Solid Heart" is another poppish song. At least it shows some type of enthusiasm. But it won't be enough to make it a good one, alas.

So, we have already reached the final and title track. The first half of the song is again very quiet and a bit dull; but he second one features a nice melody as the band is used to produce. It saves this track and the listener is finally rewarded to have waited so long to get an interesting moment with the very good and rocking (!) finale.

I guess you all have understood that with "Kowtow" we are not confronted to a masterpiece of music. The band will release much (and I mean really much) better albums later on. Do not start your Pendragon experience with this album, please.

You would have a wrong image of this band. Two average tracks is all we will get here. Fortunately these are the longest ones.

"Kowtow" is for completionists. But even for them, it doesn't hold enough great numbers to make it worthwhile (at least it is my case, and I can tell you that I like Pendragon a lot). Two stars, but I have forced this rate on the up side.

Time for a change

The LP version of this album has two contrasting sides. On the one hand, there are five pretty basic rock tracks, on the other are three much more structure and melodic prog ones. The album was originally recorded as a demo for EMI records, but the label backed out of the deal before it could be released. This resulted in band's own label Toff Records being formed, this being its first release, catalogue number PEND1.

Clive Nolan had only just arrived in the band when this album was recorded (completing the long serving classic line up), so his contribution is mostly limited to providing keyboard layers on which the tracks are based, and wearing cool dark glasses on the sleeve. The song writing is dominated by guitarist and vocalist Nick Barrett, who also found time to get a nice perm for his sleeve photo. Bassist Peter Gee contributes the music for a couple of the tracks, but was apparently away buying a nice hat when the rest of the album was composed! (I should mention drummer Fudge Smith too, who apparently used the same hair dresser as Barrett).

The album opens with a couple of decent but unremarkable rock numbers ("The mask" and ""Time for a change") before we get our first taste of the band's slower big sounding ballad style song in "I walk the rope". The track includes some fine sax playing by guest Julian Siegal. "Solid heart" reverts to an upbeat, rather commercial sound with a jittering electronic rhythm. The sax returns to introduce "2AM", which opens as a smoochy, downbeat song, but soon becomes another of the mid-paced ballads. Incidentally, the LP version does not include "Saved by you", presumably for reasons of space, and the track order is different.

"Total recall" kicks off the second side of the album, Nolan adding some colourful piano sounds to a more progressive but slightly wandering piece. "The haunting" offers the closest idea of the direction the band will take on all their future albums, Barrett's guitar work here being far bolder than on the rest of the album. The track has a fine (neo) prog structure, while perhaps lacking the maturity of sound which would develop rapidly on subsequent releases. The closing title track also has a more intricate structure, and credible guitar work. I find it is one of those songs which grows on you, only truly revealing itself after a number of listens.

In all, "Kowtow" was clearly a transitional album for Pendragon. It was designed to make an impression on EMI records, an objective it achieved. Fate conspired against the band though in terms of EMI, but it was not all bad news as the intervening years since have proved. Not the band's best album by any means, but a creditable effort, with some definite highlights.

It's a well known fact that Pendragon played a totally different kind of prog in the eighties compared to the nineties. In the nineties they almost became symphonic but in the eighties Pendragon played accessible music, almost poppy but their huge talent was already shining through and one could almost feel these guys could do better.

Kowtow was actually the last album in this accessible style with (same as on The Jewel) two small epics as precursors of what was to come the next decade. But it has to be said that not both epical tracks are equal in quality. Personally I believe The Haunting is a lot better than Kowtow. I even feel there is one shorter song better than Kowtow and that is 2 AM. The others are very mediocre compositions for Pendragon (Barrett) standard.

If you don't have a problem with Fly high fall far or The Rest of Pendragon you could add this one to your collection. I think this album is much less than The Jewel so I don't mention that one on purpose. But it's still a solid 3 stars for me because the basic level of Pendragon (even of the eighties) is somewhere around that mark.

Of Pendragon's two studio albums from the 1980s, Kowtow often gets short shrift compared with The Jewel, and it's easy to see why; the first side consists of a series of poppy songs that really should be classed more as melodic rock than progressive or neo-prog, and it's easy to think that Pendragon are selling out and not being true to themselves.

