8.
Island - Pictures (1977)
1. Introduction (1:28)
2. Zero (6:13)
3. Pictures (16:51)
4. Herold And King / Dloreh (12:13)
5. Here And Now (12:15)
6. Empty Bottles (23:35)
Introduction:
Once upon a time in the year of 1977, in an era where jazz-oriented rock was commericially going the way of the dinosaur, a black-hearted little album that trumped King Crimson at their darkest and most delirious was born in Switzerland from the workings of a one-shot ensemble dubbed Island that formed out of the wreckage of a crazy psychedelic Krautrock group known as Brainticket, and boy is it a doozy. They say you can't always judge a book by its cover, but lets be honest here;
anything that H.R. Giger designs a cover art for is most definitely awesome without exception.
Simply put, what we have here folks is a very sinister, yet amazing and well-presented blend of ideas; one way of describing the result would be as if King Crimson and Comus combined lineups and went to a bar together. Another analogy would be Bartok headbutting the Canterbury Scene bareskulled, and the creepy piano, organ, sax, flute, oboe, Mellotron, drums and bass sound like they're trying to claw their way out of wormy graveyard soil on Halloween. Even better are vocalist Benjamin Jager's whispery voicings; reminiscent of Gabriel or Hammil, yet farrrrr more menacing than anything those two would have thought to belt out.
Yet perhaps the most amazing thing is how it maanges to be densely heavy, enchantingly played and quite sharp...all without guitar. That's right -
it's a progressive rock band without a guitarist!! Oh noes!!!
The fact there's no guitar here, however, should not dissuade any of you from looking these guys up. Rather, it makes their sound and approach all the more stand out. For even though
Pictures would be the only chapter they'd release in their short career, it stands on its own two feet just as well, if not better, than many of the supposed classics of the progressive rock movement. It's production values aren't too bad for the time period either (better than VDGG's by far), so that's always a plus!
But anyway, onto the song-by-song!
The Album:
1. Introduction: We are greeted with the sound of the undead groaning form some crypt of another, followed by a bit of orchestra and offkey piano and whispering. It then erupts into a percussive craziness that ends almost as abruptly as it started. Nice!
2. Zero: A killer instrumental and a poster boy for the whole "evil" Canterbury sound I mentioned earlier. We begin with some very jazzy sax and drum work with creepy sliding piano on the forefront, which then quiets down after about two minutes leaving drum and bass to lead an almost distant organ backdrop which sounds like it came straight out of a haunted house. Slowly it picks up volume as the sax comes back in, culminating nicely in an almost upbeat manner near the end..awesome! Basically, a great track and the perfect leadoff for a record like this.
3. Pictures: The title track also happens to by my favorite, and is in my opinion the catchiest on the album. Starts off with the boom of cymbals and some Eastern-styled percussion. The bongo and flavourful piano arrive next, followed by Benjamin's melodic yet creepy vocals for the first time. Although he doesn't remind me of anyone in particular, it suits the music splendidly. The rest of the song flows brilliantly, with particular nods to the drums and sax, and to sum it up lightly, I'd say tracks as quirky as this one are hard to come by. Seriously now, where else are you going to get a chorus crying "gastric juices"? xD
4. Herold And King / Dloreh: Two and a half minutes of opening delicate piano, followed by an eerie recorder and Benjamin's voice set against dissonant oboe and strange noises is certainly an odd way to try hooking a listener, but it works for me! I like how the drums are front in the mix after the five minute mark also.
6. Here And Now: Heeeerrreee comessss the evillll synths!! Oh, and Benajamin proves here he could have been part of Comus no problemo, what with the crazed dramatic vocals and murderous sounding lyrics. The sax is oddly squeaky here, which reminds of some of Sun Ra's material. Near the five minute mark the song suddenly become really damn pretty and idyllic, like the sun coming out from behind a cloud for a brief instant before the greyness swallows it back up again, and its a contrast that unfolds tip-top here.
7. Empty Bottles: Wasn't on the original LP, but became a bonus track when it hit CD. Empty Bottles is basically a 23-minute tour-de-force that funnels all the various elements of this band into one big finale/push. Some real groovable moments here all in all, but trying to piece it all together would ruin the experience for those who hear this for the first time. :P
Conclusion:
This is a great dark progressive rock album and would be considered among the best releases of the latter 70's even if it wasn't a one-shot. Although its true that King Crimson and Van der Graaf Generator have both done plenty of great jazz-tinted dark prog. (and deserve being recommended), the occasional schizophrenically creative approach to that sort of music like
Pictures here is also quite something too, and hence I rank it highly within my collection despite some pretentious song lengths. When it comes to almost romantically demonic music, this is about as good as one can get.