Thought Horizon  (1995,  24.45)  ****/TTT½ Dark Horse Lake Effect Urban Sprawl VLQ

	Wood of Thought  (2002, recorded 1995,  57.56)  ***/TTT½
	Daybreak La Danse des Cons Darkhorse Gene's Dilemma Urban Sprawl Brain Farce March of the Elves A Walk in the Sunlight	Mello VLQ

	The Thought Horizon Sessions  (2004, recorded 1995,  65.36)  ***½/TT½
	La Danse des Cons Alias A Girl Like You Lake Effect Rhino Country Urban Sprawl Darkhorse VLQ	Bandit Big Whomper Diesel Truck Shadows Maybe

Current availability:

• Sprawling Productions (US)

Brain Forest were formed in 1993 by guitarist Phillip LeFrois and ex-St Elmo's Fire bassist Paul Kollar. After the usual lineup hassles, they held a four-piece together for long enough to record some material, releasing a four-song (as against 4-track) cassette, Thought Horizon, in spring 1995. It features solid, American-style prog, not a million miles away from St Elmo's Fire, but things conspired against the band, and the limited form of success accorded to the likes of Echolyn or Spock's Beard was denied them.

Back to Thought Horizon. Although the original tape is still available from Brain Forest/St Elmo's Fire's label, Sprawling Productions, it remains unfairly obscure, partly, it has to be said, due to Sprawling's failure to promote the thing in any meaningful way. It might not equal The Light for sheer invention, but there's absolutely nothing here to which fans of American symphonic prog would or could object, particularly closer VLQ, a high-energy blast of guitar and Mellotron duelling, underpinned by Kollar's bass and Taurus. Speaking of the Mellotron (as always), it's on every track, used with taste, if not restraint. Kollar and LeFrois both play it, as the band lost their keyboard player before they began recording; strings across the board, and a gorgeous flute part at the end of Dark Horse. For those of you without cassette decks, all four tracks are available on 2004's The Thought Horizon Sessions, which brings its own problems...

Said problems involve Sprawling's website containing conflicting information about Brain Forest's other two releases. The band's main page states that, despite putting in a good bit of work on the tapes in 2001, nothing was ever made commercially available, although the 'order information' page quite clearly lists, as well as the Thought Horizon tape, two CD-R releases, Wood of Thought and The Thought Horizon Sessions. What's a poor prog fan to believe? Since possession is commonly (though almost certainly wrongly) assumed to be 9/10ths of the law, the fact that I own these CDs makes me think that they are available, and the band page is out of date.

Wood of Thought, which apparently leaked out in 2002, is actually a bit of a rag-bag of material, to be honest. It opens with a pair of instrumentals that seem to go nowhere fast, and a couple of tracks (notably Gene's Dilemma) bear all the hallmarks of studio jams, dragging on far longer than their content really allows. There is some decent material here, although two of the best tracks are different versions of Darkhorse/Dark Horse and VLQ from Thought Horizon. Mellotron almost across the board again, mainly strings, plus flutes on possibly the album's best track, the folkish, harmonium-driven A Walk In The Sunlight. The 'oh what a giveaway'-titled Mello features, apart from a few cymbal swishes, nowt but flutes and strings in a pleasing configuration, with a few bursts of choir, finally, in another version of VLQ, making this rather more worth it for the Mellotron than the material.