That's particularly true of Saved By You, the album's opener - but I was surprised to discover (and discogs.com confirms) that this originally wasn't on the album, and indeed wasn't even recorded when the first vinyl version of Kowtow was released in 1988. As it transpires, Kowtow was actually originally a demo - an extremely well-crafted demo, but a demo nonetheless - recorded by the band in 1987 as their last serious bid to get a contract with EMI.

When that fell through, Pendragon decided to make their own indie label - much as IQ and Marillion would do in subsequent years - and Kowtow became one of their first releases on Toff Records, initially in a configuration omitting Saved By You but with that track added in later versions.

Personally, I think the first side of the album isn't well served by adding Saved By You; as well as hailing from different sessions from the rest of the album, it also has enough of a different mood that its inclusion makes the proceedings feel jarring. Trim it off, and the songs on the first side start tending more towards the slower, more emotional numbers like 2AM; the material won't scratch your prog itch, but if you are into competently executed and emotionally sincere melodic rock you could do a lot worse (though arguably also a lot better).

Overall, these songs represent a natural evolution of the poppier side of the band's music. At the end of the first side Total Recall introduces a string of songs in a more neo-prog style. The thing which initially threw me about this song and much of the second side is that, while they're mostly neo-prog compositions, they're not *Pendragon* compositions in style - they seem, in fact, to have been written in imitation of Marillion's output at the time. The Haunting sounds like an off-cut from the Clutching At Straws sessions, Solid Heart reminds me a *lot* of the rousing White Feather closer from Misplaced Childhood, and Kowtow is extremely reminiscent of Fugazi - it even has similarly Vietnam-tinged lyrics! (Speaking of the lyrics, incidentally, on these neo-prog compositions they seem to have been written in the style of Fish, and Nick tries to deliver them in a similar manner, which seems unnatural for him.)

Still, whilst Kowtow is not a classic Pendragon album, neither capturing their classic early style or the 1990s stylistic shift inaugurated on The World which would see them attain cult success, it's also an album which I don't think is all that much worse than their other early works and which I think is badly underrated, partially due to the ill-advised inclusion of bonus tracks.

Historically speaking it's an important album both to Pendragon and the neo-prog scene as a whole; after all, if a supposed demo album could sound this good, the question of "Do we need the major labels anyway?" becomes all the sharper, and as the release which established Toff Records as a viable publishing entity, a vital step in laying the groundwork for Pendragon's renaissance in the 1990s - and also an important model for other major players on the scene at the time. (Would IQ have set up Giant Electric Pea if Pendragon hadn't already made headway with Toff? Would Marillion have set up Racket or pioneered crowdfunding to the extent that they did, had Pendragon and IQ not already shown that independent labels with high levels of fan engagement via the Internet were a viable model?)

Musically speaking, the more prog-purist fans will likely find Kowtow to be weaker than both the Jewel it followed and the World that followed it, but I find that there's more here than an initial listen might make apparent - especially on the excellent recent remaster. If you've given Kowtow a try before, weren't sure about it, but are curious to give it another try, you might try experimenting with skipping Saved By You and starting your listening experience with The Mask, the original album opener. As fun and energetic as Saved By You is, it sets entirely the wrong mood for the rest of the album, which I'm fairly sure was a major stumbling block for me on previous listens. At the same time, if you feel that Pendragon just didn't get it together until they put out The World - and I have some respect for that view - Kowtow is unlikely to change your mind, steeped as it is in their 1980s attempts at pop.

"Kowtow" is an special album in Pendragon's discography... And it's specially bad, for being honest.

Hearing this band trying to imitate A-Ha in Time for A Change is really sad, and so is the unfortunate attempt to make the own Pendragon's version of Dire Straits's Your Latest Trick in 2 a.m... This album is full with this kind of mistakes, specially in the first half. The last half is proggier, evolving from the average "The Jewel", but sadly not very better. Total Recall is a coomendable Fudge Smith's attempt to make a song, and it's one of the few usable tracks. But The Haunting is easily forgettable, just boring, except some little parts where we can hear some of the Barrett's guitars-Nolan's keyboards combinations that would be so good used in albums like "Not of this World".

