Ginhouse

Back in the febrile days of the early ‘70’s there was so much good album music around that people unfortunately missed some classic music.
Ginhouse are a case in point. Winners of a Battle of The Bands competition they chose not to sign for Decca but went with a management company that was part-owned by George Martin and get them access to Abbey Road. They recorded their album themselves using Quatermass keyboardsman and producer Anders Henriksson to produce it and then gave the finished recording to B&C records when Charisma were battering doors down to sign it. I actually remember hearing played at parties back in the day and the few people who had a copy were the cognoscenti – this band should have been bigger than Genesis!

Even 42 years after it was released it has a freshness and verve to the playing and writing that is a joy to behold. The more I listen to it the more I wish I could find something, anything else by the band. It is actually THAT good!
So, what is so good about a little remembered band from Newcastle whose main attribute was bad business decisions?
They have a great sense of melody and rhythm but even more, they understand pace and how to use slow and fast passages to change the emphasis on the music. They are also a three piece band which in my book is close to the golden number. Most of the music was developed playing live so that there is a real sense of the players working together – no ‘leader’ as such.

The experimentation is delightful with proggy elements thrown against excellent hard rock and some folky harmonies – at times they have a bit of Jethro Tull in their sound as well as Quatermass.
All the tracks are self-written except 1 – bizarrely they do a hard rock version of the Beatles ‘And I Love Her’ and almost pull it off. If you hadn’t heard the Beatles ballad it would work perfectly.

Esoteric have a habit of finding some rare gems and reintroducing the listening audience to some classics,
This one is a true lost gem and one of the best reissues this year.