CLEAR BLUE SKY

These three very young lads were quite gifted musicians. John Simms (guitar) even joining Ginger Baker for some touring in the seventies. The music they played is a trio based guitar - bass - drums as it was popular those days (remember Hendrix, Cream, T2 etc.).

The music is quite heavy and little melodic as one could have imagined. While the musicianship is solid, the vocals aren't quite of the same level. This is probably why I prefer the first part of their suite called ''Journey To The Inside Of The Sun''.

It is called ''Sweet Leaf'' (huum, I've heard this before.) and is a pure jamming and good effort for over eight minutes. Actually, this might well be part of a so called suite (or epic) but none of the parts are linked whatsoever. It is more a collection of three songs than a one-piece unit. It falls a bit flat during ''The Rocket Ride'' and ''I'm Comin' Home'' (second and third parts).

Their heavy music is tinted with blues and psychedelia (''You Mystify''), but this no big news for the period of release. It was quite conventional for such a trio to play this type of music. But they are probably more personal than a band as T2 for example who was too closely related with Hendrix Experience.

Nothing as such here. There is a definite prog feel when you listen to ''Tool Of My Trade''. It is not a ballad of course, but it swaps nicely between heavy passages and more sophisticated music. A highlight, for sure.

The more the album advances, the more diversified is the music. ''My Heaven'' demonstrates some Eastern influences delicately painted with some fine psychedelia. Some acoustic guitar is even featured and the interplay with distinct percussion is just perfect. To have reached this level at the age of eighteen is quite impressive. The album closed on some sort of heavy Tull piece (''Birdcatcher''). Aren't these fine references?

Three stars.

A thunderous, bluesy power-prog trio who released this self-titled debut in 1972, Clear Blue Sky belong to that select group of artists whose legacy has, for one reason or another, been exhumed and re-examined thanks to the excellent re-issue label Repertoire Records. Now available in a beautifully-packaged, mini-vinyl gate-fold replica edition, 'Clear Blue Sky' has been released under the dubious 'lost classic' tag that record companies give to albums that failed to succeed either commercially or critically in their own time, thus the opportunity to foister the music upon unsuspecting music fans who either do not remember or simply weren't alive the first time round. Though by no means a classic album, it is still a worthy entry into the prog canon, with an edgy, metallic sound undercut by bluesy rhythms and hoarse vocals that give the music a very slight punk aesthetic. Fans of Steamhammer and The Groundhogs may find much to admire, especially in the album's 18 minute long opener 'Journey To The Centre Of The Sky' which assaults the listener with a barrage of buzzing riffs and tribal drumming and, most importantly, never gets dull despite it's epic length. The shorter, sharper, more melodic songs that fill out the second-half of the album, such as the catchy 'You Mystify' and 'Tools Of My Trade', bring a touch of funk into the equation, again with John Simms brazen guitars pushed to the fore. A nice little bonus is the understated artwork from a certain Mr Roger Dean(one of his earliest pieces), and the only disappointment is the fact this under-rated threesome failed to record again until 1990, when they released a hugely-belated follow-up that is a Clear Blue Sky album in name only. STEFAN TURNER, LONDON, 2010

There may have been a fair amount of great hard rock bands of the early 70's that got unfairly overlooked or set aside, but Clear Blue Sky is not one of those lost classic bands. Even after hearing their only effort from the 70's, I still can't quite figure this group out or why I decided the time was right for me to get a Clear Blue Sky album.

Right away, the opener hits you and the gigantic problem with the record smacks you in the face; it's production is miserable. Apart from sounding like a lesser hybrid of Jethro Tull and Black Sabbath (and the title of their first track is ''Sweet Leaf''?coincidence?), the production sounds too unnecessarily loud to the point where the guitars sound like they're going to vomit. And it may be extreme nitpicking, but the volume on the cymbals sounds awful.

I like riffs as much as the next hard rock fan, but the riffs here are largely forgettable, and typically songs use about three unrelated riffs that are so poorly connected that any semblance of a fluid track is mostly lost. A track like ''You Mystify'' might have been a great lost rock classic if the actual song could progress with some finesse, but it ends up being a jumbled menagerie of muck.

This especially becomes a gaping problem on their attempt at a sidelong epic track; the three movements have barely any resemblance other than chugging away at riffs hoping for some lasting appeal. The aforementioned ''Sweet Leaf'' is the worst of the lot as it sounds completely without any direction and runs for far too long (at eight minutes, it's the longest of the album).

And yet, this album still manages to have an actual great tune in ''My Heaven''. It's the one time where there's a song that really functions like one. Had the muddy production not been there, this would have been a lost classic.

If the idea of checking out lo-fi hard rock sounds like fun to you, then check out CLEAR BLUE SKY. The idea of ''raw rock'' went a mile too far here.

Recorded by a guitar/bass/drums trio when they were just teenagers, UK band Clear Blue Sky's self-titled debut from 1970 is a bluesy and fuzzy psychedelic shred-fest, with heavy rock songs stretched out by way of jamming soloing and punchy instrumental spurts. Reminding in its electric-guitar dominated parts of everything from Cream, Jimi Hendrix and High Tide, the occasional presence of flute takes it into Jethro Tull and Skin Alley territory, and vocally it calls to the mind Budgie and the early Rush albums.

Those prog fans getting excited at the prospect of an eighteen-minute side-long piece (and one given a title like `Journey to the Inside of the Sun' - trippy, man!) - lower expectations immediately! It's really three unrelated tracks, if still very cool and full of killer playing with energy to spare. Instrumental `Sweet Leaf' sets much of a template for the LP, full of John Simms' muscular electric guitar slinging laced with a molten rocking bluesy swagger, Mark Sheather's thick bass murmurings and Ken White's barrage of drum battery, the trio almost sounding in parts here like Dutch band Finch's more debauched younger brother! After a tricky false-start (you'll pick it when you hear it!), the Rush-like stop-start vocal rocker `The Rocket Ride' reminds of German band Message with its propulsive guitar drama crossed with soul-searching lyrics, and the Budgie-esque `I'm Coming Home' is a peppy vocal rocker with little surges of nimble guitar soloing and blustery noise.

The flip-side's `You Mystify' is another longer one at almost eight minutes, gliding between groovy electric guitar sauntering, bluesy strutting and wailing soloing tantrums, and the Rush-like `Tool of My Trade' has trickles of tasty Hammond organ breaking through the gutsier erupting guitar bursts. The more introspective `My Heaven' crosses reflective acoustic and fiery electric guitar passages with a spiritual slant to the words, and lusty closer `Birdcatcher' is a relentless bluesy wailer that dips into a flute-carried dreamy interlude in the middle before rumbling to life again in the final moments.

Despite being adorned in a Roger Dean cover, `Clear Blue Sky' is hardly a prog-rock album, instead it crosses the sounds of both the late Sixties and emerging Seventies, offering rock tunes branching out with adventurous arrangements and longer unhurried soloing. But those who like guitar-driven `proto-prog' sounds or simply great rock albums with tons of character will likely dig the hell out of this spiky and addictive little one.

Four stars.