INDIAN SUMMER

INDIAN SUMMER were a traditional four-piece English band from Coventry in the West Midlands. The band had their brief moment in the late summer sunshine when they released their one and only self-titled album in 1971, shortly before splitting up the following year, presumably at the onset of autumn. The album featured an impressive arsenal of eight fusillades of heavy powerhouse prog of between five and seven minutes duration. It's time now to bask in the afterglow of Indian Summer nearly fifty years on and give this stunning one-off album a listen.

It appears that Indian Summer are a band of confirmed atheists from the title of our first song "God is the Dog", but don't let that distract you from the great music on offer here, because this is a tremendously powerful opening number. God almighty! The Prog Gods would be graciously appeased with this demonic outburst of keyboard-driven prog. The incredible singer deserves a mention too, with soaring vocals that ascend right up into the heavens and beyond, in the true spirit of David Byron of Uriah Heep. Heavens above! This euphoric stratospheric epic is terrific! We're drifting gently back down to earth now for "Emotions of Men", although don't be fooled by the brief placid intro, because the deceptive calm is about to be shaken and stirred again by another pounding percussive wave of earth-shattering keyboard prog, designed to fire up the "Emotions of Men" with power and passion. These four relentless guys are ploughing on ahead with thunderous power and dogged determination and they're not stopping for anyone or anything, so set the phasers to stun now for "Glimpse", because this is yet another stunning organ blast from the past. This glorious "Glimpse" back in time to 1971 reminds us of just how many great long-lost album treasures are out there just waiting to be re-discovered again in the futuristic age of the Internet. Beam me up Scotty! It's time for a change of pace now for "Half Change Again". It's a two-part song, beginning as a gently-lapping wave of melodic prog, but the clue as to what lays in store is in the song title, because it's all "Half Change Again" for a dynamic explosion of supersonic keyboard wizardry to close out Side One in stunning stupendous style.

Holy Moly! There's no let-up in the incredible pace and vigour of this album, so get ready for a dynamic keyboard burst of "Black Sunshine", another wild and heavy powerhouse performance reaching into the realms of the mighty Crimson Kings. There are definite similarities to be heard here with "21st Century Schizoid Man" from King Crimson's sensational first album. Both songs are instilled with that same raw energy and power. We're off to the movies now for "From The Film Of The Same Name", a stirring Jazz-Rock instrumental, which does indeed sound like it might have featured in an action-packed early 1970's crime caper movie. There's time for some quiet reflection now with "Secret Reflects", a hauntingly atmospheric number with a stately marching rhythm. There's a slow and steady build-up in this majestic processional epic, which explodes into a sparkling crescendo of sound and energy for the spectacular grand finale - a song which also features some marvellously over- the-top Byron-esque vocals. In a classic case of saving the best song till last, the final song "Another Tree Will Grow" is another incredible powerhouse display of stunning virtuosity from four multi-talented musicians at the top of their game, featuring a wild and frenzied guitar and keyboard jamboree, not to mention the unstoppable Duracel drummer who probably needed to lie down in a darkened room after his breathless performance here. This simply sensational album highlight shines like a glowing beacon on a hill.

Bask in the glory of an Indian Summer with this dynamic outburst of Heavy Prog from 1971. There's enough latent energy stored in this brilliant album to light up a small town.

3,5 stars in fact.

Simply said, i like this album (and its Keef cover too). It has some nice and fairly melancholic athmosphere. Stylistically, its a typical early 70s protoprog blend of 60s psychedelia, jazzrock, blues and some soul and proggy elements too. All musicians are really very good, especially very fast and jazzy playing guitarist. All songs are equally good, what could be a bit of a drawback - the album seems to be a bit monotonous after the first halfth. Only one song is entirely instrumental and really great played. Another small drawback for me are the vocals in some sections, the singer sings in a raw and very emotional way, what could be very suitable in some passages, but too tiresome in other. Production is fairly good and clear for this year, only the drums have a very cardboard feel and sound. I especially like the Hammond playing and tone on this album. Overall - above average album full of very good played and emotional early 70s protoprog and a must for fans of this subgenre.

The gently side of hard prog.

"Indian Summer" is a very good album. It's a classic hard prog in gothic style with beautiful organ solos. The band (formed in Birmingham in 1969) was discovered by the same manager of Bakerloo and Black Sabbath.

The voice of Bob Jackson is a classic hard-rock voice, and he sings maybe with less power than Ian Gillian, John Gustafson or Ozzy Osbourne but I think with more intensity and passion (as you can hear in God Is The Dog, the first track, and in Secrets Reflected, the softer song of the album). All the songs are good (please note that we have no suites here but eight songs of five or six minutes each) I think particulary Half Changed Again, Glimpse, and the instrumental From The Film Of The Same Name where Colin Williams shows his great ability playing guitar in Stewe Howe's jazz-style.

Not only for hard prog lovers: it's a heavy-prog album, but not so "hard" because of guitar style, much closer jazz than to rock, and even for the symphonic atmosphere in many songs (the mellotron-finale of Glimpse is illustrative). Precisely for this reason it is a record that might not appeal to Rush fans; on the contrary it may please the supportes of Yes.

Rating: 8/10. Strongly recommended.

Best song: Glimpse

Maybe it's because the voice of Malcolm Harker, very similar to David Byron but it looks like this is the early Uriah Heep missed album. This is good hard-rock with some hints of psychedelia.

