Harvesting the fruits of a post-Pepper musical plantation, 1970 was the springtime for rock’s Maximal Trilustrum. The UK was brimming with beguiling debuts from marathon runners like Argent, Barclay James Harvest, Black Sabbath, Curved Air, Emerson Lake & Palmer, Gentle Giant, Hawkwind, Lindisfarne, Steeleye Span, Stray, Supertramp, UFO, Uriah Heep, and Wishbone Ash; in addition to ever-captivating one-offs from Aardvark, Affinity, Delivery, Dear Mr. Time, Demon Fuzz, Elias Hulk, The Fox, Justine, Pacific Drift, PC Kent, Quatermass, T2, Titus Groan, and The World.
The recent Nederboom exhibited continental might with entries by Ahora Mazda, Apartment One, Earth & Fire, Mr. Albert Show and Machine, whilst the creative wand sparkled over Denmark (Alrune Rod, Culpeper’s Orchard, Day of Phoenix, Pan, Rainbow Band, Savage Rose) France (Alain Markusfeld, Eden Rose, Frantz, Magma, Triangle, Trust) and Germany (Andromeda, Drosselbart, Frumpy, Guru Guru, Lucifer’s Friend, Murphy Blend, Nosferatu, Orange Peel, Out of Focus, Thrice Mice).
Stateside soul-jams heated to the grooves of Funkadelic, Mandrill, The Meters, The Nite-Liters, Purple Image, Shuggie Otis, Tower of Power, and War, while rock and jazz fused worldwide: from the brassy raunch of Aquila, Brainchild, Dreams, Gas Mask, The Greatest Show on Earth, Hannibal, If, Room, Second Coming, Trifle, Walrus, and Zoo, to the mind-boggling chromatics of Bob Downes, Egg, Goliath, Supersister, Mad Curry, Skin Alley, and Web.
The bucolic-minded basked in the backwoods vibes of Agincourt, Accolade, Cochise, Forest, Fotheringay, Jade, Magna Carta, Storyteller, Strawbs, Trader Horne, Trees, and Westwind, while the unadorned musings of Al Stewart, Bill Fay, Cat Stevens, Essra Mohawk, Linda Perhacs, Mick Softley, Rodriguez, Roy Harper, Shawn Phillips, Simon Finn, Vashti Bunyan, and Wil Malone embodied strength in the solitary spirit.
Meanwhile, the post-psych diaspora radiated vastly superior lifeforms with the organ-raised dynamics of Atomic Rooster, Beggars Opera, Cressida, Czar, Genesis, Gracious, Marsupilami, Raw Material, Van Der Graaf Generator, and Warhorse, and through the axe-wielding forces of Deep Purple, Free, Gravy Train, The Groundhogs, Love Sculpture, May Blitz, Patto, Taste, Toe Fat, and Trapeze.
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