PROG FOLK

The smooth and folk beginning, with the acoustic guitar, grows with the gentle inclusion of other instruments. The vocals, in French, are exquisite. In fact, this is the case throughout the entire album. Some changes of time signatures occurs, a swing on the bass, and some brief but inspired interventions on clarinet and flute complete this music.

On the next song, acoustic guitar becomes even more lyrical, and bass delivers great melodies. Along with the singing, now there are some vocalizations. An immersive guitar, on the symphonic vein, closes the track.

Rhythmic sections on the first half of the third track are a bit simple. When the guitar gets along, significant changes happens. The musical combinations become more inventive. And on the end, the drums improve a creative march, and caddence is more accelerated.

A magnificent classical piano is developed on the following track.

Clarinet and acoustic guitar make an incredible dialogue on the opening of side B. Suddenly they give place to the piano, this time with some jazzy executions. And after that there's this fantastic piano solo.

6th song gives its name to the album. The entrance has a very strong pop approach. I like it, because of its tasty swing, and once again vocals are strong and complex. They switch harmonies, more to its middle, but keeping one foot on pop-prog. Piano has some cozy rhythyms.

Next track is one of the greatest discovers I made, in recent years, on progressive rock. "L'air de Rien" is outstanding, marvelous. The long introduction on the piano could be easily credited to some of the best acoustic stuff from Rick Wakeman. The other instruments seem to ask the most respectful excuse, very carefully, in order to enter on the composition. When the vocals come along the apotheosis is complete. Spectacular bass, and all the rest grows in intensity. Note 100/100.

The last track is very short, mainly structured around the accordion. It has a bit of a circus mood, and also a melancholic atmosphere.

I enjoy the whole album, and to me ir deserves a 4.1 rating.

All in all, it's not an album I regretted that I bought. Surely it doesn't rank among my favourite ones, but I when I want to zone out it is always among my choices.

"The Collection" is a compilation album of Strawbs that was released in 2002. It has a selection of some of the best tracks of Strawbs that were taken from several albums all over their great and extensive career. It covers the career of Strawbs since the beginning of it in 1969 with their eponymous debut studio album till 1976, the time of Strawbs' tenth studio album "Deep Cuts". It has also two non-albums' tracks that were originally only released in the format of singles.

