Budgie
Squawk

Within the large cauldron of early '70s Hard rock, the Welsh band Budgie certainly deserves a place of distinction. Despite sowing plenty along their path, they never reaped the fruits of their labor, even though they significantly influenced Heavy Metal bands that emerged in the following decade. Although to a lesser extent compared to bands like Black Sabbath or Judas Priest, they contributed significantly to bridging the gap between Hard Rock and Heavy Metal, thanks to a sound that was particularly powerful and innovative for the time. Budgie's sound can be partly likened to the Hard rock of Black Sabbath (with whom they initially shared both the same producer and the same recording studios), although it was revisited in a rather comical and grotesque way, which for better or worse represents somewhat the band's trademark.

The trio from Cardiff, after releasing an excellent debut album that mixed (perhaps in a somewhat academic way) Hard Rock, Blues, and minimal traces of folk, released "Squawk" in 1972. In this album, there's a noticeable greater cohesion among the musicians, combined with a significant expansion of their sonic range, which appears much more varied compared to the previous work.

One of the group's objectives, however, is to make their offering even more powerful and aggressive, and in this case, the opening track, "Whiskey River" leaves no room for doubt. Tony Bourge's guitar riffs are indeed much sharper and more incisive than in the debut, and Burke Shelley's bass lines fit very effectively, managing to recreate an incredibly essential and compact wall of sound. This execution power will also be highlighted later, for example in the Bluesy "Drugstore Woman," strong with catchy riffs and vibrant and driving guitar solos, or in "Stranded," an absolutely explosive track due to the incredible wall of sound created by guitar and bass, where the musicians have fun slowing down and speeding up the rhythms, managing to keep the listener's attention constantly alive.

Alongside more powerful and essential tracks, there coexist songs of different nature and suggestion, within which the band manages to show a certain musical eclecticism (the group has always been distinguished by a notable compositional taste), which only makes the album more varied and interesting. As in the debut, here too appear a couple of exquisitely Folk tracks, namely "Make Me Happy" and "Rolling Home Again", which despite their short duration manage to pleasantly strike the listener, thanks to refined arrangements (enhanced by simple yet suggestive lines of piano and Mellotron) that are melodic at the same time, while tracks like "Rocking Man" and "Hot As A Docker's Armpit" tend to wink at more Psychedelic and moderately Progressive sounds. The first track seems, indeed, to naturally combine guitar riffs and strictly Hard Rock sounds, with a central bridge much more oriented towards the Psychedelic side, while the second track is certainly the most articulate and varied of the entire album, presenting a great variety of breaks and instrumental interweavings between guitar and bass, which develop through time changes and Pseudo Progressive atmospheres, with the sound of the Mellotron in the background. Among all these tracks, however, stands out the wonderful "Young Is A World" (preceded by a funny instrumental track, "Bottled"), a sort of Power Ballad characterized by multiple guitar background facets of sure suggestion and impact. The track is indeed adorned with numerous chiaroscuros of electric guitar that together form very undulating and "liquid" atmospheres, occasionally interrupted by powerful guitar and bass chords that try to give power to the atmosphere. Finally, splendid is the final solo by Bourge, truly very intense and rich in pathos.

This "Squawk" is certainly a small masterpiece of creativity and imagination, where each track shines with its own life and light, while at the same time managing to develop the band's more Heavy and weighty side. A work unjustly ignored at the time but should be rediscovered.

TRACKLIST:

1) Whiskey River (3:27)

2) Rocking Man (5:25)

3) Rolling Home Again (1:27)

4) Make Me Happy (2:37)

5) Hot As A Docker's Armpit (5:53)

6) Drugstore Woman (3:14)

7) Bottled (1:57)

8) Young Is A World (8:14)

9) Stranded (6:17)

LINE UP:

Burke Shelley: Vocals, Bass, Piano, Mellotron

Tony Bourge: Electric and Acoustic Guitar

Raymond Phillips: Drums