Two years on, the Thought Horizon Sessions CD-R appeared, in a rather non-appearing kind of way. Unsurprisingly, it's an extended version of Thought Horizon, adding another eight tracks and 40 minutes to the original EP. It must be noted that there's a fair bit of overlap between these various releases, with four tracks appearing in two different versions, ignoring the repetition of the entire EP on this CD-R, which is actually quite welcome, probably adding up to the fact that the band only had a handful of really good pieces. To place this in context, that's a handful more than many 'progressive' bands who have released a whole slew of horrible, derivative, pseudo-commercial albums for two decades or more. Pendragon. Moving swiftly on... This album opens with a Mellotron-free (shame!) version of Wood of Thought's second track, La Danse Des Cons, working really well as an opener. The out-of-tune harmonies on Alias betray the album's origins as a set of demos, and the bulk of the rest of the 'new' material shows why the band chose not to release it first time round, to be honest. For a 'progressive' band, far too much of it falls back on a clichéd hard rock feel, to the point where LeFrois uses an Eddie Van Halen trick on Maybe (from Panama, for what it's worth). Also... Would'ja believe there are NO more 'Tron tracks than on the original tape? A couple of the unheard tracks aren't bad (La Danse Des Cons, Rhino Country), but the only real reason to get this album is to have the original EP tracks on CD, and they're the only reason it gets as high a rating as it does.

So; for $20 (26 outside the States) you can purchase Brain Forest's complete works, carefully sidestepping the 1995 cassette release, made redundant by the second CD-R, not that Sprawling's website actually tells you this. Do you want to? Well, you can compile a pretty good album from the two, taking four or five tracks from each, but neither of them really stands up on its own. In other words, you'll get one good album for $20 and the minimal cost of a blank.

Brain Forest page on the Sprawling site

Brewers Droop  (UK)

		The Booze Brothers  (1989, recorded 1973,  36.47)  **/T
		Where Are You Tonight Roller Coaster You Make Me Feel So Good My Old Lady Sugar Baby Rock Steady Woman Louise What's the Time	Midnight Special Dreaming

Current availability:

• Mil

Brewers Droop were a good-time early '70s Cajun pub-rock band (!) from High Wycombe, near London, with no notable members, although several of them have a good name on the blues scene, apparently. So why the large picture of Mark Knopfler on the sleeve in his mid-'80s pomp (and terrible blouse)? Seems he played guitar on three tracks, before he developed his signature style. The legendary Dave Edmunds produced a few tracks, too (thus his smaller pic), while future Dire Straits (and ex-Spring) drummer Pick Withers also contributed. It seems the band released one album, 1972's Opening Time, then recorded what eventually became The Booze Brothers, with Knopfler, Edmunds and Withers; fast forward 16 years, an unscrupulous record company sticks that big pic of Knopfler on the front, and hey presto, er, a dullsville pub-rock album with no distinguishing features.

Harmonica whizz Steve Darrington doubled on keyboards, mostly piano(s) and blues Hammond, but on Roller Coaster he sat down at the doubtless studio 'Tron, and put down some flutes and strings, although I can't really say they add that much to the album. Unless you're a real nut on this kind of stuff, I have to say: avoid. They only reason I got through it was by judicious use of the 'skip' button, but then, I prefer my blues a bit leaner and meaner than this, to be honest. Dull, although at least the other sleeve has a modicum of wit about it. Incidentally, I'm sure there's no connection, given his limited involvement, but I wonder if Knopfler was thinking of this lot when he wrote the line "you've got... brewer's droop from drinking beer" on Love Over Gold's Industrial Disease? Probably not.

Bright Eyes  (US)

	Fevers & Mirrors  (2000,  55.11)  ***/T
	A Spindle, a Darkness, a Fever, and a   Necklace A Scale, a Mirror, and These Indifferent   Clocks The Calendar Hung Itself... Something Vague The Movement of a Hand Arienette	When the Curious Girl Realises She is Under Glass Haligh, Haligh, a Lie, Haligh Center of the World Sunrise, Sunset An Attempt to Tip the Scales A Song to Pass the Time

Oh Holy Fools [split with Son, Ambulance]  (2001,  40.31)  ***/T½ Brown Park (Son, Ambulance) Going for the Gold (Bright Eyes) Invention of Beauty (Son, Ambulance) Oh, You Are the Roots That Sleep Beneath My Feet and Hold the Earth in Place (Bright Eyes) On the Concourse (Son, Ambulance) No Lies, Just Love (Bright Eyes) Katie Come True (Son, Ambulance) Kathy With a K's Song (Bright Eyes)

