Sunday Sunday 1972 UK, Heavy Prog

Sunday - Sunday 1972 (UK, Heavy Prog) The only album from Glasgow (Glasgow, Scotland). A mixture of organ rock, hard rock and prog. Something between Carlos Santana and Jon Lord from an early Deep Purple ... The album was released in Germany, the other releases were not. Cover - painting artist and expressionist Lyonel Charles we discover accidentally an old disk that we never had heard before and we mean : but that’s quite good ! And we wonder why we ignored even the existence of the musicians who recorded it a long time ago. So we remember that the 1970’s were extremely prolific. There was a lot of fine groups full of hope and creativity. This Scottish quartet lacked neither energy nor a solid sense of melody. Their musical technic was improved. Even the vocals are excellent. The music could be a kind of progressive blues. A strong blues-rock is never far. The organ leads undoubtedly and sometimes, on peaceful themes, it reminds Jimmy Smith. But some sharp guitar riffs could be closer to the former Colosseum. Other comparisons could be made with Atomic Rooster... Therefore, overall, catchy melodies dominate this record. In fact, these musicians had found their own style and composed their whole materials. And that’s a big credit to give them. Why do some poor groups had a good audience and sold a gratifying number of disks while skilled and creative musicians remain unknown ? It’s a simple matter of chance in life ! And it’s time to give a small second chance here to this attractive scottish by Kjarks Tracks: All compositions written by Davy Patterson and Jimmy Forest. 01. Love Is Life - 0:00 02. I Couldn’t Face You - 6:12 03. Blues Song - 14:18 04. Man In A Boat - 18:38 05. Ain’t It Pity - 23:33 06. Tree Of Life - 27:29 07. Sad Man Reaching Utopia - 31:27 08. Fussing And Fighting - 42:20 Personnel: - Jimmy Forest - piano, organ, vocals - John Barclay - guitar, vocals - Davy Patterson - lead vocals, bass - Pete Gavin - percussion - Hugh Murphy - producer Obscurity. That word... Obscure albums, lingering in dusty archives or hidden away in boxes in the attic. when found re-released with superlative words and original artwork. I am not trying to be funny. Honestly, I love obscure prog, in particular british bands. That is not the point. The point being that all things obscure aren’t brilliant. Sometimes genius can be found but often enough there’s nothing behind “the original artwork“, just fun and games. Obscure... Yes. Sunday is an obscure band and I treasure this album, I do. I bought it several moons ago and have not regretted it once. The amount of hammond organ is immense and that can be quite enough for me. But how about them songs? What do they amount to? “Love is life“ and “I couldn’t face you“ is two pieces of great, organ driven slabs of progressive rock, the latter more of a ballad but still... “Love is life“ has some wonderful drumming aswell. The main opus of the album is the great and varied “Sad man reaching Utopia“. It is an epic of rough qualities going through several moods and changes. A great track, really worth exploring for those who’ve missed it. All in all I’d say the album is a good one but not essential in any way. It is a pleasant album with one foot in prog, one in blues, an arm in funky Santana style, the other in hard rock and the heart in the right place. Gritty, sincere and (proto)proggish in a nice way I come back every now and then. The issue with this album being, besides the tracks mentioned, that the bulk of the album is alright but never truly engaging. Still, with three great tracks and wonderful musicianship (not to mention the vocals, which is very nice indeed) the album is an endearing piece of early 70’s prog rock caught somewhere between Rare Bird and Santana. Not bad, just not by GruvanDahlman