Customer Reviews

Polite Force (Reis)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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!

Egg was a superlative Canterbury Prog band of the early 70's, whose two albums for Decca's progressive Deram imprint are now available in beautifully remastered form on Eclectic Discs. For those not familiar with this prog sub-genre, the Canterbury area of England produced a number of musicians who specialised in jazz fusion influenced prog, Soft Machine and Caravan being some of the better known proponents. As Jazz is an American music, the U.S. fusion bands were understandably more beholden to traditional Jazz than the Canterbury artists, who were as likely to be influenced by psychedelia as by bebop.

Egg featured the same lineup as ELP: percussionist, singing bass player and a phenomenal Hammond player in Dave Stewart, who also doubled on piano and tone generator (a primitive early synth.) Drummer Clive Brooks and bassist Mont Campbell were outstanding musicians in their own right, but Stewart is the star of the show. He was every bit as good as a Keith Emerson or a Rick Wakeman, but sadly much lesser known.

The Polite Force was Egg's second and last album save for a one-off reunion a few years later with The Civil Surface, a sort of Canterbury All-Stars affair. Egg were what I call "deep prog" meaning mostly instrumental, intellectual and "underground" yet still rockin'. These guys weren't going to have any hits or even get FM radio play, but prog lovers, especially of the keyboard-led variety, should definitely get some Egg on their plates!

"A Visit to Newport Hospital" starts things off with over 8 minutes of tricky time signatures, organ pyrotechnics and an amusing lyric about the band's early gigging days as Uriel.

"Contrasong" is a rare condensed version of the Egg style, with a 5/8 9/8 pattern (how very prog!) and a brass arrangement. The ambiguous lyric is the last on the album, as we blast off into instrumental territory.

"Boilk" is the one piece even Egg fanatics love to hate. It's a 9-plus minutes excursion into weird sound effects that latterly morphs into a Bach organ piece. This track doesn't bother me as much as it does some people, but I like way-out stuff. This reminds me of Can's "Unfinished," which I also like.

"Long Piece #3" was actually their second long piece, at least on record, but wacked out humour was a Canterbury trademark so I guess the title reflects that. This "side-long" epic is the real main attraction on The Polite Force, featuring just about everything an instrumental prog fan could dream of. Stewart's acid-drenched organ lines play off of some (you guessed it) tricky time signatures in the opening movement, with some insistant drumming. This part reminds me very much of Third era Soft Machine.

In the second section, Stewart trades off piano and organ riffs over a more conventional backing. After the crazy rhythms of the opening segment, this is a melodic and accessible movement for the first few minutes, before the bottom drops out and we float in a psychedelic soundscape for a while, with some free-form French horn lines from Campbell, a serious student of the instrument though you wouldn't know it here! The band then runs through some thrilling variations on the melodic theme which twists and turns, getting darker and rockier till Stewart expertly brings it back to the original theme once more.

Part three begins with some spritely piano lines before taking off into a fast fusion-y jam that sounds like ELP colliding with The Mahavishnu Orchestra. Stewart works in a clean Hammond riff among the distorted organ tones, and it's one of his remarkably stick-in-your-head riffs that's as addictive as pop music. Well...to deep prog fans it is! The section ends with the band sliding into tone generator-enhanced psychedelia.

The short, fast finale finds the band putting away all the toys for a flat-out organ-bass-drums jam with some wildly distorted organ sounds (how DID Stewart and the Softs' Mike Ratledge get those sounds?)

Egg will knock the socks off most prog fans, and these remasters sound great, but I'm deducting one star since "Boilk" seems to raise the ire of a lot of listeners. I personally give this CD five-stars but my high tolerance for weirdness probably biases me.

This is almost as good as the masterful first album. Egg were truely progressive with weird time signatures, great arrangements and exemplary musicianship. While others bands playing this sort of stuff try to be as advant garde as possible (Henry cow) Egg at least were always accesible. Whenever i hear Dave Stewarts hammond work i just know it is him (check out his work on the Robert Wyatt live album) just like Mike Ratledge and Dave Sinclair his is a totally unique style and Mont Campbell is one of the great singers, powerful and emotive and a great lyricists, witty and very clever. His words to the majestic 'a visit to Newport Hospital' are brilliant and poignant and deliver with great gusto. As for the foremention track this encapulates everything good about the band. A heavy dirge like intro before going into its beautiful main theme and when the solo comes in wow-this is what made early English prog so i unique. The next track 'contraband' is way to short. Brilliant singing from Mont (he really should of sung more!) and lyrics over an incredible complex riff and a great horn solo-superb. Then they f++k it up big time on 'boilk' nine minutes of noise. There is a Bach theme incorperated but i can't find it. What a waste of time. There is no pulse throughout. Pointless. Thankfully 'long piece' is a lengthy classic in the mode of the suite on the first album. Once again consistently interesting and complex 'part 2' is beautiful. So why no extra's? Surprisingly live the band kept it pretty much straight with little improvisation (witness the 'radio 1' bootleg tapes i've heard) but an omission is the wonderful early version of 'germ patrol' which was far, far better than the lacklustre 'civil surface' version. Why didn't they put that on the end. It's a startling omission for such a great performance and why not put on the live T.V clip from 1970 (now i'm being silly!) I once spoke to Clive Brookes at a Groundhogs gig and raved about Egg. He looked surprised that i'd heard of them 'That was a long time ago' he said. It was, but it's still as great now, as it was then. Top notch stuff!