One Jug of Wine, Two Vessels [Bright Eyes & Neva Dinova]  (2004,  21.51)  ***/T Tripped Black Comedy Poison I'll Be Your Friend Get Back Spring Cleaning

Current availability:

• All titles: Saddle Creek

I'll be quite honest here; I really can't make Bright Eyes out at all. Are they named for that hideous Art Garfunkel song? Why are their song titles so much more interesting than their music? Are they really that miserable all the time? 'Net reviewers seem to be equally split between unstinting praise and utter opprobrium; brilliant or shite? Don't ask me, I don't get it. Mainman Conor Oberst seems to inspire fanatical devotion as much as he inspires utter loathing; maybe we've finally found the real 'love 'em or hate 'em' band?

Fevers & Mirrors seems to be pretty typical fare for the band; understated, ultra-melancholy low-finess, with Oberst's super-personal lyrics taking precedence, or so it seems, over the music much of the time. Personal; yeah, that's it - that's the appeal. The band's fans feel that Oberst is speaking to them directly, for better or worse; he's voicing their own hopes and fears, often almost choking up with emotion as he does so. I find it completely impossible to pick better or worse tracks; although it's really only singer-songwriter fare, this music is so far from my own understanding of what it's about that I really can't judge it at all. Anyway, plenty of 'Tron flutes from Andy LeMaster on The Movement Of A Hand, with an unexpected background choir part on Arienette.

The following year, Bright Eyes released an EP split with Saddle Creek labelmates Son, Ambulance, Oh Holy Fools, the bands taking the rather unusual step of playing alternate tracks. Son, Ambulance have a far less irritating singer in Joe Knapp, who doesn't whine and therefore can't be Emo, although his bright(-ish) folk rock still isn't particularly to my taste, and by the third or fourth track begins to set my teeth on edge. Flutes (again) on Going For The Gold, and a shrieky sort of string part on Kathy With A K's Song are the only 'Tron definites, possibly from LeMaster again, although two or three other tracks by both bands have a vague Mellotronic feel to them.

2004's One Jug of Wine, Two Vessels EP was a collaboration with Neva Dinova (a band, not a person); it seems 2004 was the year of Bright Eyes collaborations. Despite their input, the music's pretty much the same old same old, with Oberst's irritating voice holding sway. Nice 'Tron flutes yet again on Tripped, running most of the way through the song, played by [unknown].

In 2005, Bright Eyes released two contrasting albums, the rather dreary country/folk-rock of I'm Wide Awake, it's Morning (**½:) having little to do musically with the semi-electronica of Digital Ash in a Digital Urn (also **½:). I've seen various reports that the latter has some 'Tron on it, but the choirs on various tracks sound more like either generic samples or actually backing vocal 'aahs' to my ears, so I'd say no, no 'Tron here.

So; er, I can't really recommend anything by Bright Eyes, because I absolutely don't get what they're doing, although it seems they're pretty cool politically, refusing to deal with Clear Channel and touring with Springsteen. They may quite possibly be brilliant; I don't know. What I can tell you is that they've used a Mellotron on a handful of tracks over three releases, but none of them are worth buying on that account. Oh, and what I can also tell you (thanks for this, Emily) is that the band name is almost certainly a quote from Poe's 'Annabel Lee', referenced in Bright Eyes' Jetsabel Removes The Undesirables, available on some editions of Fevers & Mirrors, though clearly not the one I reviewed.

Fan site

Brighteye Brison  (Sweden)

Brighteye Brison  (2003,  57.47)  ***/T Introduction One Year Alone   I) Aspects From Newborn Eyes   II) Correct Information   III) Music of the City   IV) My Spirit Will Speak Take Good Care of My Heart In Disguise A Car Final Call

	Stories  (2006,  52.05)  ***½/TTT½
	Stories Patterns Isolation The Battle of Brighteye Brison Elenah Late Life Inside All Love	We Wanna Return Stories (Reprise)

Believers & Deceivers  (2008,  68.01)  ****/TTT½ Pointless Living After the Storm The Harvest The Grand Event

Current availability:

• Brighteye Brison: out of print
• Stories/Believers: Progress (Sweden)

Mellotron used:

• All titles: Roth-Händle M400

Brighteye Brison are a newish Swedish prog outfit, taking their influences from several areas, including the 'modern prog' of Spock's Beard et al., '80s neo-prog and the 'intelligent pop' of the Beatles/Beach Boys, with hints of Saga and various widdly guitar merchants in places, too. Less Änglagård than A.C.T, anyway. While it has its strong points, Brighteye Brison has several failings, too, not least the vocals, which are not only not very good, but frequently out of tune, particularly in the harmony sections. The quality of the material varies wildly, with many impressive moments subverted by mediocrity; defeat all too often snatched from the jaws of victory.

Änglagård's Mattias Olsson was involved on the recording side, although I believe Brighteye's keyboard player Linus Kåse actually played the brief Mellotron parts on the album. All I can hear are a brief string part in Music Of The City, part three of the lengthy One Year Alone, ending in a pitchbend so drastic that it sounds like someone's leaning on the flywheel (is that you, Mattias?), and another brief burst of strings in A Car. The faint, background choirs on part four, My Spirit Will Speak, are more likely to be Orchestron, which I understand Mattias also provided for the band's use; to my knowledge, they took the largely-completed album to his Roth-Händle studio for 'treatments'.

2006's Stories is a lot better than their debut, which isn't to say it's that good, just better, with tracks of the quality of Patterns or All Love being slightly scuppered by a top-notch IQ impersonation on We Wanna Return and an irritating tendency to border AOR and/or generic neo-prog territory too closely in places. The album isn't overlong as such, but slicing a few minutes of unnecessarily-copycat material might have both tightened the album up and improved it. Kåse's 'Tron use is considerably greater than on their debut, with all but the album's two shortest tracks featuring it somewhere. You can hear the strings clearly at the end of Patterns, and there's a nicely upfront flute part opening Isolation, while Life Inside doubles 'Tron church organ with choirs, to pleasing effect. I presume that's 'Tron cellos on All Love, with all other highlighted tracks tending to feature strings and choir.

Believers & Deceivers is another slight improvement, but I wonder if the band have peaked, or whether they're happy with their uncommercial 'commercial' symphonic direction. In fairness, this may have been what they've been aiming for these last few years, and it isn't actually bad at all, just a little... safe, despite two very lengthy tracks. Two short(-ish) ones open the album, sounding like the better end of Stories (and is the Pink Floyd lyrical reference in After The Storm deliberate?), before they get stuck into the long-form stuff. The 20-minute The Harvest isn't bad, but is rather outclassed by the near-35 (!)-minute The Grand Event, which is probably the album's four star catalyst. The vocal gymnastics near the beginning pinpoint the Spock's Beard influence perfectly; even the title's reminiscent of some of their epic efforts, and musical nods towards Gentle Giant are just as likely to be via The Beard's own appropriations. Reasonable amounts of 'Tron, although After The Storm is completely clear of it, and The Grand Event goes for anything up to ten minutes at a time with no 'Tron input, although there's a lovely Theremin part at one point. By and large, we're talking strings and choir again, although brief bursts of flutes and church organ appear on occasion, this time from Per Hallman.

As far as Brighteye Brison itself goes, it certainly has its moments, but it's just too 'bitty' overall to really engage the listener, or at least me. Practically no obvious Mellotron, either, though knowing Mattias, there could well be some 'Tron wineglasses or Hammond hidden away somewhere. Their two subsequent efforts map a steady improvement, although whether or not the band will ever reach 'classic' status still remains to be seen.

Official site

Jon Brion  (US)

	Meaningless  (2000,  44.37)  ****/TT½
	Gotta Start Somewhere I Believe She's Lying Meaningless Ruin My Day Walking Through Walls Trouble Hook, Line and Sinker Dead to the World	Her Ghost Same Mistakes Voices

Current availability:

• From his website

Mellotron used:

• Own Chamberlin (M1?)