"The Collection" has eighteen tracks. From "Strawbs" we have two tracks "The Man Who Called Himself Jesus" and "Oh How She Changed". "The Man Who Called Himself Jesus" is an interesting song with strange lyrics about the return of Jesus Christ to the World. It's a good controversial song that due to the lyrical content was quickly banned from the airplay by the BBC. "Oh How She Changed" is a simple and short beautiful song where all the elements, the vocal and the musical performances, are perfectly mixed. From "Dragonfly" we have only one track "I Turned My Face Into The Wind". It's a piano and cello driven song. It was written after a walk in Yorkshire that brings some darker pastoral feeling imagery of the English traditional countryside. From "Just A Collection Of Antiques And Curious" we have two tracks "Song Of A Sad Little Girl" and "Martin Luther King's Dream". "Song Of A Sad Little Girl" is a nice song that shows some intricate acoustic guitar performed and a perfect interplay between Wakeman and Cousins, which stands as one of the best examples of Wakeman's integration with Strawbs. "Martin Luther King's Dream" is a short track, a kind of a folk troubadour song that benefits from the newly acquired rhythm section and backing vocals from Ford and Hudson and the brief performance by Wakeman on organ. From "From The Witchwood" we have two tracks "I'll Carry On Beside You" and "Witchwood". "I'll Carry On Beside You" is a song with a great folk tune where we can feel the vocal power and the instrumentation. It sounds more like a typical classic country folk song that we can listen to on the radio. "Witchwood" is a calm beautiful song in the style of the Medieval and Celtic music. It has a wonderful pastoral melody that can catch the attention of everybody. It's one of the highlights on that album. From "Grave New World" we have two tracks "Benedictus" and "Heavy Disguise". "Benedictus" is a very well constructed song with a delightful organ break in the middle. This is a great opener and one of the best songs on that album. "Heavy Disguise" is a short song with a great tune and good lyrics. This is a song well performed, with a brass section played by the Robert Kirby Silver Band that gives to it a special feeling. From "Bursting At The Seams" we have two tracks "Part Of The Union" and "Lay Down". "Part Of The Union" is a well made and funny song. Lyrically, the song is very satirical about the power of the trade unions in the U.K. It's a controversial song misunderstood and poorly received by many union activists. "Lay Down" is a good strong pure rock song, very enjoyable, well sung, with lots of Mellotron and a good guitar solo too. This is a song made in a more commercial vein to be a big hit. From "Hero And Heroine" we have only one track "Shine On Silver Sun". It's a typical and classic song from the band with excellent vocal harmonies, a good Mellotron work and a very catchy piano strong harmony. From "Ghosts" we have two tracks "Grace Darling" and "Lemon Pie". "Grace Darling" is a beautiful piece with a fantastic keyboard performed and a beautiful and majestic choral accompaniment provided by a school choir. It's one of the most beautiful celestial ballads I've ever heard. "Lemon Pie" is a catchy song in Strawbs most folk traditional roots. The song was written about Cousins' then girlfriend and future wife. From "Nomadness" we have only one track "Tokyo Rosie". It was made to be listened on the radio stations and be a big hit. Despite is a vulgar commercial song, is pleasant enough to hear due to its funny and catchy rhythm. From "Deep Cuts" we have only one track "I Only Want My Love To Grow In You". It's a nice song written to be a hit single, a good effort with a simple but largely enjoyable melody and a great vocal performance too.

"The Collection" has also two non albums' tracks "Let's Keep The Devil Outside" and "Will Ye Go". Both were initially released as singles and later were also released as two bonus tracks on the remastered editions of "From The Witchwood" and "Bursting At The Seams", respectively. These are two really nice additions to this compilation album.

Conclusion: "The Collection" is a good and interesting compilation album of Strawbs, really. It covers the career of the band since the beginning of it, from 1969 to 1976. It has tracks from all the first studio albums of the band, if we forget the album "All Our Own Work", which isn't properly a Strawbs' album but a collaboration album with Sandy Denny. So, some of their best tracks are present here because they were written in their golden era, an era that belongs to this period of time. Of course I'm talking about "Just A Collection Of Antiques And Curious", "From The Witchwood", "Grave New World", "Bursting At The Seams", "Hero And Heroine" and "Ghosts". But, besides the tracks of these albums, we have also some great tracks from albums less good and two tracks previously only released as singles.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

Retaining his favored Rita Saviano behind the vocal microphone, we also have the participation of several of Riccardo's long-time collaborators, most notably, violinist Edo Notarloberti, Umberto Lepore on basses, Alessio Sica on drums, Luigi Rubino on keyboards, and Michele Maione on percussion. The big difference here on Sussumi e Grica (Cries and Whispers - which is totally inspired by Ingmar Bergman's film of the same name) is that Riccardo has endorsed the use of electrified rock instruments which gives his music a heavier, often darker, even at-times metal sound. Don't get me wrong, the music is still founded in Riccardo's pristine and celestial folk weaves, it's just embellished and fortified with the sound palette of the original Post Metal experimentalists like maudlin of the Well, Agalloch, Opeth, and Pain of Salvation. Whereas on previous albums Riccardo had often turned to British Post-Metal rockers Anathema for inspiration--and songs to cover--here his borrowing comes from French Black Metal band Alcest's 2007 debut album as well as fellow guitar virtuoso and Catalonian legend, Francisco Tarrega (who died in 1909). The album is being released as a double disc album with Volume 1 being called the "Post Metal / Folkgaze" album and Volume 2 the "Dark / Ethnofolk" album with an official release date for the full album being February 14, 2025.

