Family
Music in a Doll's House

I believe that Family can be considered the ultimate offshoot of the groups that dominated the 1967 music scene. The famous summer of 1967, during which musicians like Doors, Pink Floyd, Traffic, Beatles, Velvet Underground, Jefferson Airplane showed the world that it was possible to create a new kind of music, outside the box, outside the norms. Psychedelia moved from the wandering and hazy mind of a young person to rest in the notes of an artist receptive to the changes of those years.

Well, just a year has passed, and it's 1968. Five young men who have absorbed the essence of the sweet harmonies that had taken them traveling not long before, and they mix in the emerging Progressive style. And this is the first peculiarity of the album: its continuous mixing of genres, never stopping, short compositions, two minutes and onwards. Yet there's no need for more: in Family's dollhouse, different sound rooms open each time, capable of entertaining, making one smile and wetting the eyes, tapping the foot and listening while contemplating the silence. Rock mixed with Gregorian chants: Old Song for New Songs, probably the best track on the album. Lazy and sweetish blues callings - Hey Mr. Policeman. Epic gestures disguised as ballads - Mellowing Grey, Never Like This and Me my Friend. Mocking oriental influences, with an attached sitar - Variation on a Theme of Me my Friend, Peace of Mind, The Breeze. Closing with a village fanfare (3 x Time).

And moreover, absence of a chorus, changes of tempo, unusual structures, songs based more on the atmosphere created by the instrumentation (and in which Ric Grech’s violin stands out greatly) than on the lyrics. Variations that come before the themes (Hey Mr. Policeman, The Breeze).

Perhaps an important part has been forgotten, one might say. The true star, the cornerstone that squares the circle. A man, a name, a voice, Roger Chapman. I consider him, in the international music scene of those years, second only to Tim Buckley. His voice is animalistic, it is forced, it is devastating, it is a river in flood. It even seems to belong to two different people (Me my Friend). It is the connection between the atmosphere of the album and our ears. And it will not be the same afterwards, not even in the famous “Fearless,” where the timbre was irremediably worn out, ruined by his wild and unruly use. Roger Chapman will inspire a generation of followers, one of the first being a certain Peter Gabriel.

I mentioned Traffic at the beginning of this review for a reason. This LP is produced by Dave Mason, Steve Winwood's supporting partner in the trio. And his influence - needless to say - is felt, not only because he plays keyboards on Never Like This and a handful of other tracks. Because he transports the Traffic vibe, already established in the surrounding panorama, into a debuting band that wanted to make its mark. And they succeeded, starting with this stunning debut, halfway between Progressive and Psychedelia, between Rock and the Mind's pathways.