Solid Heart is again affected for this failed 80's pop-rock Barrett's attempt... The Nick Barrett's voice is not the right one to sing this kind of music, and this song is the perfect example of it. It's too soft and delicate, and it has not enough energy to make this style of music work.

The title song is the other really good track of the album, and a little gem... The oriental melodies are funny, Nick's guitars are creative, and here the band offers another glimpse of the quality and special kind of prog they would offer in the future. I specially like the second part of the song, with a precious guitar melody. This track makes worthy the whole listening (or suffering...) of the rest of the album!

Best tracks: Kowtow, Total Recall and some parts of The Haunting.

Conclusion: if you like "The Jewel", maybe you'll find some interesting moments in "Kowtow", the second Pendragon's full lenght album. Equally, if you are a die hard fan of this band, you'll enjoy the hearing of this freaky Barrett's attempt to introuduce himself into the 80's pop. For the rest of the people, this is a perfectly avoidable album. Nevertheless, the song Kowtow is a very valuable track, and the disc has the virtue of being the first Clive Nolan's album with the band.

My rating: **

Embarrassing

The strangely titled Kowtow is easily Pendragon's weakest moments. While I have always found this band rather lightweight, even considering the band's 90's releases, the music of Kowtow is lightweight in the extreme. This music is basically soft 80's Pop Rock with only very slight progressive overtones. The often cheesy lyrics and the strong presence of saxophone on several tracks further strengthen the 80's Pop sound and feeling.

The actual songs are quite weak and not very memorable. With the exception of three longer tracks, the songs all range between four and five minutes and mostly lack anything out or the ordinary. What is even worse is the weak and timid sound of the drums and keyboards. I must emphasise that the instrumental attack is weak even by 80's standards. The guitars are slightly stronger, but there is surprisingly little of it. There is a serious lack of punch!

In fact, only the distinctive vocals of Nick Barrett remind us that this is the same band that later did much better albums.

This is only recommended for hard core Pendragon fans and even those will be embarrassed about this poor effort!

I am not a big fan of neo-prog, to be honest - not a fan at all. I can enjoy early Marillion albums, and even can listen some IQ works. Other neo-prog bands usually don't attract my attention. I listened to this album with hope to find something interesting when Pendragon announced their concert in my town.

The result is predictable. This album is soapy mix of secondary AOR ( with a terrible vocal) with some elements borrowed from Marillion, Pink Floyd, electro-pop Yes and many others. Even Van Halen's Jump sounds better! It's difficult to review this album in details. In fact, there is nothing what can attract listener. Never listened other band's albums (this one was more than enough), possibly to start from that one was my mistake.

As you can understand, I didn't buy the ticket for the band's show. And missed my interest for trying any other their album as well.

The music on the album is mellow, almost romantic. Possibly it could attract Pendragon's hard fan. Can't imagine who else can be interested to listen this album. (And looking from today, all their music sounds very dated there!)

I was only a little confused when I saw this album, as the sleeve wasn't how I remembered it, but a quick check at the collection proved I wasn't going insane, it is just that this reissue has a black cover instead of the white. This was Pendragon's third album, but the first with what became their most stable line-up of Nick Barrett (vocals/guitar), Peter Gee (bass/vocals). Clive Nolan (keys/vocals) and Fudge Smith (drums). To be honest it was only after I was sent 'The World' that I tracked back to their earlier material, and investigated this and fell in love with it. Years later I was over at Clive's with my good friend Artur Chachlowski (www.mlwz.pl and Radio Alfa) and Clive presented us both with vinyl editions, which sit proudly with the 'Fly High Fall Far' mini-album and the "Saved By You" single that I managed to find.

