{"id":2022,"date":"2017-02-03T22:25:12","date_gmt":"2017-02-03T22:25:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hippy.com\/hip\/other\/bram-stoker-prog-band\/"},"modified":"2017-02-03T22:25:12","modified_gmt":"2017-02-03T22:25:12","slug":"bram-stoker-prog-band-by-shiloh-noone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/reviews\/bram-stoker-prog-band-by-shiloh-noone\/","title":{"rendered":"Bram Stoker (Prog Band)"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Gothic drone of Bournemouth band Bram Stoker<\/strong> is singularly England\u2019s most ignored Prog entity. The fundamental core of Bram Stoker<\/strong> was organist Tony Bronsdon<\/strong> who started out with Renaissance Fare<\/strong> in 1968 later fusing with ex Feel <\/strong>guitarist Pete Ballam<\/strong> and ex Feel<\/strong> drummer Rob Haines<\/strong> freshly defected from Freedom Village<\/strong>. A remarkable bassist called John Bavin<\/strong> from the floral village of The Incredible String Band<\/strong> joined the combo, replacing Jet Harris<\/strong> and Tony Lowe<\/strong> after a defunct Harris Tweed<\/strong> basically evolved into Bram Stoker<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

In 1972 Bram Stoker<\/strong> launched their Heavy Rock Spectacular<\/em> which holds more emotive stirrings than any ELP refrain<\/strong>, harking to the tremors of Julian\u2019s Treatment<\/strong> or Dr Z.<\/strong> The Bram Stoker<\/strong> live performances were sensational largely due to Ballam<\/strong>\u2019s legendary “Doppler” (spinning speaker cabinet) and Bronsdon<\/strong>\u2019s stirring organ tones and changing tempos. Bram Stoker<\/strong> stand next to Van Der Graaf<\/strong> as one of the first Gothic Prog groups, often supporting The Who<\/strong> and even booked to play the \u2018Isle Of Wight Festival\u2019. Who <\/strong>vocalist Roger Daltrey<\/strong> helped the group to record a home demo which got them a contract with the \u2018Woolworth\u2019s budget label \u2018Windmill Records\u2019. Bavin\u2019<\/strong>s eerie vox is sheer rupture on the fuzz riffing \u201cExtensive Corrosion\u201d while Bavin<\/strong>\u2019s bass rumbles superbly on \u201cAnts\u201d and the Wakeman <\/strong>styled \u201cFast Decay\u201d.<\/p>\n

Bavin\u2019s production skills later infiltrated Dave Stewart<\/strong> and Kiki Dee.<\/strong> Haines<\/strong> is best heard on the cymbal signatures that embellish \u201cPoltergeist\u201d while Bronsdon\u2019s classical virtues power through Felix Mendelssohn\u2019s <\/strong>\u201cFingal\u2019s Cave\u201d, severed sensitively by Ballam<\/strong>\u2019s exquisite breaks. Stoker\u2019<\/strong>s post apocalyptic \u201cBlitz\u201d is the epic highlight with Ballam<\/strong> conjuring drone lead that evokes visions of misty bomb shelters and nuclear rain. Bram Stoker<\/strong> re-formed in 2004 with added Pat Flynn<\/strong> (guitar) & Pete Rumble<\/strong> (drums) for Rock Paranoia<\/em> (includes unreleased material).<\/p>\n

Added:<\/b> August 4th 2011
\nReviewer:<\/b> shiloh noone<\/a> | See all reviews<\/a> by shiloh noone
\nCategory:<\/b> Music<\/a>
\nScore:<\/b> \"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"
\nRelated Link:<\/b> Seekers Guide To The Rhythm Of Yesteryear<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Gothic drone of Bournemouth band Bram Stoker is singularly England\u2019s most ignored Prog entity. The fundamental core of Bram Stoker was organist Tony Bronsdon who started out with Renaissance Fare in 1968 later fusing with ex Feel guitarist Pete Ballam and ex Feel drummer Rob Haines freshly defected from Freedom Village. A remarkable bassist […]<\/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-2022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2022","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=2022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2022\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}