After the band Greenslade split, keyboardist Dave Greenslade recorded this 1976 solo album – something of a flop the year punk broke and declared florid synth-players to be evil incarnate. It now appears on CD for the first time, which proves you can’t keep a good Hohner Electra piano down forever.
Yes, it sounds outlandishly dated, with the kind of chintzy mock-classical flourishes that gave prog a bad name, but its time-warp tropes – such as the Roger Dean cover – are also its charm. There’s a deft melancholy running through its movements, and the song Time Takes My Time echoes the more mournful side of Robert Wyatt. Lavish orchestrations are by Simon Jeffes (Penguin Café Orchestra).
Tagged on to the end, and thus killing the mood, is Dave Greenslade’s theme to the BBC series Gangsters, on which his some-time Colosseum bandmate Chris Farlowe’s vocals make a foghorn sound understated. Thoroughly quaint./o:p
