Fresh Maggots - Fresh Maggots (Hatched)
Instantly obscure thanks to the visual imagery and terrible band name, at least in this case it wasn’t hiding anything particularly special, a British folk group in the Fairport Convention or even Spirogyra mold, flirting a little here with pop, a little there with cheesy orchestra, but at heart a singer/songwriter group who generally leave the Celtic tinges behind. From a tracking perspective it kind of winds its way over some different maps, which, at least helps to keep one’s attention over the duration, but I heard little here that wasn’t dispensed perfunctorily and with the occasional tacky turn of tone or musical phrase. Undoubtedly quite minor.
King Crimson - In the Wake of Poseidon
Crim’s second album has often been given the very fair criticism that it’s something of a clone of its much more famous and relevant first album, but such an approach definitely makes it a less enjoyable item than it is if one comes to it blank slate from the perspective that it’s a contemporary of a progressive music scene waxing into full bloom. Like its follow up, Lizard, there’s less of the initial Moody Blues influence and an approach more akin to bands like Gnidrolog or Van der Graaf Generator, a production that glosses over some very compressed guitar dones and a sinuous jazz inflected drum attack that drives the music to some very powerful moments. You can kind of draw up the songs in the comparison to the first album, from everything from the two aggressive opening tracks to the two that meander and experiment like an avant garde jazz group noodling on some free time, and of course these comparisons make this look like a sophomore slump. However I guess I felt like I’ve absorbed these similarities and now don’t really draw the comparison chart when I listen, which is partially because over the years I’ve grown quite tired of the first album, which is generally too morose and melancholy for me to enjoy outside Schizoid Man. So even if Court is the better album, Poseidon is the one I enjoy more.
Mighty Baby - “India” (1969 studio outtake)
That might not sound like much, but when the duration of this one track comes in at 44 minutes, you know you’re in the presence of something a lot more special than you had originally considered. Mighty Baby are a rather unheralded psychedelic era rock group that you might compare to some of the more jammy oriented British groups like Skin Alley or Man, a band more akin to what would happen a year or two later. Obviously they’re fed on good bay area psych rock like Quicksilver or the Dead, although their origin finds them starting to work this into progressive rock like frameworks. Some will find this piece pretty meandering, over 44 minutes there are some jamming moments that paint into a corner, but there’s an underlying structure that either shows them up as surprisingly good improvisers, or there was also a method to their improvisation, guiding them into new patterns as they went. Quite impressive, and I wonder if the band will ever release this as part of a 2 CD set one day.