GILGAMESH s/t UK LP Progressive Jazz Rock Canterbury Scene NEAR MINT PROG PSYCH

	£		48
	$		64

GILGAMESH - SELF-TITLED ALBUM
Original pressing on the Caroline label (CA 2007) from 1975. The sleeve is in excellent condition and the record is in near mint condition.

Gilgamesh was a progressive jazz-rock band that grew out of the U.K.'s Cantebury Scene, led by keyboardist Alan Gowen who later went on to form National Health. Besides Gowen on this record is Phil Lee (guitars); Jeff Clyne (basses); Michael Travis (drums & percussion); Amanda Parsons (vocals). Hatfield & the North' keyboardist Dave Stewart was co-producer on this record. Most of this album is knotty instrumental fusion, comparable to National Health and Hatfield and the North. If you are a fan of National Health, Henry Cow, Hatfield and the old Soft Machine (and other Canterbury Scenesters), Gilgamesh follows similar traditions of offering you challenging music for your mind. Hard to find on either vinyl or CD, Rare.


Here is a review from allmusic.com:
Esoteric’s 2011 remastered reissue of Gilgamesh’s 1975 eponymous debut recording provides a 21st century opportunity to investigate a fine group that emerged during the waning days of Britain’s Canterbury scene. The album by keyboardist Alan Gowen’s quartet -- also featuring guitarist Phil Lee, bassist Jeff Clyne, and drummer Mike Travis in this incarnation -- was issued by Virgin Records’ budget-line Caroline imprint. By the mid-‘70s, Virgin’s support for bands of this ilk was beginning to wane, with punk and new wave soon ruling the day. Arriving late in the game, Gowen and company sounded most similar to Canterbury supergroup Hatfield and the North, and in fact Hatfields keyboardist Dave Stewart co-produced the album. Gilgamesh had clearly mastered the Hatfields’ suites’n’segues approach to Canterbury-style complexity while sidestepping blatant imitation -- for the most part. Certainly from the first notes of opening three-part suite “One End More/Phil’s Little Dance/Worlds of Zin,” Gilgamesh prove capable of nimble thematic lines and knotty stops and starts, while admirably refraining from pyrotechnics. The suite's kitchen-sink approach makes room for King Crimson-ish Mellotron and grand piano flourishes (recalling Keith Tippett on Lizard) as well as Stevie Wonder-ish funk-lite clavinet, but the uniform production smooths out such quirky juxtapositions. “Lady and Friend” provides a true jolt, with Clyne’s lullaby-like bass melody, seasoned by light electric piano/guitar accompaniment, preceded by a brief blast of full-band unison riffing seemingly designed as a rude interruption.

Just over a minute and a half long, Gowen’s “Arriving Twice” is a wonderful interlude, with acoustic guitar, electric piano, and synth sketching a melody that draws from jazz, folk, and classical but ultimately transcends such labels; it’s the perfect segue into “Island of Rhodes,” the first portion of the album’s next three-part suite, with the track’s namesake keyboard floating in nocturnal ambience a la In a Silent Way before the introduction of a dreamily beautiful theme accompanied by the subtlest percussive embellishments from Travis. The suite ultimately offers its own share of unpredictable twists, ending with a driving vamp as guitarist Lee cuts loose, but the production again manages to avoid shattering the prevailing vibe. The album does court Hatfields imitation here and there -- “Jamo and Other Boating Disasters” features Amanda Parsons’ soprano vocals in pure Northettes style during an interlude that clearly strives for the drama of The Rotters’ Club’s “Mumps” coda, while elsewhere Lee employs a decidedly Phil Miller-esque electric guitar tone. But Gowen himself avoids obvious Canterbury devices, eschewing fuzz organ solos during the music’s most animated moments in favor of round-toned synth voicings that snake and float through rather than pierce the air. Gilgamesh’s studio-based forays may have tamped down the band’s woollier aspects revealed by the Cuneiform archival recording Arriving Twice issued long after Gowen’s sadly premature death, but in retrospect, the keyboardist and his bandmates were charting their own inimitable direction, too briefly explored but holding up admirably in recordings such as this, decades after the fact.

Musicians:
ALAN GOWAN / acoustic and electric piano, clavinet, synthesizers, mellotron
JEFF CLYNE / bass
PHIL LEE / electric and acoustic guitars
MICHAEL TRAVIS / drums

Tracks:
side 1
1. One End More / Phil's Little Dance - For Phil Miller's Trousers / Worlds Of Zin (10:20)
- a) One End More
- b) Phil's Little Dance - For Phil Miller's Trousers
- c) Worlds Of Zin
2. Lady and Friend (3:44)
3. Notwithstanding (4:45)

side 2
4. Arriving Twice (1:36)
5. Island Of Rhodes / Paper Boat - For Doris / As If Your Eyes Were Open (6:39)
- a) Island Of Rhodes
- b) Paper Boat - For Doris
- c) As If Your Eyes Were Open
6. For Absent Friends (1:11)
7. We Are All / Someone Else's Food / Jamo And Other Boating Disasters - From The Holiday Of The Same Name (7:48)
- a) We Are All
- b) Someone Else's Food
- c) Jamo And Other Boating Disasters - From The Holiday Of The Same Name
8. Just C (0:45)

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