Egg - The Civil Surface (1974)

Year: December 1974 (CD 2003)
Label: Sunrise Records (Europe), 30523032
Style: Canterbury Scene, Progressive Rock, Avant-garde, Instrumental
Country: London, England
Time: 40:24
Format: Flac Tracks 16/44,1 kHz
Size: 227 Mb

The Civil Surface is the third and final studio album by the English progressive rock band Egg, originally released in 1974 on Caroline Records. The band had broken up in 1972, leaving some of their favourite stage pieces unrecorded. At organist Dave Stewart's suggestion, the trio re-united solely to record these final numbers. Among the guest musicians on the album are Steve Hillage (guitar), Lindsay Cooper (oboe, bassoon) and vocalists Amanda Parsons, Ann Rosenthal and Barbara Gaskin.
Listeners have complained that the drums are mixed too loud on the album's organ trio pieces. In an article written for the UK fanzine Ptolemaic Terrascope in 1990 (quoted in Mark Powell's liner notes of the Esoteric Recordings CD re-release), Stewart explains that it was the unbending wish of drummer Clive Brooks that his drums be featured prominently in the mix, and that the other members were unable to persuade him otherwise.
In a 2007 review for website All About Jazz, John Kelman wrote, "The Civil Surface reflects widening interests, with Stewart's greater jazz-centricity and wryly melodic Canterbury flavor most notable on the longer tracks "Germ Patrol," "Enneagram" and "Wring Out the Ground (Loosely Now)" ... The complex writing—episodic tracks filled with complex meters, rich harmonies and tight arrangements, as well as some strong solos—bears an unmistakable link to Hatfield but, with Campbell's rigorous classicism an equal part of the equation, it still sounds like Egg."
(en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Civil_Surface)

01. Germ Patrol (08:30)
02. Wind Quartet 1 (02:20)
03. Enneagram (09:07)
04. Prelude (04:17)
05. Wring Out the Ground Loosely Now (08:11)
06. Nearch (03:11)
07. Wind Quartet 2 (04:46)

UploadyIo     FreedlInk

All my files:     UploadyIo     MexaShare     KatFile

Egg - The Polite Force (1971)

Year: February 1971 (CD 2008)
Label: Esoteric Records (UK), ECLEC 2036
Style: Canterbury Scene, Progressive Rock
Country: London, England
Time: 42:57
Format: Flac Tracks 16/44,1 kHz
Size: 255 Mb

It was inevitable that Egg would be compared with Emerson, Lake & Palmer - a trio of bass/keyboards/drums with the bassist also singing, coming along at the very end of the 1960s, incorporating serious classical influences (and directed quotations) into their extended pieces. On their second album, The Polite Force, they try for a higher wattage sound than Emerson, Lake & Palmer, without as high velocity a brand of song. Dave Stewart's organ playing is as aggressive and melodic as Keith Emerson's, and he accomplishes a lot with less in the way of high-speed histrionics. That doesn't mean they aren't given to some electronic excesses. The album is diverting enough in its successful spots to carry the rest of it, but there are some missteps -- including one track dominated by guest horn players - that were enough to keep this album from being a favorite, even among art-rock fanatics. Reissued in Japan in the late '90s as part of the Decca/Deram psychedelic retrospective series.
(allmusic.com/album/the-polite-force-mw0000261107)

01. A Visit To Newport Hospital (08:28)
02. Contrasong (04:25)
03. Boilk (Incl. Bach: 'Durch Adams Fall Ist Ganz Verderbt') (09:22)
04. Long Piece No. 3: Part One (05:08)
05. Long Piece No. 3: Part Two (07:38)
06. Long Piece No. 3: Part Three (05:03)
07. Long Piece No. 3: Part Four (02:51)

UploadyIo

All my files:     UploadyIo     MexaShare     KatFile

Egg - Egg [3 bonus tracks] (1970)

Year: 13 March 1970 (CD 2008)
Label: Esoteric Records (UK), ECLEC 2035
Style: Canterbury Scene, Progressive Rock
Country: London, England
Time: 50:15
Format: Flac Tracks 16/44,1 kHz
Size: 267 Mb