Known primarily as a sideman to the stars, Brion apparently has a long-running residency at the Largo, in L.A., where no two performances are ever the same, usually including his instrumental setup. Meaningless appears to be his first, long-overdue solo album, revealing him to be a deft writer of intelligent pop songs - rather like many of his clients, then. All the usual influences apply - you know, Beatles, Beach Boys, Big Star, all the B's; it's hard to pick out highlights, but Her Ghost and the lengthy Voices are particularly impressive. Brion has a decent enough voice, although it's his playing that really stands out, with the bulk of the instrumental work emanating from his fingers, with the remainder coming from various Famous Friends.

Brion is, of course, a Chamberlin master, going as far as to include diagrams of its internal workings in the CD booklet, making it surprising that it's not immediately apparent on more tracks, unless, of course, I'm missing it in the mix. Again. Ruin My Day has some orchestral strings, which almost sound like the real thing in places, while Dead To The World features a muddy flute part before the cellos and violins return, with a superbly cheesy end section, not to mention (apparently) the Mellotron tremolo guitars... Her Ghost has polyphonic flutes, oboes (?) and sax, oh, and strings - everything, really. Maybe he thought that smothering the album in it would be retro overkill. Well, it wouldn't - the tape-replay adds warmth and depth to the sound, which isn't to denigrate the rest of the tracks, but it might've been nice to have heard it a few more times...

So; an excellent little album, assuming you like the style, and lovely Chamby work on a handful of tracks. Buy, I think.

Official site

Bröselmaschine  (Germany)

Bröselmaschine  (1971,  35.46)  ***½/½ Gedanken Lassic Gitarrenstück The Old Man's Song Schmetterling Nossa Bova

Current availability:

• Spalax (France)

The sole Bröselmaschine album is a bit of an oddity; for the first few tracks, I was convinced that a mispressing had delivered an English folk record to me by mistake. The style was correct, the English-language vocals were unaccented; Schmetterling even borrows from the same source as Jimmy Page's White Summer. In fact, the only obviously Germanic influence anywhere on Bröselmaschine is the muttered German narration on the track, in amongst the sitars and open-tuned acoustics.

There's hardly any Mellotron on the album at all; a few string chords from Mike Nettbach in Schmetterling, and that's it, as the flute parts are real. This is obviously a stoner's delight, like quite a few German albums of the era (Wind's Morning and Witthüser & Westrupp's Der Jesuspilz/Musik Vom Evangelium spring to mind), and is actually a very good record, but don't bother for the 'Tron.

Arthur Brown  (UK)

Chisholm in My Bosom  (1977)  ***/TT Need To Know Monkey Walk Let a Little Sunshine (Into Your Life) I Put a Spell on You She's on My Mind The Lord is My Saviour Chisholm in My Bosom

Current availability:

• Edited version on 2-on-1 with Dance: See for Miles (UK)

After the dissolution of Arthur's Kingdom Come (see below), he slid into a sadly rather lacklustre solo career, with two albums on the long-defunct Gull label, '75's Dance (**½) and '77's Chisholm in My Bosom. Both albums hark back in some ways to Arthur's '60s apprenticeship, with blues, soul and funk influences abounding; a far cry from the fascinating experimentation of his previous band. This is the sort of mediocre mid-'70s 'rock' that kick-started a revolution; so bland that it almost doesn't exist, you can't imagine anyone getting especially excited about this music, although I suppose there's no accounting for taste. In fairness, it isn't all bad, with a slow-burning blues take on Screaming Jay Hawkins' I Put A Spell On You, and the side-long title track, but far too much of the album is thoroughly average fare. To add insult to injury, See for Miles' 2-on-1 reissue, pairing the album with Dance, slashes the 23-minute Chisholm In My Bosom to a mere eight minutes in order to fit both albums onto one disc. Useless.