"Strange Behaviour" is the debut live album of Karnataka and was released in 2004. It was recorded in November 2003 and it has tracks from the first three studio albums of the band, "Karnataka" released in 1998, "The Storm" released in 2000 and "Delicate Flame Of Desire" released in 2003. So, this is an album that represents the band's first musical era.

"Strange Behaviour" is a double live album with nineteen tracks. The first track "Intro ? Karnataka (Excerpt)", as it name indicates, is an excerpt of the track "Karnataka" originally released on their third studio album "Delicate Flame Of Desire". The second track "Time Stands Still" was also originally released on "Delicate Flame Of Desire". The third track "After The Rain" was also originally released on "Delicate Flame Of Desire". The fourth track "Crazy" was originally released on their eponymous debut studio album "Karnataka". The fifth track "Dreamer" was originally released on their second studio album "The Storm". The sixth track "Heaven Can Wait" was also originally released on "The Storm". The seventh track "The Right Time" was also originally released on "Delicate Flame Of Desire". The eighth track "I Should Have Known" was also originally released on "The Storm". The ninth track "Delicate Flame Of Desire" was also originally released on "Delicate Flame Of Desire". The tenth track "These Dreams Are Over" was never released on any studio album of the band. The eleventh track "The Storm" was also originally released on "The Storm". The twelfth track "Must Be The Devil" was also originally released on "Karnataka". The thirteenth track "Strange Behaviour", which gave its name to "Strange Behaviour", was also originally released on "Delicate Flame Of Desire". The fourteenth track "Everything Must Change" was also originally released on "The Storm". The fifteenth track "Talk To Me", as happened with "The Dreams Are Over", was never released on any studio album of the band too. The sixteenth track "The Journey" was also originally released on "The Storm". The seventeenth track "Tell Me Why" was also originally released on "Karnataka". The eighteenth track "Heart Of Stone" was also originally released on "Delicate Flame Of Desire". The nineteenth track "Out Of Reach" was also originally released on "Delicate Flame Of Desire".

The line up on "Strange Behaviour" is Rachel Jones (vocals and percussion), Anne-Marie Helder (harmony vocals, flutes and percussion), Paul Davies (lead guitar), Jonathan Edwards (keyboards), Ian Jones (bass and acoustic guitar) and Gavin John Griffiths (drums and percussion).

"Strange Behaviour" brilliantly presents the band's sound and where all the aspects of the band live performance are present here. So, we have the voice of Rachel. Her voice cuts through the mix like a knife coated with honey and she is in fine form throughout. Bringing freshness to the older material, Anne-Marie's counterpointed harmony vocals brings the material alive. In many cases it's akin to having two lead vocalists. The two singers combine together beautifully. Besides that, the flute work of Ann-Marie provides a new vital colour to many of the old material of the band, which is particularly evident on "Heaven Can Wait" and "The Storm". All this reveals the importance of her presence for the band shines through. Davies' guitar work here is magnificent. The live renditions of the material from "Karnataka" and "The Storm" is brightly changed, at times hard rocking, at times deeply melodic and other times revealing epic sweeps of sound. As we could expect of an album made during the tour to support the band's latest studio project, it presents all tracks of "Delicate Flame Of Desire", except one. They are faithful renditions in the main, but fans of the band will be pleased. Finally, the recording of the instruments is from first class and the band performances are also from top flight.

About the two new tracks, "The Dreams Are Over" is a delicate track with a rousing chorus that sure will to become a favourite song amongst their fans. "Talk To Me" is the first song credited to all six band's members and over the nine minutes of the song there are some excellent musical passages. It provides the inclusion of a shawn, a double reeded musical instrument supposedly developed in Baghdad during the middle ages and performed by Anne-Marie Helder.