Egg were an English progressive rock band formed in July 1968. Remembered for their strange, experimental sound, the band produced three studio albums before disbanding in 1974.
The album was re-issued on CD in February 2004 by Eclectic Discs. Remastered from the original tapes, the re-issue has three bonus tracks, including both sides of the band's first and only single ("Seven Is a Jolly Good Time/You Are All Princes") and "Movement 3" from "Symphony No. 2", which was omitted from the original LP days after release due to copyright difficulties, because its tune bears a similarity to part of Igor Stravinsky's ballet The Rite of Spring. There are also similarities to the final Neptune movement of Gustav Holst's orchestral suite The Planets.
(en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egg_(album))

01. Bulb (00:09)
02. While Growing My Hair (04:02)
03. I Will Be Absorbed (05:11)
04. Fugue In D Minor (02:49)
05. They Laughed When I Sat Down At The Piano... (01:21)
06. The Song Of McGillicudie The Pusillanimous (or Don't Worry James, Your Socks Are Hanging In The Coal Cellar With Thomas) (05:09)
07. Boilk (01:02)
08. Symphony No. 2 - First Movement (05:46)
09. Symphony No. 2 - Second Movement (06:17)
10. Symphony No. 2 - Blane (05:27)
11. Symphony No. 2 - Third Movement (03:10)
12. Symphony No. 2 - Fourth Movement (bonus track) (03:13)
13. Seven Is A Jolly Good Time (bonus track) (02:47)
14. You Are All Princes (bonus track) (03:45)

UploadyIo     MexaShare     FreedlInk

All my files:     UploadyIo     MexaShare

Man - Do You Like It Here Now, Are You Settling In (1971)

Year: November 1971 (CD 2007)
Label: Esoteric Records (Europe), ECLEC 2013
Style: Rock, Progressive Rock
Country: Merthyr Tydfil, Wales
Time: 73:30
Format: Flac Tracks 16/44,1 kHz
Size: 425 Mb

The album was recorded in August at Rockfield Studios in Monmouthshire, Wales. Sessions took place soon after the band's 'All Good Clean Fun' tour of Switzerland, although a brief break in their German tour schedule during the late spring had resulted in two tracks being written at a studio in Swansea. The album title is apparently a Swansea saying, usually directed at pub landlords of exceptionally long standing.
(en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do_You_Like_It_Here_Now,_Are_You_Settling_In%3F)
Long a fan favorite, Man's fourth studio album was recorded in 1971 during a harried one-week studio session that found the group having to write nearly the entire album, barring the tight and rocking "Angel Easy" and the group's multi-part masterwork "Many Are Called but Few Get Up." Frankly, the album sounds like a record that was largely jammed in the studio; the eight-minute-plus jams that close each side, "We're Only Children" and "Love Your Life," are particularly tiresome, good instrumental and lyrical ideas stretched well past their breaking points. However, besides the superior "Angel Easy" and "Many Are Called but Few Get Up," the album does include the rather wonderful "All Good Clean Fun," a showcase for pianist Clive John and lead guitarist Deke Leonard that has a delightful prog pop playfulness akin to some of Genesis' more lighthearted early moments or the daffiness of the later band Hatfield & the North. The album may be only half good, but that half is among Man's very best work.
(allmusic.com/album/do-you-like-it-here-are-you-settling-in-mw0000752809)

01. Angel Easy (05:02)
02. All Good Clean Fun (04:34)
03. We're Only Children (08:31)
04. Many Are Called, But Few Get Up (07:29)
05. Manillo (05:17)
06. Love Your Life (09:05)
07. Bonus Track - Many Are Called, But Few Get Up (Live at Gugenhalle, Essen, Germany) (09:31)
08. Bonus Track - Angel Easy (Live at Gugenhalle, Essen, Germany) (05:26)
09. Bonus Track - Romain (Live at Gugenhalle, Essen, Germany) (18:32)

UploadyIo     MexaShare     FreedlInk

All my files:     UploadyIo     MexaShare