Comus - First Utterance 1971

Comus' first album contains an imaginative if elusive brand of experimental folk-rock, with a tense and sometimes distressed vibe. Although there are elements of traditional British folk music, there's an edginess to the songwriting and arrangements that would be entirely alien in a Fairport Convention or Pentangle disc. At times, this straddles the border between folk-rock and the kind of songs you'd expect to be sung at a witches' brew fest, the haunting supernatural atmosphere enhanced by bursts of what sound like a theramin-like violin, hand drums, flute, oboe, ghostly female backup vocals, and detours into almost tribal rhythms. All of this might be making the album sound more attractive than it is; the songs are extremely elongated and fragmented, and the male vocals often have a grating munchkin-like quality, sometimes sounding like a wizened Marc Bolan. The lyrics are impenetrable musings, mixing pastoral scenes of nature with images of gore, torture, madness, and even rape, like particularly disturbing myths being set to music. It's been reissued on CD, but here's one case where you might want to get the LP reissue (on Get Back) instead, as it comes with a bonus 12" of three songs in a similar vein as their rare 1971 EP. AMG.

listen here

Comus - To Keep From Crying 1974

After the dark twisted masterpiece of First Utterance, Comus came back a few years later with a second LP, To Keep From Crying. Even with Henry Cow bassoonist Lindsay Cooper and Gong saxophonist Didier Malherbe added to the ranks, To Keep From Crying does not get anywhere near the power of the first album. There are some dark folk songs here with both female and male vocals and a lot of progressive touches, but at the same time the record has a far more conventional rock sound, especially on the bouncy opening tracks on each side of the record, "Down (Like a Movie Star)" and "So Long Supernova." "Touch Down" is a bit creepier, with more acoustic guitars, as well as what sounds like a ghostly children's chorus and some cosmic synth tones. Other pieces like "Figure in Your Dreams" and "Perpetual Motion" offer some unusual vocal arrangements (and the latter ends with a cool tape loop effect), though nothing in the realms of the earlier record. The three experimental drone-scapes, "Waves and Caves," "Panophany," and "After the Dream," end far too quickly, as they clock in at well under a minute apiece. The record is pretty good, but it has the misfortune of paling in the shadow of its nightmarish predecessor. AMG.

listen here

Buy @ Amazon: USA - FR - UK