Nirvana

Most noted for the hit single ‘Rainbow Chaser’ Nirvana was the brainchild of Patrick Campbell Lyons and Alex Spyropoulos. Campbell-Lyons had been active in the London underground scene since the mid-sixties, most notably as vocalist and founder of Second Thoughts, but Nirvana was the first ‘Progressive’ band he was involved with and they released a number of albums on Island & Pye before the amicable split of the two lead protagonists.

‘Local Anaesthetic’ was the first of these two albums, released on Vertigo in 1971 following the split and definitely following the path of early seventies psyche/boogie/hippy. The album is based around two long tracks – as was pretty common in the day – ‘Modus Operandi’ & ‘Home’ with changes in tempo and cut-ins of what would now be called ‘samples’. You can hear snatches of jazz thrown in with Hammond based R&B leading in to some rough-edged urchin-rock and horn laden boogie. It could be a mess but the quality of the playing is great and the music has real coherence – it does follow a logical pattern even if not obvious at first listen.

The second of these two classics was released the next year and has a very different structure and feel. ‘Songs Of Love & Praise’ is rather more conventional in form consisting of 9 actual ‘songs’ and including a reworked ‘Rainbow Chaser’ and ‘Pentecost Hotel’ from the 1st incarnation of the band. It is easier to grasp and the playing is certainly very fine – various of the scene luminaries appear including all of Jade Warrior.

Of the two albums ‘Local Anaesthetic’ is the more satisfying and certainly more complex but the songs on ‘Songs Of Love & Praise’ are excellent and it is a satisfying listen in its own right.

As ever, Esoteric have packaged in some very interesting bonus tracks and if you are into British Progressive these are pretty well indispensable.