Dave Stewart (not of the eurythmics) again in full but polite awesome force. surely this album is not to be missed. The music is unearthly to describe just vintage stewart on the attack.Try also his collaborations with Hillage and Caravan members.

This is undoubtably the best of Egg's three albums and features excellent playing from Messrs.Stewart,Campbell and Brooks allied to their characteristically wacky and off-kilter compositional style.This is highly complex music with head-spinning time signatures and harmonies but they carry it all off with aplomb,more convincingly than on the self-titled debut album."Boilk" sits rather uncomfortably with the other pieces,being a sound collage consisting of all manner of sounds from water noises and tubular bells to vocal fragments and backward sound.Interesting,though."Long piece no.3" is the album's highlight in which all members have their chances to shine,especially Clive Brooks in the drum rhythms of the first part;any attempts to tap your foot to this will result in a broken ankle!.Egg split shortly after this album,re-forming briefly a couple of years later to record The Civil Surface,a less rounded work.The Polite force is their tour de force and one of the finest albums in the Canterbury canon.One last point though;there are no bonus tracks.This is as the original album.

After hearing the bands debut I was left wanting for more. The polite force is truly an amazing album. This band was as talented as they come, and with that usually comes relative obscurity. This band defied all of the rules of conventional rock and roll, while remaining acessible. A visit to newport hospital opens with some incredibly heavy organ and has a truly remarkable vocal performance from Mont Campbell. Contra Song is another great number and the time signature gives me headaches trying to figure it out. It's best to just sit back and enjoy. The horn arrangements in the song just add to a great piece of music. I could really do without the song Boilk, my only reason for 4 stars instead of five. I understand the concept, however just don't find it to be enjoyable listening. Long Song number 2 tops the whole album. A truly well thought out piece that showcases all the bands talents. Dave Stewart and Mont Campbell are truly excellent musicians who are unafraid to stretch out musically. Clive Brooks is a servicable "Pounder" who does his best just to keep in time. You can't reall ask for more than that with all the time twist Campbell and Stewart were throwing out there. All in all a great album for those who enjoy the Soft Machine, Caravan and the other Cantebury groups.

Having just discovered the Canterbury scene over the past year or so I had heard all of the classic Soft Machine, Caravan, Matching Mole, Gong, Kevin Ayers, Robert Wyatt, Hatfield and the North, National Health, etc., but had never managed to get a hold of an Egg album. Curious about filing the gaps of the Canterbury scene I picked up The Polite Force (1971), the group's second album, to fill desire to finally hear these well regarded artists.

After hearing it through several times now I must say I'm quite satisfied with the purchase (although I still have have a problem with paying more than say $20 for any album unless it has enough extra content to warrant a higher price, this release has none). The music is similar to their contemporaries The Soft Machine, Hatfield and the North. The Hatfield and the North resemblance is because keyboardist Dave Stewart later joined that group.

"Contrasong" is a standout for me and a slice of perfect Canterbury prog with an interesting vocal arrangement and great lyrics. "Boilk" is a great Soft Machine like melt-down and showcases the more experimental/improvisational side of the group. The closing number is a sidelong piece titled "Long Piece No. 3". On the CD release I have it is broken up into four separate tracks. Not sure if this was the case on the original release but I personally enjoy it when artists break-up long pieces into separate sections in a way that makes sense. I really enjoyed parts 2 and 3 but thought that piece as a whole was a bit less than fantastic, but thats my only complaint really.

If you love the Canterbury scene this album should really entertain you if not impress you. After hearing this I'll be looking for the two other Egg releases Egg (1970) and Civil Surface (1974).

To sum up Egg's The Polite Force in a few simple words so you have a pretty good idea what they sound like-

Take some keyboard solos from any given early Emerson, Lake & Palmer song, throw in some of the more melodic and less challenging portions of classic Soft Machine, and just a tad of the atmosphere best exemplified by Hatfield & the North a few years later, and there you have it- Egg.

Not one of the more interesting Canterbury prog bands, The Polite Force's main selling point is definitely in the instrumental chops which are usually melodic and exciting enough to get the job done, and even though they sound severely dated and might even be considered ripoffs of other popular bands at the time, that doesn't really matter a whole lot when listening to the album because you don't stop to think about it really.

When music's good, it's good, so there's really no need to dwell on who influenced who. However bands like Caravan and Soft Machine definitely feature more creative and imaginative instrumental chops, so I recommend those bands above Egg.