HARD STUFF 'BOLEX DEMENTIA' ORIG UK HARD ROCK '72
£
18
$
24
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Description
Hard Stuff
'Bolex Dementia'
Mercury, USA, 1973
SRM 1 663
SUPREME BRITISH hard rock power trio mentored and signed by Deep Purple to their Vanity imprint Purple Records. It was a great signing alright, the bands pedigree included guitarist ex Atomic Rooster members John Du Cann and drummer Paul Hammond with bassist John Gustafason who was previously with progressive Harvest signings Quatermass. Cann was also a member of prog psych pioneers Andromeda.
Musically the band occupy a brilliant and fertile hard rock sound, cut very much from the same cloth as masters of the craft Deep Purple, Atomic Rooster and Led Zeppelin. It's all built on big unfussy riffs and chunky hard rock grooves with neat twists and turns suggesting that these guys were no strangers to the progressive rock environs. Not that its a prog rock band masquerading as a power trio, far from it, as the basic approach is way too raw and untreated with blasting rhythm work and slicing guitar.
Interestingly, the band approach this album with a sense of maturity. Their debut was a full-on hard rock fire work display but this one is a little more throughtful - I think the word is progressive. Think Led Zeppelin 'IV' rather than the heavy blues of Led Zep 'I'. Don't go running away with the notion that they wimped out, far from it. The album is as heavy and as engaging as the debut but the songs and arrangements are definitely more mature displaying a sense of majesty and awe. This is a band that plays with intelligence and power building riffs from the ground up before they explode into the stratosphere. Killer stuff includes 'Roll A Rocket', 'Ragman', 'Spider's Web', 'Sick 'N Tired', 'Jumpin' Thumpin' and the title track amongst others of equal heaviousity.
One of the best early seventies British hard rock albums right up there with other obscurities such as Tear Gas, Captain Beyond and Jericho.
Pressing: Mercury, USA, 1973
Vinyl: Nice clean condition. No spindle marks on labels just a few surface pressing blemishes on vinyl - common to all US pressings of this era. Grades as very nice Ex
Cover: No visible signs of use - uncirculated. Issued in a beautiful US alternative to UK cover design. Superior in every way actually. Sharp corners, no dings, no bends, no ring wear, no split seams and a virtually invisible surface crease - I had to look hard to view it. Spine is stiff, square and totally uncrushed. Tiny drill hole bottom right. Impossible to find like this after 42 years. Looks like it walked out of the factory yesterday. Grades as shop fresh MINT-!
Inserts: None
Matrix:
1st Pressing
Side One: SRM 1 663 A
Side Two: SRM 1 663 B
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