Rare Bird
As Your Mind Flies By

Mostly remembered for a single, "Sympathy" from '69, an experience we can quickly forget without remorse, Rare Bird released in 1970 one of the most complete and interesting albums of early English prog: "As Your Mind Flies By".

The album throws three essential things in our face: - a sound more mature than "From Genesis To Revelation", the debut album of Genesis released the previous year; - a less excellent and much less refined technique compared to "In The Court Of Crimson King" by the ingenious King Crimson; - there is no electric guitar.

For Rare Bird, psychedelia does not pass through the garage, at most through the Third Ear Band, they couldn’t care less that with the Yardbirds and Cream the season of the lead guitar at all costs opens, they have two electric organs and a bassist that would scare Ian Dury, that’s enough. The absence of the guitar might suggest a more elegiac tone, yet the timbre reminds us of Blue Cheer and Aphrodite's Child, as well as in the rhythm of "Hammerhead" and in the powerful and evocative "What You Want To Know" (among the most beautiful singles of English prog).

Furthermore, the album boasts the presence of one of the first prog suites which gives the album its name (thereby underlining its importance). There isn’t the complex and thoughtful structure of the aforementioned Crimson, but with an enviable energy and control of those 28 minutes truly remarkable.