Search - Captain Beyond :: Dawn Explosion

This is a great album!

H. P. Keable | Chicago, IL | 01/23/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I don't think any band could follow the sheer brilliance that Captain Beyond gave the musical world with their debut, but I think this album is a very respectable effort and it's always been a big favorite of mine. Willie Daffern has a great voice, just different from Rod Evans is all, and all the naysayers just aren't being open-minded. In fact hearing him on this record made me seek out anything else that he might have lent his voice to, and there's precious little that I can find: Gary Moore's

G-Force album, Pipedream (with Tim Bogert!), and a solo LP under the name Willie Dee. Too bad, I think he has a classic voice.



But back to this record: I think it's way better than the more laid back Sufficiently Breathless, and I can't help but wonder if that's due to the return of Bobby Caldwell. Even without attempting some more of those great odd time signatures that are all over the debut, there are some great tracks here, with "Do or Die" and "Fantasy" being two standouts.



Compared to the first record or not, you can't go wrong with this one.

Willie D, where are you, man?!!"

A Very Good Comeback...

Chuck Potocki | Highland, Indiana | 09/17/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

""Dawn Explosion" was a very good comeback for Captain Beyond; armed with a new record deal with Warner Brothers & a new singer with Willy Daffern, the band was on a mission to come back strong, & in their way, they definitely succeeded. However, the wind of change was blowing hard through the music industry at the time of its' 1977 release with disco dominating the pop charts on one side & punk dominating the underground on the other. Classic & especially prog-rock bands like Captain Beyond were then regarded as dinosaurs & has-beens, so despite being a fine album, "Dawn Explosion" was caught in the middle & vanished without a trace. Had it been released a few years earlier, this might not have been the case.



New vocalist Willy Daffern's voice boasts a more throaty rock & roll voice & does some serious screaming at times on the album which is in direct contrast to the long departed original vocalist Rod Evans. The band had returned to its' original core lineup of guitarist Rhino, drummer Bobby Caldwell & bassist Lee Dorman for this release, & as was the case on their previous 1973 release "Sufficiently Breathless", the emphasis is once again on straight ahead song structures with only an occasional tip of the hat to the odd time signatures & prog-rock leanings that dominated their classic 1972 debut.



Most of the songs are good, with only "If You Please" not being a particular favorite of mine; its' subject matter dealing with, of all things, choosing your career path; it even includes a reference to being a paramedic! Needless to say, I generally skip over this one when listening to the whole album. The closest the band gets to recapturing the feel of their first album is "Space Interlude".



All in all, this is a good album but unfortunately was the last for the band. Should this be the last we hear from Captain Beyond, then they've gone out in a great way. On a side note, Amazon lists this as being a "box set", "enhanced disc" & "hybrid" for some reason, but it's not. It's definitely a single disc, & the "remastered" part is probably true."

Good album

Purplepeople8ers | USA | 12/31/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Rod Evans is sorely missed here, but the music is still there. If you have the first two albums then well you just got to have this one also. Why? Well just because it might cause a shift in the dimensions from Beyond. I like the begining of "Icarus". "Fantasy" will stick in your mind. It rocks. "Breath of Fire Part 1" is okay. I like "If You Please" I think this might have been a hit on the Radio if they played it. "Midnight Memories" is a nice love song. The Captain ends with a spacey instrumental followed by "Oblivian" a rockin Instrumental then closes with another Spacey instrumental. It isn't as good as the first two but it is okay in its own way."