Given that the CD version of the album is the only one I've heard, it's actually quite difficult to review it from a Mellotronic perspective, and I'll have to return to it when I track down a vinyl copy, hopefully for not too much money. The title track is the only one where someone (then-Strawb Robert Kirby?) plays Mellotron, with background choirs and a flute part appearing almost immediately, with the strings cropping up later on. Actually, it's entirely possible that more than one of the album's four credited keyboard players provide the 'Tron work on this track, but despite the fact that I've met Arthur more than once, I suspect it would be fairly pointless to ask him if he remembers.

So; a rather ropey album saved by what sounds like it's a really good side-long piece; if only I were able to hear it in full. These abbreviated 2-on-1s are a particular pet hate of mine; OK, so you get to hear most of two albums for the price of one CD, but what's the use in that? What if the missing track(s) is/are the album's best (as in this case), but get edited/deleted because some jobsworth compiler decides that they're inessential? Every now and again, an artist's history is correctly preserved on two-disc sets (see: Druid), but mangled versions of albums like this do no-one any favours, least of all the artist concerned. Anyway, I shall return to this when I get a chance to hear the full version; in the meantime, I'll give it a temporary TT rating until I'm able to assess it properly. Grrr.

Official site

Arthur Brown's Kingdom Come  (UK)

	Kingdom Come  (1973,  44.40/62.02)  ****½/T½
	The Teacher A Scientific Experiment Featuring "Lower Colonic Irrigation" The Whirlpool The Hymn Water Love is (the Spirit That Will Never Die) City Melody Traffic Light Song	[CD adds: Traffic Light Song The Hymn Experiment]

	Journey  (1973,  42.14/62.33)  ****½/TTTTT
	Time Captives Triangles Gypsy Superficial Roadblocks   Lost Time   Superficial Roadblocks   Corpora Supercelestia Conception Spirit of Joy	Come Alive [CD adds: Time Captives Conception Come Alive]

Current availability:

• Both titles: Voiceprint (UK)

Mellotron used:

• Both titles: band's own M400

Arthur Brown is one of those incredibly talented artists who had a brief burst of fame many years ago, and has effectively had to live off it ever since. Arthur's is, of course, Fire, recorded with his Crazy World in 1968; you'll probably have seen the insane b+w promo video for it with Arthur's flaming headpiece. There was much more to Arthur Brown than Fire, though. In the early '70s he put together Kingdom Come, to play a weird, twisted form of progressive rock quite unlike anyone else. Their first album, Galactic Zoo Dossier (****) is good, but they improved upon it with Kingdom Come.

This is definitely one of the oddest prog albums you'll ever hear, with Arthur expounding on school, religion, his bodily functions etc., mostly at some length. The music takes no prisoners, either, with some wonderfully dissonant organ passages in the brilliantly-titled A Scientific Experiment Featuring 'Lower Colonic Irrigation', among other highlights. The Mellotron isn't mentioned specifically, but is presumably played by Goodge Harris, with strings slapped all over The Hymn, an otherwise (relatively) straightforward number, and a few chords in Water, but not really enough to consider it a 'Mellotron album'.

Journey, however, is another matter. Arthur only retained the services of his guitarist and bassist, bringing in American keyboard man Victor Peraino, and electing to use the Bentley drum machine, actually a Bentley Rhythm Ace, later to give its name to a British dance-orientated act. The music is (slightly) less odd than on Kingdom Come, but makes up for it with its weird, mechanical feel, and the large amount of Peraino's Mellotron present. There's nothing on the first two tracks, but Gypsy is smothered in strings and flutes, before Superficial Roadblocks roars in with brass and choir providing the main chordal backdrop. This track has to be one of the most Mellotron-heavy ever, with an unaccompanied choir section on Corpora Supercelestia. Spirit Of Joy features that rarest of M400 sounds, the Mellotron Hammond (along with some strings), only distinguishable when Peraino attempts some organ 'chops'.

Peraino went on to front his own version of Kingdom Come, producing another Mellotron Monster in No Man's Land, but try as he might, he couldn't quite reach the heights of lunacy reached by either of these albums. The last I heard, these were both still available on bizarrely-packaged Voiceprint CDs, with loads of unlisted bonus tracks, and Arthur's story in the booklets, but told in the wrong order... Still, it's just good to actually be able to find them at all, and hopefully introduce another generation of listeners to the hidden delights of these strange albums. Barking mad, brilliant and wholeheartedly recommended musically. Oh, and Journey's a Mellotron classic. Buy.

