Marsupilami - Marsupilami 1970

Marsupilami's debut album is about as ungainly as the group's name in its strident, mordant, early progressive rock. There was a very large undertow of obscure albums with morose melodies, fuzz guitars, and organ at the end of the 1960s and very beginning of the 1970s. Marsupilami falls squarely into that bag, although it's differentiated from the American records of that type by a sort of British-European seriousness and early prog rock-jazz touches, particularly in Jessica Stanley Clarke's flute. The songs are long, winding, and portentous, with touches of the gothic and the funereal, especially in the organ and Dave Laverock's bowed guitar (particularly on the closer "Facilis Descencus Averni"). They're rather samey-sounding and unmemorable, though, and not so dark as to be as truly chilling as they might have wished. If you're looking for something in the same general ballpark that's almost equally obscure, Julian's Treatment's A Time Before This album (also from 1970) is much better than this LP, which was reissued on Get Back in 1999. AMG. listen here