Round And Round - Progressive Sounds Of 1974 Clamshell Box

Cherry Red Records subsidiary Esoteric Recordings offers a comprehensive overview of the wildly varying approaches to progressive rock in one of its earlier phases with lengthy compilation Round & Round: Progressive Sounds of 1974. The track listing includes 51 songs by well over 40 different bands, but this is prog-rock, so the total run time is right around five hours. The selections all come from the prog-rich year of 1974 and include bigger names of the then-burgeoning genre as well as deeper dives into more obscure acts of the time. Jethro Tull contributes the orchestral folk of "Skating Away (On the Thin Ice of a New Day)"; Nektar gives the comp the hard-rocking, horn-heavy bop of "Fidgety Queen" as well as the mellower "Early Morning Clown," both from their 74 album Down to Earth; and a spectrum of sounds comes from other notable names like Gong, Kevin Ayers, Traffic, and the Todd Rundgren-fronted group Utopia. What gives Round & Round some of its heft is the inclusion of lesser-known artists amid the ones who had relative commercial success. Keith Christmas explores playful synths and mystical imagery on the slowly unfolding "Foothills," and Bristol band Stackridge gets into the softer side of prog with their fully orchestrated instrumental track "God Speed the Plough" as well as with the more pop-minded "The Last Pimsoll." There are also songs from Hawkwind, Caravan, the Strawbs, Budgie, Man, and many, many, more, making the endless ocean of progressive rock feel a little bit less daunting by compiling some of its best, best-known, and most interesting moments from 1974 in one centralized location. ~ Fred Thomas