Official Arthur Brown site

Pete Brown & Piblokto!  (UK)

	Things May Come & Things May Go, But the Art School Dance Goes on Forever  (1970,  43.30/69.34)  ***/T
	Things May Come & Things May Go, But   the Art School Dance Goes on Forever High Flying Electric Bird Someone Like You Walk for Charity, Run for Money Then I Must Go and Can I Keep My Love's Gone Far Away Golden Country Kingdom	Firesong Country Morning [CD adds: Prophet Country Morning (alternate) Living Life Backwards High Sorrow Raining Pins and Needles]

	Thousands on a Raft  (1970,  52.10/88.20)  ***½/T
	Aeroplane Head Woman Station Song Platform Two Highland Song If They Could Only See Me Now parts I & II Got a Letter From a Computer Thousands on a Raft [CD adds: Broken Magic	Can't Get Off the Planet Flying Hero Sandwich My Last Band Dawn of a Night Wasp Aeroplane Head Woman]

Current availability:

• 2-on-2: BGO (UK)

Pete Brown is known chiefly as sometime lyricist for Cream, putting words into Jack Bruce's mouth on I Feel Free, White Room etc. After their split, he got his own outfit together, Pete Brown's Battered Ornaments, recording one album with them, A Meal You Can Shake Hands With in the Dark, before the rest of the band sacked him just before they played Hyde Park with the Stones (and, of course, King Crimson). Wasting no time, he formed Piblokto! releasing (deep breath) Things May Come & Things May Go, But the Art School Dance Goes on Forever within the year. Despite being optimistically described as 'one of the finest of the progressive era', it's a fairly typical slice of organ-driven proto-prog, with Pete's mad vocals as a bonus. While not bad, it'd be stretching it a little (OK, a lot) to call it a 'classic'; it certainly doesn't stand out from the pack, going by the contemporaries of the band that I've heard. One Mellotron track (from organist Dave Thompson?), with some orchestrally-inclined strings on High Flying Electric Bird (also the b-side of their first single, Living Life Backwards).

Later the same year, their second and final album, Thousands on a Raft, appeared, breaking Brown's run of ridiculously lengthily-titled albums. In case you're wondering, aside from the Titanic and Concorde, the sleeve depicts several slices of beans on toast floating in a pond (not sure how they managed that), the album title apparently being cockney (non-rhyming) slang for the aforementioned culinary delicacy. Several band members had changed in the months between the two records, the fresh blood making their presence felt immediately, as opener Aeroplane Head Woman's Cream-like tones assault your speakers. After a piano ballad, Station Song Platform Two, the album goes completely bonkers, with the 17-minute semi-improvised Highland Song, followed on side two by If They Could Only See Me Now Parts I & II, which is almost as long. Mellotron (definitely Dave Thompson this time round) on Station Song Platform Two, with some pleasant background MkII strings.

Do you buy these albums? Well, the over 2½ hour set is worth the dosh if you're into lesser-known UK bands of the era, and some of the music's well worth hearing. The two 'Tron tracks are less than essential, though both quite nice. Up to you. Incidentally, BGO's 2-CD set of these albums confuses the issue greatly by adding a total of 11 bonus tracks, spread over both discs, but as Pete requested, puts them in chronological order. Disc 1 starts with three bonus tracks, including their first single, with more between the two albums (Thousands... is irritatingly split between the discs), finishing with several more at the end, although this makes the expanded album timings somewhat irrelevant. As a result, I've added them after each regular tracklisting above, and none contain any 'Tron anyway. Pete is occasionally to be seen wandering around Crouch End in north London, sometimes muttering to himself, though surely his royalty cheque for the inevitable live album from the recent Cream reformation should boost his bank balance slightly?

---