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Thursday, January 19, 2012

Egg - The Polite Force (1971 uk, significant progressive experimental rock, 2008 esoteric remaster)



Egg perfected their distinctive, organ-driven prog with their second and best album. Stewart's excellent playing varied between his light organ-tone and to the more typical, heavy distorted Canterbury sound. The opening track "A Visit to Newport Hospital" demonstrates this perfect.

Light and jazzier playing in some wonderful atmospheric themes relieve VERY heavy organ in other parts. "Contrasong" is a track that features some horns and is complex in a kind of Gentle Giant way. Then comes the really tragic thing about this otherwise superb album: 9 minutes of completely pointless noise and sound effects in "Boilk". If these 9 minutes instead had been filled up with a track of the same quality as the rest of the album, then "The Polite Force" would have been one of the true keyboard-progressive rock classics of the 70's, in league with "Brain Salad Surgery" and "Spartacus".

Fortunately, the second side of the album consists of the great, 20-minute suite "Long Piece No.3" and was probably the best thing Egg ever recorded. Incredibly complex and one of the best pieces of music ever performed on just organ, drums and bass! If you forget about the idiotic "Boilk" then this IS still a great album and worth whatever you have to pay for it. Fans of organ-driven progressive rock with a perfect 70's atmosphere will eat it up.
Vintage-Prog


Tracks
1. A Visit to Newport Hospital (Campbell) - 8:28
2. Contrasong (Campbell) - 4:25
3. Boilk (Brown, Campbell, Stewart) - 9:22
4. Long Piece No. 3 - 5:08
5. Long Piece No. 3 (Continued) - 7:38
6. Long Piece No. 3 (Continued) - 5:03
7. Long Piece No. 3 (Continued) - 2:51
All songs by Brooks, Campbell, Stewart except where indicated.

Egg
*Clive Brooks - Drums, Vocals
*Dave Stewart - Organ, Piano
*Mont Campbell - Bass, Vocals
Guest Musicians
*Mike Davis - Trumpet
*Bob Downes - Sax (Tenor), Saxophone
*Henry Lowther - Trumpet
*Stephen Solloway - Flute
*Tony Roberts - Tenor Sax

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12 comments:

  1. DanPJanuary 19, 2012 at 8:12 AM

    Great stuff, Marios. A prog keyboard trio with a sound totally different from the others--ELP, Rare Bird, Quatermass, etc.

    Btw, a definitive vinyl rip recently posted on Avax for those interested.

    ReplyDelete
  2. DanPJanuary 19, 2012 at 8:15 AM

    Meant to say I linked that in the chatbox.

    ReplyDelete
  3. HotroderJanuary 19, 2012 at 8:31 AM

    @DanP thanks for that link to avax, nice rip and thanks Marios for c.d rip.Top band!

    ReplyDelete
  4. JaggedJanuary 20, 2012 at 2:05 AM

    Thank you very much.

    ReplyDelete
  5. sparklerJanuary 20, 2012 at 7:24 PM

    thanks again Marios and DanP!

    ReplyDelete
  6. AnonymousFebruary 13, 2012 at 6:05 PM

    Marios,

    Two Bonus Tracks for Album:

    8) A Visit to Newport Hospital (Edit Version)

    9) Long Piece no.3 - Part. 2 (Edit Version)

    http://www.mediafire.com/?hsfcs5ii1ci6x42

    Password: IVO

    Hugs

    Ivo

    ReplyDelete
  7. MariosMay 7, 2014 at 9:24 PM

    ...The Polite...reForce.....

    ReplyDelete
  8. Brain PoliceMay 13, 2014 at 11:49 AM

    Thank you for the remaster, Marios!

    ReplyDelete
  9. UnknownFebruary 15, 2015 at 10:18 PM

    This is a tremendous record, and unlike the reviewer, I think Boilk is great.

    It's like Revolution 9.

    Thank you for sharing this Marios.

    Michael

    Sunday 15th February 2015 8.18pm GMT

    ReplyDelete
  10. GBOctober 6, 2020 at 10:31 PM

    Would it be possible to restore the link for this EGG - The Polite Force CD? Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  11. MariosOctober 7, 2020 at 6:36 PM

    GB, "Egg - The Polite Force". reloaded...

    ReplyDelete
  12. rev.bJuly 20, 2021 at 9:53 AM

    Thanks for the Egg, a great album. As for the review, yeah yeah yeah, Boilk just ruined this album, just like Revolution 9 made The White Album suck, right? Sheesh! Ya don't HAVE to listen to it if you hate it that much. I like both tracks just fine. They may both excel in clearing the room, but that works for me too!

    ReplyDelete

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