THAT ROUNDWOUND SOUND
Kerry Leimer | Makawao, Hawaii United States | 02/19/2008
(4 out of 5 stars)
"In 1972, at the height of the prog rock days, Spontaneous Combustion seemed both a part and apart. Given to a few longish pieces that showed some development as well as shorter, riff-driven songs the very young power trio demonstrated a fairly original take on doing more with less -- consider some conclusions reached by Led Zeppelin a few years later with their simultaneously stripped bare while boundlessly majestic "Achilles Last Stand". Not to say these lads made quite such a beautiful noise, but given time they may have. The first elpee was made somewhat famousy thanks to Greg Lake's turn at producer -- "Spontaneous Combustion" is a powerful record and despite rumors of a recent CD reissue, still hard to find outside the deplorable "toofa" packaging available here and possibly there. I personally preferred "Triad", mostly due to the raucous and still oddly odd seven-minute stretch called "Pan". Like much of the music trying to get beyond the industry margins, the band was as much about their sound as anything else, and for my money they had an almost ideal bass setup. Snappy like Chris Squire's guitar-amped Rickenbacker, with a low end worthy of Holger Czukay or the more recent mattress spring fundamentals of Tool. Looking at the entire playlist Spontaneous Combustion may have proven neither fish nor fowl, but they did prove to be worth way more than a few spins."
Track Listings (7) - Disc #1