HW:Recent v Old/Poll

[Doug Pearson]

On Wed, 1 Dec 1999 12:09:24 GMT, M Holmes <fofp at HOLYROOD.ED.AC.UK> wrote:
>ASAM is a strange one.

It definitely is.  I'm sure that part of the reason it's "underrated" is
that it falls between two of the band's best albums (WotEoT / QS&C - both
in my top 5 HW albums).

>I get times when I love everything on it and
>other times when I can't stand hearing anything except Reefer Madness.

"Reefer Madness" definitely rules, but I also love "Steppenwolf" for having
some of Calvert's most theatrical moments, and "Kadu Flyer" for its superb
melodicism (just like all of Simon House's compositions), nice sitar drones
and soprano sax.  One of the most disappointing things (for me) about Nik's
1995 US tour (captured on 'Past or Future') was that Len Del Rio played
keyboards on that song instead of Simon (who was there, dammit!).  Len's a
great synth player, but when it comes to keyboards, he's no Simon House
(but Steve Swindells and Fred Reeves are the only HW keyboard players who
even come remotely close to his talent IMO, and neither was in the band for
very long).

But yeah, I can go either way on "Kerb Crawler" and the instrumentals
(although the transition from "Kadu Flyer" to "Chronoglide Skyway" is
brilliant),

        -Doug
         ceres at sirius.com