Andromeda
Andromeda

The blessed year 1969 was passing by… the seasons of Love-Peace-San Francisco seemed centuries away. The Beatles had reached the end of the line, along with the decade that had consecrated them as the most important social and musical phenomenon; the dreams of a better world were being swept away by police water cannons and batons in squares all over the world, becoming nightmares of a hard and bleak future. The attention of the new youth had already shifted to rougher, rawer and more uncompromising sounds, and bands like Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin were already revolutionizing the music world with their hard rock, which would indelibly mark the decade to come. But we are still in 1969… and while across the ocean attention was being drawn to the new sounds produced by bands like MC5 and The Stooges, through which Detroit earned the nickname of Rock City, England responded with equal vigor, and alongside the future sacred monsters already mentioned, new realities flourished that often had the fortune to live only a couple of seasons (or works) before disappearing into the oblivion of the folds of history.

John DuCann is one of these protagonists.

Ended in 1968 the psychedelic/mod adventure of the Attack, together with vocalist Richard Sherman, he brought to life the Andromeda project, recruiting bassist Roger Dean and drummer Keith Hodge. But after just a few weeks DuCann was abandoned by his companions and thus decided to continue the project as a trio, with Mick Hawkworth on bass and second vocals and Ian McLaine on percussion. They were invited to John Peel's "Top Gear" program, and their performance allowed them to sign a contract with major RCA Records, for which they released the single "Go Your Way/Keep Out 'Cos I'm Dying" (RCA 1865) immediately followed by the album "Andromeda" (RCA SF 8031) which contained in its original version 8 original tracks, three of which were divided into 3 parts (a feature of the nascent progressive scene, to which they are often related) and lasted over 6 minutes (something not yet common in the young history of rock). Despite excellent reviews, commercial success did not come, and so in 1970 the band broke up when DuCann accepted to join Atomic Rooster.

A minute and a half of pure style exercise and fury introduces us into the depths of "Andromeda", only to develop into one of the most electrifying hard blues pieces ever heard… "Too Old" is the urgency to express the anger of a generation feeling the ground crumble beneath their feet. In this piece DuCann and company take their putative fathers Cream and Jimi Hendrix Experience and sculpt them in granite, melding their teachings with lead and steel. "Days Of The Change" shows us the band in its progressive side. A swing of emotions that perfectly underlines the new way of conceiving rock in a more "classical" manner compared to everything else coming out at the time (the masterpiece of English progressive "In The Court Of Crimson King" is contemporary to "Andromeda"), yet remaining hard and raw sounding. The album's third piece is a real surprise, a slide guitar that roams Hawaiian beach parties at dusk, dueting with DuCann's crooner voice, soft and clean in "And Now The Sun Shines" only to return rough and abrasive for the first three-act episode "Turns To Dust" (1 "Discovery", 2 "Sanctuary" and 3 "Determination"), still a prog exercise but with a dazzling glam attitude, enough to pale all the superstars of the genre in the seventies (Queen…). The band's musicians' technique supports them indescribably, as exemplified by the next chapter, also in 3 acts "Return To Sanity" (1 "Breakdown", 2 "Hope" and 3 "Conclusion") which opens with a funeral march that must have had more than some effect on the Iommi/Osbourne duo who would publish a couple of them in the Black Sabbath debut months later. Heartbreaking is the melody developed in the piece's progress, so much so that I'd like to ask Page or Plant if it influenced their "Stairway To Heaven" even though the power ending is more Southern rock than English hard blues. "The Reason" is the only track signed by Hawksworth and certainly does not fall short compared to the works of the leader, even if perhaps it is more influenced by Hendrix (which must be said hovers a little over the entire work). "I Can Stop The Sun" is 2 minutes and ten seconds of flower ecumenism in pure San Francisco style in the acid season that takes us to the final episode "When To Stop" also divided into 3 acts (1 "The Traveller", 2 "Turning Point" and 3 "Journey’s End"). These 8 and a half minutes demonstrate that Andromeda were a project (more than a true band) completely outside of everything surrounding them… hard rock built on jazz structures that develop into a furious power ride and end with a "flamenco" guitar for an almost classical finale. Incredible.

The excellent reissue by German Repertoire Records in 1994 contains as many as eight bonus tracks, including the A-side and B-side of the aforementioned debut single (beautiful title track), an alternative version of "Journey's End" and as many as five unreleased tracks… "Garden Of Happiness", "Exodus", "Let’s All Watch The Sky Fall Down", "Darkness Of Her Room" and "See Into The Stars" which perhaps do not change the overall judgment on the trio, but are a great gift for anyone who appreciated the LP's tracks.

The blessed year 1970 was passing by… the young history of rock was entering its dark and "heavy" decade, grinding everything that came its way, the Beatles announced their breakup, and John DuCann brought his visions to another adventure, but only after gifting us this small great masterpiece…