Bobak, Jons, Malone - Motherlight (1970)

To jest niewątpliwie jedna z najlepszych i niedocenianych płyt psychodeliczno-progresywnych. "Motherlight" nagrała trójka inżynierów dźwięku pracująca dla bardzo zasłużonego, brytyjskiego studia nagrań Morgan Blue Town (wcześniej Morgan Studio) odpowiedzialna m.in. za takie wydawnictwa jak "Pussy Plays" czy "Red Dirt". Płyta analogowa jest ultra rarytasem bowiem została wydana w nakładzie kilkuste egzemplarzy. Muzycznie przypomina mi ona dokonania innej wspaniałej brytyjskiej grupy - Mighty Baby.

Wilson Malone - vocal, keyboards, drums
Mike Bobak - bass
Andy Jons - guitar

The history behind this album is somewhat fishy It would seem that music business entrepreneur Monty Babson had decided to expand his interests beyond his existing Morgan Studios (sometime home to the Rolling Stones amongst lesser sixties stars) and its damp squib of a record label, and into the area of serious, progressive artists on a new outlet called Morgan Blue Town Sensing that the musical talent probably lay right under his nose with the numerous session boys who beavered away in the studio at all hours, he asked three of them, Wil Malone, Andy Johns (younger brother of Stones producer Glyn Johns, whose name was bizarrely changed to Jons for the sleeve credit) and engineer Mike Bobak to come up with something suitably forward-thinking for the album market Babsons deal was not the stuff many would be envious of - he asked them to work late at night during studio dead time, and made them sign an agreement which stated that they lost the rights to their work as soon as they created them Mike Bobak has since gone on record as saying that he didnt mind this arrangement as it was never going to sell a million, and perhaps the ad-hoc band also used the duff contract as an excuse to indulge artistic tendencies which might otherwise have been reigned in The resulting Motherlight album is not without its flaws Wanna Make A Star, Sam smacks of filler, even if it does lyrically predate Pink Floyds Have A Cigar, and Burning The Weed is a novelty track.

Motherlight is full of elastic basslines and heavy riffs coupled with seemingly incongruous piano leads ranging in influence from ragtime and blues to classical. The songs themselves don't really follow any pattern stylistically or thematically. The title track draws more from late sixties/early seventies American rock than from late period British psychedelia. Standout "On a Meadow-Lea" employs a pulsing organ throughout the song, tying together a song that progresses from folky and pastoral to pretty hard rocking, with Malone showing off his chops on guitar at the song's end. "House of Many Windows" has hints of prog with its subtle time shifts and classical leanings. A little tape manipulation on "Chant" and a little country-rock (however silly the execution) on "Burning the Weed" round out the album. A pretty decent venture for an album whose final pressing was under 100.

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