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Rating: The question arises spontaneously: is it always the same band playing for you? Well, yes, but it's enough to make you pull your hair out: side A is vastly different from side B which is vastly different from the EP added as a bonus track to the compact disc reissued in 1989...
Titus Groan is the first book of the fantasy trilogy "Gormenghast" by English writer Mervyn Peake, first published in 1950. Twenty years later, a quartet led by singer/keyboardist/guitarist Stuart Cowell brews a proto prog-late psychedelic broth in which splashes of pop, rock, r & b, folk are added! Perhaps you're thinking too many things on the fire? Is there a risk it might sit heavily on the stomach?
No, more than anything the four-part suite "Hall of Bright Carvings" remains in the head, led by a "Soft Machine" rhythm base upon which the horns of "satyric bagpiper" Tony Prestland are grafted. From a medieval atmosphere, it shifts to an increasingly palpable tension driven by John Lee's pulsating bass. The instruments alternate between flute solos, electric guitar, Prestland's pipes, choral games of voices, and the final jam that returns to the initial medieval theme. Among the best 12 minutes of these misunderstood geniuses of the time! And yes, because their concerts charged a penny even though they passed through the three-day Hollywood Pop Festival held on May 23, 1970, near Newcastle. Among powerhouses like Ginger Baker's Airforce, Mungo Jerry who would reach the top of the (also Italian) charts with the hit "In the Summertime" and even the Grateful Dead making their English debut, imagine what hope the "light cavalry" of Titus Groan had?
In the circle of Dawn (a subsidiary of Pye) strange bands like Demon Fuzz, Comus, Heron lived on and everyone was promised the release of the long-awaited album during that year. But the Titus Groan record is really the strangest: besides the magnificent suite, side A hosted an indefinable "It's wasn't for you" that seems like a brass-laden r& b hit only missing the vocal entrance of Wilson Pickett or Marvin Gaye, yet it is Cowell who strains his vocal cords supported by the fine rhythm section.
At this point, you'd think you'd got the wrong record, but there are the famous 12 minutes of "Hall of Bright Carvings" and subsequently a track that mixes Jethro Tull and Byrds like "I can't change" to make the ears perk up interested in the magnificent and progressive fortunes of rock music. The same "Fuschia" paints the record with vocal-guitar-flute games with dark psychedelic tones for a flight on the magic carpet already owned by the Open Mind. But the beauty lies in the fact that on the second side, Titus Groan throw you a pop choral ballad of the caliber of "It's all up with us" that seems to come directly from the Californian west coast, embellishing it with a final guitar solo that increases its tempo.
To "aggravate" the situation, there are the three folk-rock tracks of the first EP (added as a bonus to the CD reissue) suspended between Bob Dylan (!) and Byrds ("Open the Door, Homer" and "Liverpool") and a surprising "Woman of the World", a melancholic ballad that recalls certain works of Lindsfarne, a group capable of navigating that magical and unexplored area between Fairport Convention and Grateful Dead.
Well, you know how these things end: with the collapse of the Dawn Label, the varied and colorful world of Titus Groan will remain suspended in the underground progressive limbo which in the years to come will shine a light on Rick Wakeman's six wives of Henry VIII and above all will burden the noses of the more discerning listeners.
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