The huge use of organ on all the tracks makes it a product of its time, Not bad at all and very promising as debut. Unfortunately without a follow-up.

In few words, a good-to-know album, highly enjoyable but that doesn't offer more than what Uriah Heep or Deep Purple offered at the same time. It's more psych oriented than the two mentioned bigs and this is its strenght.

It fits perfectly in the 3 stars definition, but people who likes the mixture of hard-rock and psych typical of the early 70s will really like it.

I simply love the Hammond organ based sound of Indian Summer. Add some soul, guitars and spacy melodies and you have the 1970s heaven. Well, one of them.

This English band only released this album before they splintered up and the members went in all direction. Most of them as a backing band for John Enwhistle's solo project. Which is a pity because Indian Summer was really onto something here. This album has a lot of spacy solos. Mostly hammond organ solos, but there is also some good guitar solos here. The vocals are soulful. The bass and drums more than good. The sound is excellent and in the Deep Purple and Doors mould. I am not sure why this is branded Heavy Prog though. This is not a heavy album in today's standards. Neither is it symphonic. This is one of those albums with an excellent 1970s sound. The main problem with this album is the lack of any superb songs. But the songs are generally good, with Half change Again being the best song on the album. This is another good find from the 1970s.

3.25 stars

This album really sounds like your typical Proto-Prog album with lots of organ and some mellotron. Not a big fan of the vocalist who sounds like he's yelling the lyrics. These guys can certainly play, i'm just not digging the tunes that much.

"God Is The Dog" I guess is their anti-religion song. Drums and organ lead the way early, vocals a minute in. The focus becomes on the vocals the rest of the way.They do get passionate at times. "Emotions Of Men" sounds good once it kicks in. It sounds very 60's to me. Mostly organ, drum and vocal led although there is a guitar solo 2 minutes in. "Glimpse" is more of the same although I can hear the bass clearly as the guitar solos after 2 1/2 minutes. "Half Changed Again" kicks in before 3 minutes thankfully. Drums and vocals dominate. Organ takes the place of the vocals 4 minutes in.

"Black Sunshine" is one I just can't get into at all. "From The Film Of The Same Name" is an instrumental with some good drum work and prominant bass. Good song. "Secrets Reflected" is laid back with reserved vocals although they do get passionate later. "Another Tree Will Grow" features prominate drums and organ and the vocals are deeper.The tempo picks up 1 1/2 minutes in.The guitar comes in and lights it up until after 5 minutes. Nice. Organ and vocals return.

If you like Proto-Prog check this band out otherwise you might be a little disappointed like I was. Barely 3 stars.

Very interesting obscure british heavy prog band of the early 70´s. If you enjoy lots of Hammond and some soulful vocals, don´t miss this one. Their sound reminds me of a cross between The Doors and Uriah Heep at the time (without the heavy guitars, though) with some Traffic percussion flavors thrown in for good measure. The guitar player is good but he is definitly more into 60´s jazz and psychodelia than to the 70´s heavy rock. There are some good interpley between guitar and keyboards. The songwriting department was a little green yet and it is the only flaw I could find in this album. Even the production and overall sound are above average for the time.

It´s a good album, but nothing more than that. Given time this could have been a great band, but somehow they just broke up after this one. Which I think it´s a shame. They had such potential...

Anyway, Indian Summer is an album worth buying, if you like early 70´s rock like Paladin. I liked it. 3 stars.

Indian Summer from 1971 is among the most underrated from early'70's hevy prog, with a lot to offer, from keyboard driving interplays to soaring guitars and good vocal parts. When i discovered this band i was really impressed by their structures and exellent musicianship. While they never hit the big time with this album, being under the same management as Black Sabbath, they also manage to creat something of real intrest for prog listners, with some very fine moments. Indian Summer plays that typical early '70 heavy prog with long instrumental passages, keyboard meets guitar interplays and a solid bass lines over it. I really like this underrated album for two reasons: one is among the best heavy prog i've heared from early '70, and second because thy don't really sound as anything from that period, haveing a sound of their own, not really heavy like Sabbath for example but not really symphonic like Genesis, they manage to be in the middle. Any single piece stands as good as can get from a heavy prog band with no boring moments. Anyway great discovery for me and a damn good album from golden era of prog. Recommended 4 star for sure.

An unremarkable Rock album.

Unfortunately "Indian Summer" sounds like so many other bands around at this time, except they lack the 'X' factor so important to make them stand out from the crowd - many great bands had it but not here, the musicianship is excellent as is the sound quality of the album, but the "songs" are forgettable, unstructured, they all really sound like thrown together jam sessions with extended solos, and like some other bands of this period is let down by poor vocals - I wish this band had taken their project more seriously and found a proper songwriter and singer,they could have done better than this and it would have lifted their fine musicianship into classic status. Few musicians can sing and play well at the same time, here the vocals are flat, tuneless and strained, like a very tired Steve Winwood meets Arthur Brown.

The music is all standard rock music of the period, not really Psyche or Prog rock, a few cliches with the odd mellotron passage thrown in may have swung their inclusion in PA, the playing is brilliant and is a shame this could have been a good album and not consigned to the bargain bin of history.

You should have a copy of this fine early 70s work if you like CLOUDS, SPRING, CRESSIDA, FIELDS, RARE BIRD et al. Classic English early keyboard/guitar led prog with some fine songs as already described in earlier reviews. Great Keef cover too!