Monday, April 02, 2007

The 70's were Medieval for Some...

While hunting down an undiscovered (by me) Balearic or even Cosmic gem, I gave Wishbone Ash's 1972 album Argus a thorough listen, it was hidden there at the back of a fantastic and sizable collection of records given to me by my mum (Faust, Brian Eno, Roxy Music, Bowie, Sparks, War, Earth Wind & Fire, Space, Chicago Transit Authority, Bob James, oh and so many many more). I was expecting mainly proto heavy metal but was delighted to find the albums heady mixture of folk, rock, even touches of classical to be rather musical, complex and often beautiful, plus a great source for more 'must edit this but probably never will' items. The album has that unquestionably British fascination with their own rustic pagan history and struck me to have been the sort of thing that might well have influenced The Beta Band, amongst other more obvious rock based bands. It's cover (pictured here) captures perfectly the albums tone and interests. 'Leaf and Stream' turns out to be a lost slice of folk beauty, which kind of, sort of, maybe, verges on being Balearic, though never quiet leaps out of it's shadowy romantic obsession with nature into the blistering sun. Though in perfect tune, the vocals are handled rather weakly, but somehow they work rather well in the Prog scheme of it all. But this ain't Disco I hear u shout....

http://www.zshare.net/audio/wishbone-ash-leaf-and-stream-mp3.html

7 comments:

DannyBlue said...

You guys keep on doing it. New, wonderful and varied music.

chris keys said...

thanks danny, we certainly appreciate the support....

Anonymous said...

Yes. Great music and quite a few very positive suprises. I must've listened to that Argus album 100+ times when it came out, but I have completely forgotton about this little tune. Guess I was more into the rockier twin-lead things. Love it! There's great music everywhere! - R-man

chris keys said...

R-Man, I totally get that the more popular stuff on the album would have to be the Rockier stuff, and ofcourse a u mention the twin power lead guitar thing they had going. I was very struck by the two mellower tracks on the album, of which 'Leaf & Stream' has that beautiful melodic passage in the middle somewhere, it falls into exactly the organic kind of retro sound that deserves re addressing. glad u enjoyed the reminder...

Anonymous said...

ok, now i am seriously curious...downloading as we speak...

Anonymous said...

I would like to meet your mum, she has an excellent taste in music!!!
You see we wern't all dinosaurs in the 70s LOL

chris keys said...

my mom's taste in music defined my interest and my keeness to search out new edgy things, she remains my biggest musical influence...