Insolent Lady: Bye the Way/Small Thief/Insolent Lady - Raw Material, Greene, Dave
Miracle Worker - Raw Material, Catt, Colin
Religion - Raw Material, Catt
Sun God: Awakening/Realization/Worship - Raw Material, Catt
Originally released by RCA/Neon in 1971. The second album for UK progressive rock band whose records are now very rare & sought after. Good progressive pieces based on heavy guitars, sax riffs & keyboards with ac... more »oustic & melodic moments reminiscent of early Pink Floyd. Original artwork. Akarma. Mini LP sleeve. 2001 release.« less
Originally released by RCA/Neon in 1971. The second album for UK progressive rock band whose records are now very rare & sought after. Good progressive pieces based on heavy guitars, sax riffs & keyboards with acoustic & melodic moments reminiscent of early Pink Floyd. Original artwork. Akarma. Mini LP sleeve. 2001 release.
"I bought this album cos I had heard good stuff about it but also some more negative opinions. So I didn't really know what to excpect other than it was ressembling Van der Graaf Generator a lot in sound. After having heard it 1, 2 and 5 times I was assured that this was a lasting and highly qualified brittish progressive rock album. It strikes me every time I dig deeper in the UK 70's prog scene that the UK had so many, many bands in the early to mid 70's that made interesting and great prog rock. Spring, Gnidrolog, Cressida, England and so forth (to mention some of the less well-known). But back to this album, "Ice queen" really opens in strong fashion with the sax/guitar riff and goes through many great themes. "Empty houses" has some great almost psychedelic solos in it. "Insolent lady" goes through many powerful timesignatures and is one of the best tracks here. "Miracle worker" and "Religion" are also more than ok but maybe a bit too repetitious in contrast to the other suite-like songs. Thus the grade doesn't attain the full 5 star review. "Sun god" is a mellow track that is in places almost spiritual in its charachter. Leaning towards prog folk-rock but also with the usual contrast from soft to heavy passages. The album ends on a great note. And the akarma reissue has a great sound in their usual goodlooking papersleeves. Really good early brit prog from 1971."
Magic Music of Early Progressive
Igor Vladimirov | Ufa, Bashkortostan, Russia | 03/15/2001
(5 out of 5 stars)
"If you like early progressive rock music this CD is yours. Something from Van Der Graaf Generator, music of Raw Material is well constructed tune with long improvisations. Magic flute, gentle sax and power guitar riffs..."
QUITE GOOD VAN DER GRAAF CLONE
Ignaciocue | Mexico | 10/29/2003
(4 out of 5 stars)
"QUITE GOOD VAN DER GRAAF CLONE. NEVER AS GOOD AS THE ORIGINAL VDGG, TOUGH. EXCELENT SAXES, FLIMSY GUITAR"
This is. . .
Robert Cossaboon | The happy land of Walworth, NY | 04/07/2003
(4 out of 5 stars)
"What we have here is a fine marriage of styles between Pink Floyd and Van Der Graaf Generator; another way to describe is that imperious sax rhythms hold hands with introspective guitar solos. The two opening tracks "Ice Queen" and "Empty Houses" illustrate this fushion nicely. The watermark of the album is "Insolent Lady" whose climax seems to almost out Floyd the Pink Floyd band. It's one of the great, albeit, unknown moments of progressive rock. The next two tracks, "Miracle Worker" and "Religion" are a decided comedown after the hazy brilliance of Lady. The former has a folkish bent, while the latter just seems to have been stuck on either to take up space or to prelude the final track. "Sun God" closes the album. It is about ascent from darkness into light, the light being a crescendo wail of keyboards and vocals. Fans of Van Der Graaf take note, Time Is was released the same year as Pawn Hearts, and the similarities are beguiling. This is a very worthy listen."
Superb!
Mr.Guy Wilkinson | Leicester, United Kingdom | 09/24/2001
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This is possibly the rarest and most obscure of the RCA Neon albums, and also one of the best. All six tracks are excellent, but "Miracle Worker" is my personal favorite as it is very catchy and has some excellent jazzy guitar links mixed into its otherwise folk-prog-rock sound. The band have a definite sound of their own while managing to keep the album quite varied. It really is a shame this band didn't have more success and last longer."