\t\t\t\tThis is part of Shiloh Noone’s weekly write up of rare groups. Group write-ups you never hear of or little is known about.<\/i><\/p>\nThe Gothic Bram Stoker<\/h3>\n
Cressida\u2019s keyboard dominated style was not unlike the Gothic drone of Bournemouth band Bram Stoker, singularly England\u2019s most ignored Prog entity. Bram Stoker who rose out of the ashes of Renaissance Fare launched their 1972 Heavy Rock Spectacular which holds more emotive stirrings than any ELP refrain, harking to the tremors of Julian\u2019s Treatment or Dr Z. The Bram Stoker live performances were sensational largely due to guitarist Pete Ballam\u2019s legendary “Doppler” (spinning speaker cabinet) and Tony Bronsdon\u2019s stirring organ tempos.<\/p>\n
Bram Stoker originally formed in 1969 alongside drummer Rob Haines and bassist John Bavin, Bram Stoker stand next to Van Der Graaf as one of the first Prog Gothic groups, often supporting The Who and even booked to play the \u2018Isle Of Wight Festival\u2019. The Who vocalist Roger Daltrey helped the group to record a home demo which got them a contract with the \u2018Woolworth\u2019s budget label \u2018Windmill Records\u2019. Bavin\u2019s eerie vox is sheer rupture on the fuzz riffing \u201cExtensive Corrosion\u201d while his bass rumbles superbly on \u201cAnts\u201d and the Wakeman styled \u201cFast Decay\u201d. Bavin\u2019s veteran past is more closely associated with the Incredible String Band, yet his production skills infiltrate Dave Stewart (Eurythmics) and Kiki Dee. Haines is best heard on the emotive cymbal time signatures that embellish \u201cPoltergeist\u201d while Bronsdon\u2019s classical virtues power through Felix Mendelssohn\u2019s overture \u201cFingal\u2019s Cave\u201d, severed sensitively by Ballam\u2019s exquisite breaks. Stoker\u2019s post apocalyptic \u201cBlitz\u201d is the epic highlight with Ballam conjuring a drone lead that evokes visions of misty bomb shelters and nuclear rain. Bram Stoker re-formed in 2004 with added Pat Flynn (guitar) & Pete Rumble (drums) for Rock Paranoia which also includes unreleased material. Mysticism had also spread its claws into a variety of jazz genres, namely an eerie gathering called Ben, an offshoot of the Keith Jarrett Band. The self titled album was filled with four lengthy jazz excursions that awkwardly seemed to lack direction and appeared to more of a jam, other than the bass sensible\u201dGibbon\u201d.The mystical members of Ben were saxophonist Peter Davey, guitarist Gerry Reid, keyboardist Alex Macleery, ex Nashville Teens bassist Len Surtees & ex Graham Bond drummer David Sheen who later played with Kevin Coyne. Surtees later joined Peter Green\u2019s Kolors and Sheen to Mirage.<\/p>\n
Another strange 1971 interlude was Dr. Z\u2019s Three Parts of My Soul, expressed through the stirring \u201cEvil\u2019s Woman\u2019s Manly Child\u201d, a sum influence of Mojo Men\u2019s \u201cWhen You Down\u201d. Musicians comprised Welsh Professor Keith Keyes (keyboards) Rob Watson (bass) & ex Eaglettes drummer Bob Watkins who later joined Bruce Welch’s Moonlight Shadows. The album seduced through the harmony reeling \u201cSummer for the Rose\u201d and their keyboard charged \u201cLady Ladybird\u201d \/\u201cPeople in the Street\u201d. The flute fearful \u201cBurn in Anger\u201d spirals in changing tempo, the stirring character of the occult flavoured album, produced by ex Nirvana Patrick Campbell -Lyons. The 10min \u201cIn a Token of Despair\u201d is the cry of every human as it spins through a Gregorian motif with Keyes\u2019 rippling piano. By 1967 the English had already turned a discerning ear to fusion jazz through John Lewis & the Modern Jazz Quartet which included Jean Luc Ponty when they performed at the \u2018Monterey Jazz Festival\u2019.<\/p>\n
Courtesy of Shiloh (In ode to the artistic razorblade, Kevin Coyne)<\/p>\n
www.shilohnoone.com\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This is part of Shiloh Noone’s weekly write up of rare groups. Group write-ups you never hear of or little is known about. The Gothic Bram Stoker Cressida\u2019s keyboard dominated style was not unlike the Gothic drone of Bournemouth band Bram Stoker, singularly England\u2019s most ignored Prog entity. Bram Stoker who rose out of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1996\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}