Conclusion: If you are a fan of Karnataka you'll be delighted with "Strange Behaviour". It has almost everything that a live album should have. But, if you aren't yet a fan of the band then "Strange Behaviour" is an excellent place to start. It's worthy of the inclusion amongst some of the classic's live albums of the past thirty years. If it hadn't been for the annoying and totally unnecessary inclusion of two bonus tracks tagged onto to the end of the last track "Out Of Reach" (that I didn't realize at the first auditions and that they should have been individually sequenced and informed as part of the live album proper, the silence before these tracks is very enervating and unnecessary), it would have been near perfect. Thus, "Strange Behaviour" is a live album well representative of their entire career, at the time. It became the best and most representative album of their debut line up. So, it became the most representative testimony of that era.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

Compare to DECAMERON, AMAZING BLONDEL (listen to the closing number), MAGNA CARTA, and SIMON and GARFUNKEL but yet with their own identity already well established at this early stage. Like many of their contemporaries, the recent decade or two has been kind to them and their fans.

The symphonic effect is apparent in most of the tracks here, from the buoyant opening 2 numbers reminding me of mid 1970s AMAZING BLONDEL and FUCHSIA respectively. Two peaks are achieved, the first being the chart ready "Now Mona Lisa" with brilliant backing vocals by Sel, the engrossing "God Voice", and RAMASES' best song "Mind Island", a ballad so breathtaking that it alone is worth the price of discovery. That theme was explored earlier by the original RENAISSANCE and KING CRIMSON, and later in the decade by the classic RENAISSANCE lineup in the sun-kissed "Kalynda". The second summit is in the trio "Stepping Stone", "Saler Man" and "Children of the Green Earth", which glance back a bit more at the debut but with considerably more intricacy. Only Sel's bland "Only the Loneliest Feeling" and the out of place funky title track flop here.

I'm a bit surprised that I don't find a lot of references to TOM RAPP and PEARLS BEFORE SWINE in other reviews I've seen, as the new Ramases is a ringer for Rapp both in terms of his voice and the string arrangements. I can't imagine that "The Use of Ashes" wasn't a big influence here. It's a homage well worth executing, more so this artfully. Speaking of success, this final release didn't even attain the modest recognition of the debut. Ramases took his own life about a year later, and some time after that a jealous second husband destroyed the unreleased original recordings that Sel had in her possession.

So yes this is better than the debut if the two can be compared at all, and is almost at 3.5 star level, affording an exquisite and less embarrassingly transparent view of pop folk psychedelia of its time.

Backed by the future members of 10CC, who scored a hit earlier as the group HOT LEGS (some just have all the luck don't they?), Ramases and Selket offer an eyes of wonder take on the peace and love folk of their day, or perhaps the day before that, not a million miles away from PETER PAUL AND MARY, DONOVAN, FRESH MAGGOTS, and LINDISFARNE. In fact, the guitar in the brilliant opener "Life Child" is similar in timbre to that deployed on some of ALAN HULL's later solo work. "Oh Mister" is just as impressive, fusing negro spiritual and middle eastern motifs, with distinguished bass and percussion. Sel takes the lead on the round the campfire number for depressives "And the Whole World" and that makes 3 ear turners in a row.

Unfortunately, the somewhat vexing repetitiveness wafts into the listening room around "Quasar One", still charming, especially compared to the awful "You're the Only One" and the closer "Journey to the Inside", where the dubious connection between this fellow and the Pharoahs is severed for good, It was fun while it lasted, and along the way I'll highlight "Earth People" which is one of the few numbers I could call understated. Even "Jesus" exudes a melancholy that reminds us that there was a time when we at least sang like we were sure he was coming back. Not sure what Pharoah thought of all this though. At least throw in a song about a mummified cat or something! But, to repeat myself, like none of us are used to over redundancy in prog? We can't all be ECHOLYN you know.

Another similarity with COMUS, I am rating this a solid 3 stars and am willing to sing the praises of "Space Hymns" to the lower cloud layer if not recklessly to the skies. For you to discover.