Captain Beyond
Captain Beyond

THE REVIEW

The Captain Beyond are a genuine Californian prog-rock musical meteor formed way back in 1972 and perhaps yet another demonstration – if any were needed – that in the '70s there was a creativity and an incredible poetic power in the musical field impossible to put into words.

It's as if a graceful female creature – music as imagined by every musician – was kidnapped by flowers, by the dream lights of thousands of young people, by their poetry made of passion and life on the road. It's as if she had loved them madly, because perhaps she was and perhaps still is like them, and in the momentum infused in every atom, in every note, she had given them droplets of her vitality and "timeless" identity.

I know, I can't capture it, but I think it will suffice you to listen to these Captain Beyond to realize how only the bad luck they had in the commercial field kept them away from the lights of notoriety but certainly not away from musical maturity with a sweet, sincere, and measured sound that blends a healthy streak of hard rock with progressive hints and all this in their debut album.

Moreover, how could it have been otherwise! Reading the line-up, it would certainly not escape those close to the '70s music scene some pleased expression of surprise. Rod Evans on vocals (whom some may remember from his experience with the early Deep Purple in "Hush" and "Kentucky Woman"), Bobby Caldwell on percussion and piano (drummer of the group of albino bluesman Johnny Winter), Lee Dorman and Larry "Rhino" Rheinhardt on guitars (of the legendary Iron Butterfly) who form a kind of supergroup ante-litteram that combines the power of hard rock with the refinement of progressive.

The music expressed seems to almost wind sinuously and decisively through the ethereal worlds of expanded consciousness, a journey in a labyrinth of delicate arpeggios and captivating riffs that chase each other, delve into one another, that – animated by an evident progressive verve – have fun creating a sort of intriguing, almost enchanting continuum. And it is precisely this sort of so skillfully arranged musical plot, this sort of brilliant dissolving and recreating that makes Captain Beyond’s music so vivid and direct, that captivates from the first listen, all always supported by truly inspired songwriting.

Brilliant also is the artwork featuring a sort of hero with a crystal ball depicting the symbols of fire and water, an ideal ferryman towards dreamy and timeless idylls ("Dancing Madly Backwards" and "Thousand Days Of Yesterday"), towards sudden rainbows ("As the Moon Speaks"), but in doing so invites us to reflect on human issues ("Raging River Of Fear" for instance).

My last comment I would like to make is on the dedication made by Captain Beyond on the back of the album to a great man of rock music: Duane Allman, "Skydog" to those in the know, founding member of the Allman Brothers Band, unmatched with the slide, an exceptional sessionman, a unique touch on the six strings, who died in a disastrous accident on his Harley Sportster at the age of 25.

See Ya!