SEEING YOURSELF AS YOU REALLY ARE

Third Quadrant were a neo-prog outfit from the UK's brief early 1980s prog boom who, if their debut album is anything to go by, owe more than a little debt to Pink Floyd. Indeed, guitarist Simeon Manners has David Gilmour's bluesy style down cold, and about this foundation the band construct a range of spacey numbers that represent perhaps a neo-prog take on space rock, just as Marillion and IQ came at the neo-prog idea from a more symphonic prog perspective by way of their Genesis and Camel influences.

The downfall of the album is in its production standards; although the sound quality isn't flat-out awful, it's clearly closer to a demo tape than a fully-realised release of the sort that a high-quality studio could turn out. It is rather a shame that Third Quadrant were working at a time when budget studio recording setups hadn't hit the level of quality they would in subsequent decades, because as it stands the quality of the material here is somewhat obscured by the production standards the band had available to them at the time. (Also, I think the vocals are a little weak, but perhaps that might be a fault of the recording quality or the mix as opposed to anything else.)

Apparently, the group members are still in contact with each other, at least as of 2004, and I kind of hope that they will give consideration to putting out a reunion album. Other groups like Comedy of Errors whose stories seemed done and dusted back in the 1980s have pulled off revivals lately and finally attained the level of attention from the prog world they have deserved, and Third Quadrant's sound is just different enough that it might be possible for them to do something similar. As it stands, the album is an interesting historical curio but is not, in and of itself, a lost classic.

One of the very first Neo Prog albums but this is much more than that. Released in 1982 this was actually their third release. There's more of a PINK FLOYD vibe than a Neo Prog one, and Sci-fi is a big part of their lyrics and sound. Spacey is the word. Their debut from 1980 was called "Voyage To Pluto" and the band is called THIRD QUADRANT. A four piece from the UK with the usual instruments plus electronics. I get why there's some really low ratings for this one. I mean the opener which is only just over a minute long but why open with a song that sounds like we get a bunch of drunks in a bar all singing with all the atmosphere of a bar. Or the closer, I mean the opener and closer are by far the two worst songs on here. The vocals and sound on that closer are painful.

Now for the good stuff. Check out "Backwards To The Future" if you will. It actually reminds me of DISCIPLINE for the dark, melancholic sound and the vocals. "Hen Rising" is over 13 minutes long, the longest by far. Spacey electronics pulse in and out for about 3 minutes then a beat and keyboards take over in atmosphere. This section ends around 5 minutes in as drums take over and Neo styled vocals as it plods along. A FLOYD vibe at 6 1/2 minutes then the tempo picks up thankfully with some nice bass. And it continues to change. "Gone Fission" is different with those chirping bird sounds and a beat before it kicks in but the birds hang around. Hey a cow bell after 1 1/2 minutes. Lots of PINK FLOYD references on "State Of Mind" especially the guitar but more than that.

A low 3 stars for this one.