Pendragon's sound has changed over the years as the band has matured, but it is to 'Kowtow', 'The World' , 'The Window Of Life' and 'The Masquerade Overture' that I turn to time and again of all of their releases. The use of sax by guest Julian Siegel on a couple of numbers adds a depth and Dire Straits feel, while opening number "Saved By You" is a bouncy singalong. "Solid Heart" was often used as a set closer, with the band walking off one by one until just Fudge is left, and to me it typifies Pendragon in concert. It is an album that always makes me smile, it is fun from start to finish, and is simply put one of the best UK prog albums from the Eighties.

This reissue comes in a slip sleeve with a nice booklet, and three additional songs that were recorded as demoes by Peter and Nick. Both "The Mask" and "I Walk The Rope" were re- recorded fro the album proper so it is interesting to see how these compare. Great to see this album available again, and a nice resissue from Madfish. www.pendragon.mu

While PENDRAGON's debut album may have landed without crashing, it didn't exactly land on two feet as it was a mix of AOR dross cross-pollinated with high class Marillion inspired 80s neo-prog. The sophomore effort which came out three years later in 1988 found the band completely wiping out altogether. Despite the band starting to gain some momentum with the neo-prog sounds that would emerge in the 90s on the debut, on KOWTOW the band made a complete retrograde and in the process dumped its weakest albums of its career much less the neo-prog universe in general. This was the first album to see the debut of keyboardist Clive Nolan who had only worked with a band called The Cast at this point and while Nolan has been one of the bigwigs in the world of symphonic prog ever since, on this debut one could hardly guess that fact in any way, shape or form.

Not only did Nolan replace keyboardist Rik Carter but Nigel Harris was also replaced by percussionist Fudge Smith who would also stick around for the next eighteen years up until 2006. Pretty much considered PENDRAGON's absolute worst effort, KOWTOW went off the rails and created the ultimately bad AOR infused album with only a few progressive moments. While everyone knows neo- prog is in the pop oriented sector of the prog supermarket, KOWTOW takes things to the ultimate extreme and dishes out a bunch of sappy overweening tracks that fail to take into account that good AOR music requires two vital elements. Number one: catchy well crafted pop hooks which are woefully missing from every track included here and number two: a competent vocalist that can focus the attention on the lyrical content. Neither are present here and while Nick Barrett would improve his vocal talents, here he falls woefully flat.

While the album is primarily a batch of irritating crappy pop tracks that are rich in tinny keyboard sounds and lifeless drum programming, the album's saving grace is the decent but yet unremarkable "The Haunting" which hints at the more sophisticated epic themes that would emerge on the next album "The World." There are also the occasional jazzy touches (by session musicians) with on "I Walk The Rope" and "2 AM" that unfortunately remind me more of Kenny G than Miles Davis. Barrett's vocals have a very strange quality of sounding like a mix between a less talented Geddy Lee mixed with the Clash's Joe Strummer at times and at other times hint at achieving some sort of deliverable goods but doesn't quite cut the mustard leaving behind an unfulfilled promise where all the proper fluffing was delivered but no climactic resolution.

There are only so many ways to express how bad an album is. While i can understand why neo-proggers would want to craft some commercial success after once great legendary prog bands like Yes and Genesis were tearing up the pop charts and supergroups like Asia were raking in the bucks off their popification of prog, someone forgot to explain to PENDRAGON at this point that the songs would have to be irresistibly infectious and in the case of KOWTOW it is exactly the opposite. This is a difficult listen and i'm a very tolerant music lover to be fair. While i try to find any redeeming value in any given album i experience, KOWTOW is truly one of those absolute worst of the worst and a true burden to sit through for this review. Soulless and as plastic as Barbie's bosom, KOWTOW is as bottom of the barrel as any album with the prog tag could possibly sink. To be avoided at all cost and a useful torture device for your enemies. Their heads will explode like the aliens on the movie "Mars Attacks!"

Review Nº 545

"Kowtow" is the second studio album of Pendragon and was released in 1988. This is a very different album when compared with their following studio albums "The World", released in 1991, "The Window Of Life", released in 1993, "The Masquerade Overture", released in 1996 and "Not Of This World", released in 2001. The band tried to write some shorter, more single oriented songs, but they didn't forget their long epics. Therefore, this must be one of the most varied Pendragon's albums. Anyway, I think this is a good (re)start for Pendragon at this stage of their career, really.

