Lead album this week is a new release from Brighton progsters Servants of Science. I am a lucky owner of an actual limited edition CD. Someone (it may have even been the band) told me the CD format is dead but... I just can't believe it. Anyway thank you S of S - I get to enjoy the local artwork in sumptuous cardboard sleeve (the band must have had fun walking down Brighton's London Road in space suits) and everyone who has read my Beck issue knows I love a cardboard cover.
The Return of the Mellotron
First chord into this new album from the Servants of Science and I was transported back to the Court of the Crimson King. It was that mellotron what did it your honour. Blame it on my childhood.
As for the music on The Swan Song I think the Servants are on to something with a form of focused chilled prog rock. The first crashing mellotron chord has King Crimson written all over it of course (of course I say, but not a sound you hear too often - not these days, or even back in the 70s to be fair - I did spend a lot of time and pocket money looking - and not even one I heard the last time I saw a recent form of the quintessential purveyors of the mellotron, King Crimson themselves). Good on you, Servants, for revitalising this vintage sound again.
From ELO to SOS
I remember when I was a teenager in the 70s - I'd cut my musical teeth on ELO (I thought it was cool to have violins in a band, and even a conductor, it claimed, on the inner sleeve blurb) and then heavy rock (and, I admit it, metal too - I maintain there is a distinction but would have difficulty defining it). From Rainbow and Black Sabbath (who I'm still playing evidently) it seemed like a natural progression to continue upon a well worn path towards prog rock - Pink Floyd were my bridge between the more base Led Zeppelin and the symphonic expanses of Yes and Genesis before I graduated with full prog rock honours and an armful of King Crimson albums on loan from my lanky friend Guy who had "girl's hair" and smoked dope.
There weren't that many to be honest (King Crimson albums, and guys like Guy) and I wasn't interested with their ill advised at the time (but brave and revolutionary in hindsight) venture into pop and dance with the Discipline trilogy in the early 80s (a shift many such bands made apparently involuntarily). So having exhausted the short lived Crimson heyday (leader Fripp unexpectedly disbanded the original incarnation in 1974) I searched for similar sounding bands, namely bands that had that mellotron bank of strings sound. I didn't even know what it was at the time but I would recognise it when I heard it.
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| The King Crimson Discipline Trilogy 1981-84. Disappointing at the time but now warrants a revisit. |
In Search of the Lost Chord
I searched in vain for what seemed like a long time (it was probably only months). Along the way I discovered space rock like Hawkwind, and Krautrock like Can - some more obscure prog like Eloy, Nektar and Grobschnitt, and dabbled with contemporary prog like Marillion. The Moody Blues went close but proved a bit too twee and mainstream for me. The closest I found at the time was Barclay James Harvest - it was that mellotron, and they employed it as much as King Crimson although in hindsight they were missing that hard edge.
So you understand that first Servants of Science chord on album opener Another Day. It does something to me! It's an important moment. I've actually just noticed it's not actually the very start of the record (there is some Brian Eno synthesizer flutter just before) but this is the moment, like King Crimson did with Epitaph back in 1969, when Servants of Science really announce their arrival.
Swan Song sounds like Servants of Science have somehow hacked into my brain to ascertain exactly the type of music that stimulates me, and then created an album to reflect that.
Andrew Haynes
The Swan Song is a short album, granted, but short is good (while you try the album why not read Eddy's essay again if you aren't convinced) - it's actually a massive plus point - quality over quantity, continuity over random filler - and Eddy offers a big hooray for any band these days that releases an album of 7 tracks - just 7. He can almost imagine the old side 1 and 2. Who needs 14 tracks of filler?) But it doesn't end there with that one chord...
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Evidence would suggest these men have some Yes albums on their shelves
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...that Crimsonesque chord sets out the S of S stall for sure, but the music that follows (and I hope the band don't mind me saying) continues to trigger bookmarks of other bands I discovered all that time ago... I can hear Camel and Nektar, there are elements of Genesis and Marillion, and the conceptual interludes especially recall Pink Floyd.
Isn't it great how any music goes nowadays - we no longer have these strict fashions where certain music is in vogue. Anything can happen now, and it's fine to repeat stuff, it doesn't all have to be new. If it's good it's good.
Flaming Lips, Pizzas, and Earth
A relatively more modern reference comes in the form of The Flaming Lips. Apart from their live shows I'm not a massive fan of the Lips - mainly on account of Wayne Coyne's voice - much spectacle over little substance. But the voice here is much better, and actually reminds me of Suede for some reason (and there's a man Bret Anderson who knows how to be a front man).
...and it all knits together in a coherent and satisfying whole to tell a story about an astronaut who observes the world going up in flames from space (but not before picking up a pizza on The London Road).
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| Free delivery within 500 mile radius |
The Science of Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen is one artist I can't hear in the Servants of Science album. Which is fine as I've never really liked him and this Essential Album has literally about 39 tracks on it. That's a helluva lot of listening. I had to buy it though as it's my livelihood (or soon will be) to review such things and he's really famous and must have a lot to offer and an amazing back catalogue of music that has up until now passed me by (he's not the only one, and I'm not the only one). It was also only £1.49 in the charity shop your honour again (and it looked mint). I understand he is great live.Speaking of live you can catch the Servants of Science at the Prince Albert in Brighton in April. I'd be intrigued to hear how they recreate their epic album live.
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1. Servants of Science - The Swan Song
2. Bruce Springsteen - The Essential CD 1
3. Coldplay - X&Y
4. Paolo Nutini - Caustic Love
5. The Jayhawks - Smile
6. Black Sabbath - We Sold Our Soul For Rock 'N' Roll CD 1
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