Customer Reviews

Civil Surface

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
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I was pleased to find this album on Amazon's site - even at the prices indicated (it's a pretty rare item), more folks should be aware of this band's contribution to the UK progressive music scene. Their recordings are some of the most challenging - and rewarding - in a field crowded with talent. Emerging from the Canterbury scene - along with Caravan and the Wylde Flowers (who evolved into Soft Machine) - Egg have shown over the course of their career that they have stimulating, intelligent music to offer. This is the third album they released (originally in 1974), and it's a great one - and their most accessible to new listeners, I think.

Led by the keyboard work and composing abilities of Dave Stewart (and NO, not the same Dave Stewart who played in the Eurhythmics with Annie Lennox...), Egg also enjoyed the amazing contributions of Mont Campbell (these days calling himself Dirk Campbell) - on bass, French horn, piano and vocals; and the equally-able Clive Brooks on drums and percussion. The group is joined here by several very capable co-conspirators: Lindsay Cooper (oboe and bassoon) and Tim Hodgkinson (clarinet) from the great band Henry Cow; Jeremy Baines (`germophone' and `bonk' - he's a flute player, and often gives whimsical names to his contributions to various albums); Amanda Parsons, Ann Rosenthal and Barbara Gaskin contribute WONDERFUL vocals (they are credited as `The Northettes' on later albums by Hatfield and the North, Dave Stewart's later project); Steve Hillage (of Gong, guitar on `Wring out the ground); and, finally, performing the two wind quartets with Mont Campbell are Maurice Cambridge (clarinet), Stephen Solloway (flute) and Chris Palmer (bassoon).

The three albums released by this trio are similar in structure, but it's easy to hear the musicians mature with each successive recording. Although always imbued with a dash of whimsy, the compositions created by these musicians were extremely intricate and stimulating. While allowing for some degree of improvisation within their structure, these pieces are for the most part composed - even the most cursory listening by anyone familiar with the complexities of written music will reveal that. Dave Stewart's work has several `feet' - they're firmly planted in classical, jazz, rock, experimentation, and more areas. The tracks here are played in a variety of time signatures - some very odd, which Egg fans had come to expect by the time this album appeared - and the band handles them easily and naturally, never stumbling or sounding lost or random. Most of the pieces are instrumentals - Campbell handles the lead vocals on `Wring out the ground loosely now', with the ladies providing beautiful, airy wordless vocal support on `Prelude'. The two wind quartets are stunning examples of thoughtful chamber music - they would sound at home on any orchestral program, and are further evidence that this band has more (and varied) `chops' than most.

The band's first two albums - EGG and THE POLITE FORCE - are EXTREMELY hard to find. The first is available only as an expensive Japanese import, and I'm not sure if the second is available at all right now. They're all first rate - no collection of modern progressive music is truly complete without them.

Often compared to early Soft Machine, Egg were probably compositionally a more consistant band. The trio of bass drums and keyboards were a seriously technically adept band, especially Dave Stewart, whose skilled extravagance is simply dazzling and unsurpassed.

On this effort, their is a cohesive and organic flow to the wide range of changes and the improvisations tend to be even more provocative in the range of contrast and color. Their music categorized in the Canterbury - prog toward experimental/avant garde but very harmonically and melodically pleasing with a great deal of subtle humor, much better than similar contemporaries such as Gong or Matching Mole.

Their lack of commercial success is regrettable in that they were as talented as any band at the time and the potenetial was unlimited had they stayed together. this, however, represents the greater challenges and artistic rewards which distinguishes the progressive rock medium.

The Virgin Jap remaster is THE definitive cd vrsion to have, the Brit import sounds rather compressed and flat.

Dave Stewart's work of the seventies was always surrounded by obscurity. I remember i had to get my copy of this incredible album right there in London and even then it was hard to find (and expensive). The same could be said of his other bands , The hatfields, National Health and Arzachel. Other keyboard players such as Emerson or Rick Wakeman always had more exposure and were more 'recognized'. But now, 35 years later it is Stewart's work that really stands out as a more fresh take on the whole' progressive' thing. His work is still being sought after and re-released as new fans meet with this man's great music. This is an album by his Egg band with UNIQUE composition style even for Egg. Here he unites with Hillage, future Hatfield "Northetes" choir and some Henry Cow members supplying winds (!). This was recorded when he was already in another band (Hatfield & the North) and it sounds like nothing else but also like everything he was involved with after Egg. Get it before it goes out of print again!

Great remastering of one of my all time favorite recordings. This 24 bit remaster is full of punch while retaining the warm and intimate sound of the original recording. Hopefully, this release will be around for awhile for others to enjoy.

Although I've read/heard some Egg fans say that they prefer The Polite Force (plus, the band themselves), this one always did it for me.

i bought this on vinyl when it first came out years ago. i didn't really like it very much then. well after a few decades, i thought i'd try it again. overall, it is better than i thought, though i do not feel the woodwind material on this cd fits in well at all. the woodwind players do not play with the band and their tracks are separate, like fillers. my favorite songs are the first three egg compositions. stewart and company have matured and the music is quite complex. i still like their first two releases better as they are much darker and dense. but that's just me. many fans like this because it is lighter. esoteric did a fine job remastering and comes with booklet. i guess that one time they were compared to early soft machine which totally surprises me as they are not anything alike. wish there was some good live material out there other than a few bad bootlegs.

What often seperates great from bad prog is flash being ommited for true rigorous expermentation: with tonality and meter.

If that is good criteria, Civil Surface by Egg takes the proverbial cake: Dave Stewart has done this from Kohn to Hatfield to National Health, but never more so than this album

There are more agressive, more traditional art rock moves on this, but even these are in the experimental Cantabury style. Not an E or a L or a P anyplsce to be found.

And when Civil Surface really goes to its farest reaches, it is pure rhymic and harmonic abstraction: little complex almost modern classical confections only other music masters like Henry Cow or the great Uncle Meat Zappa himself are technically able to do.

Excellent