Polite Force (Reis) [Import, Original recording remastered]

Egg | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 15, 2005)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import, Original recording remastered
• Label: Eclectic Discs
• ASIN: B0002O399S
• Also Available in: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #79,259 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Visit To Newport Hospital

2. Contrasong

3. Boilk

4. Long Piece No.3

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding Progressive Rock, December 4, 2005

By 

DigitalMan (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Polite Force (Reis) (Audio CD)

This superb CD ranks up there as one of the finest. For my tastes, it is the best of the three excellent albums recorded and released by Egg.

Please forgive the comparison to Emerson Lake and Palmer (another progressive keyboards, bass, drums trio), but whereas they could be bombastic and pompous in their music, Egg managed to say what they needed to more subtly and with far richer complex melodies carried by Dave Stewart's always beautiful and unique sounding organ.

I highly recommend this superb CD, and it is nice that it is finally available beyond the expensive Japanese import - formerly the only way to buy it.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A keboard-led trio for the thinking person, December 10, 2004

By 

Jeffrey J.Park (Massachusetts, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Polite Force (Reis) (Audio CD)

This is extremely complex and fully-developed progressive rock (released in 1971 on the Deram label) that features the extraordinary keyboard talents of Dave Stewart with superb bass playing by Mont Campbell, and excellent drumming by Clive Brooks. Although this keyboard-led trio is part of the "Canterbury' scene, the music sounds nothing like Caravan or Hatfield and the North. Rather, the music of Egg combines a significant proportion of dissonance and avant-garde tendencies with over-the-top technical excess (trust me-these guys are good players). In fact, it is this combination that might lead people to describe them as "intellectual" or "arty". In terms of instrumentation the Hammond organ and piano are used nearly exclusively (with one short passage of pipe organ and altered mellotron on "Boilk"), and although the Tone Generator is used sparingly, synthesizers are generally absent. This was 1971 after all. Although the standard bass-keys-drums dominate, there are occasional "freak-outs" consisting of bizarre electronic effects in addition to a neat (and very short) horn section on "Contrasong" that was arranged by bassist Mont Campbell. Speaking of the bass player, Mont Campbell does not simply follow the left hand piano part but is thoroughly contrapuntal, which makes an Egg composition a bit more interesting than a composition written by a more famous keyboard-led trio. Although his vocal abilities are not great, the vocals are not a big part of the Egg sound and do not detract from anything. Odd time signatures abound and include meters such as 5/8 and 9/8, although more complicated time signature are used. Chord structures are also um...exotic and lend an air of doom and menace to the music. Sometimes the avant-garde aspects can get a bit grating (as on Long Piece No. 3) but are tolerable. The four pieces range in length from the 4'21 "Contrasong" to the epic 20'42 "Long Piece No. 3" and are uncompromising in their metric and harmonic complexity. Cover art is very cool. Excellent stuff that is highly recommended.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Shining Star of a Golden Era!, April 1, 2006

By 

Jose Artiles-Gil "José Leopoldo Artiles-Gil" (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Polite Force (Reis) (Audio CD)

One has to agree with those who say that in the music industry the Darwinist law of "natural selection" reigns; otherwise, one could not explain why so much good music was thrown into oblivion. Fortunetly, the emergence of the cd format constituted a second chance for some of this good music be considered again. This is the case of Egg, one of the most overlooked band of the early seventies, but with a talent quite comparable to those that fared better commercially, for example, "Emerson, Lake and Palmer", with whom Egg is often compared, although for me each one is quite distinct in spite of being both a keyboard, bass and drum trio, and of both being prone to quote classic music passages.
For one thing, Egg has a stronger leaning toward contemporary avant garde music and modern jazz than ELP; on the other hand, they were not as bombastic as ELP were, although they show as good musicianship as ELP's.
Anyway, comparing Egg's music, comprised in just three albums, to ELP, who had the opportunity of developing a much larger catalog seems to me a little unfair to both, excellent bands as they were but with different fortunes.
Having said that, the second Egg's album (Dave Stewart on keyboards, Mont Campbell on Bass, and Clive Brooks on drums), "The Polite Force" is a more than polite show of musical force, beginning with two pieces sung by bassist Mont Campbell, the first notably executed at the level of the interplay between bass, keyboard and drums, and the second, not less well executed but shorter, with the addition of brass arrangements performed by two tenor saxes and two trumpets. And then the two major pieces of this disc follow: the excellent noise-electronic-classic piece called Boilk, which reminded me Pink Floyd's Saucerful of Secrets; and finaly the Long Piece No.3, a gem of progressive/classical/jazz inspired piece of work.
Definetly this disc is a shining star of a Golden Era of music. Thanks to the cd industry, Dinosaurs are walking on Earth again!