Oldish Psych and Prog

Hincks and Lamb, left over from Locomotive after Norman Haines had left, formed this interesting outfit which is very much a progressive rock outfit playing short songs. The album opens mellowly with Goodbye Country, featuring a nice melody, but gets heavier on the somewhat prototypical The Monkey And The Sailor. This track has an unexpected middle 8, though. Lovely Lady sounds like The Honeybus and Sound Of Thunder again lives from an odd juxtaposition between verse and chorus, a recipe which is some kind of trademark on this album. Someone Somewhere should have been sung by Ringo and boasts a horrible guitar solo which should have been played by George. A Snapshop Of Rex sounds like Joe Cocker but suffers from the absence of Joe Cocker, while Mr. Sunshine clearly tries to be Traffic. Tin Soldier is not the Small Faces' song, but is an agreeable tune, albeit with embarrassing lyrics. The concluding Reptile Man has, predictably enough, doctored vocals above a repeated jungle riff and is the only truly black spot on the album, though hard progressive fans will argue otherwise. All in all a nice effort, very rare indeed, but not worth the pricetag of £120 and more. The 45 has an undistinguished non-album 'B' side.

Michael Hincks and Bob Lamb both went on to play with Raymond Froggatt.

(Marcel Koopman).

• JOHN CASWELL vcls, gtr
• MICHAEL HINCKS vcls, bs
• BOB LAMB drms
• KEITH MILLAR vcls, gtr, keyb'ds