"Kowtow" is their first studio album with their classic line up. The two founder members, the keyboardist Rick Carter and the drummer Nigel Harris were replaced by Clive Nolan and Fudge Smith. So, the line up on the album is composed by Nick Barrett (vocals and guitars), Clive Nolan (keyboards), Peter Gee (bass guitar) and Fudge Smith (drums). It had also the participation of Julian Siegal (saxophone), Patsy Gamble (saxophone) and Dick Cadbury (drum programming).

"Kowtow" has nine tracks. All songs and lyrics were written by Nick Barrett except "Total Recall" and "Time For A Change" which were written by Nick Barrett and Peter Gee. The first track "Saved By You" was a song omitted from the original LP. This opener is a very simple track. This is clearly a pop rock song very nice and agreeable to hear with some nice rock guitar playing. It's one of the most commercial numbers ever written by Pendragon, indeed. The second track "The Mask" represents another nice and simple song with a good melodic line and a beautiful choral work. This is another commercial song clearly with a pop rock approach. As happened with the first song this isn't a bad rock song but it isn't also too great at all, really. The third track "Time For A Change" is another commercial song this time clearly with a touch of disco music. It's a song that reminds me the pop bands Duran Duran and A- Ha. This is clearly the worst song on the album. This is Pendragon on their lowest musical level. The fourth track "I Walk The Rope" has fortunately, nothing to do with the three previous songs. This is a very nice slow ballad with a blues feeling and with a gentle saxophone work performed by Julian Siegal that sounds very well to me. Finally, we begin to have some interesting music made by the band. The fifth track "2 AM" represents another good and nice song also with a blues feeling. This is a very calm song with a great musical ambience provided by the saxophone and the keyboards. With this song the things on the album are going better and better. This is doubtless the best track on the album, so far. The sixth track "Total Recall" is a lengthy progressive song which makes me think of the good old classic Pendragon's songs. It's an emotional song with a good guitar work and some beautiful piano work added by Clive Nolan. I also like very much of this song that represents the best and unique truly progressive moment on the album, until now. The seventh track "The Haunting" is another long and progressive song on the album. It's the lengthiest song on the album, very dark, with a beautiful musical atmosphere and a great guitar work. This is a song with a fine neo-prog musical structure and is clearly the closest track that indicates the musical direction that the group will take on their musical future. This is a fantastic song, by far the best and most progressive track on the album. This is Pendragon at their best. The eighth track "Solid Heart" is another song with a clearly pop rock feel. But, this is clearly a better song than their first three tracks in the beginning of the album. This is a song with a simple but effective musical structure that shows some type of enthusiasm. It's a simple, nice and pleasant song to hear. The ninth track and last track is the title track "Kowtow". It's a song with some intricate musical structure and a good guitar work. This is a nice song with a first part very calm, with great melody and with a very good rocking style in the second part of the song. It has also good lyrics about war that proves that Nick Barrett can write good lyrics too. It represents another very good musical moment on the album. My version of "Kowtow" is the new CD version. So, it has also three bonus tracks, which are three different versions of three songs, "Time For A Change", "The Mask" and "I Walk The Rope". They belong to the Millstream sessions and were recorded in 1986. All instruments used on these three tracks were performed by Nick Barrett and Peter Gee.

Conclusion: As I wrote above, "Kowtow" is clearly a very different and unique album in the entire musical career of Pendragon. After the release of their debut studio album "The Jewel" and after the changes on the line up of the group, "Kowtow" appears as a transitional album of the band. This album shows a difference in relation to their earlier studio albums. Nick Barrett tried to write some shorter and more simple oriented songs, but he doesn't forget the long epics. "Kowtow" is, surely, the most varied Pendragon's work. But unfortunately, not all songs are progressive and good enough. Still, "Kowtow" represents a nice try to (re)start Pendragon at this phase of their career, in that moment. It has a nice keyboard sound of Clive Nolan and the aggressive and subtitle drum work of Fudge Smith, makes of it a good album. The worst song on the album is clearly "Time For A Change" and the best is, without any doubt, "The Haunting".

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)