United Artists 1975 / Think Like A Key 2026
English dreamer’s first adventures in the land of sonic psychedelia, restored in vivid colors and wrapped in contextual nuance.
& THE DEEP FIX –
The New Worlds Fair
Never content to be famous only as a fantasy writer, known to some of his aficionados as a lyricist for HAWKWIND and BLUE ÖYSTER CULT, over the last decade Michael Moorcock has been steadily reclaiming his musicianship from the annals of history – not only collaborating with SPIRITS BURNING but also revitalizing THE DEEP FIX to deliver "Live At The Terminal Café" and show this old sci-fi project is still possessed with life. Yet while the venerated author seeks melodic inspiration in futuristic concepts nowadays, Moorcock’s past deserves delving into too, and the semicentennial anniversary of Michael’s artistic debut provides his fans with a fine possibility to do so and to look at the album with fresh eyes. Unlike the record’s previous reissues, the golden jubilee release won’t insert earlier numbers in the original running order; nor will it stop at the longplay’s close, because those tracks’ belated surfacing brought the ensemble back. As a result, there’s an interesting arc under creative scrutiny here.
Of course, the placement of several demos between the 1975 album’s end and the bass-heavy, gloomily arresting “Brothel In Rosenstrasse” single from 1982, where the soulful “Good Girl, Bad Girl” resided as well, may destroy a bit of magic, despite the great importance of the softly ferocious “Kings Of Speed” which would be given a different tune by Dave Brock and land on "Warrior On The Edge Of Time" three months after “The New Worlds Fair” found the guitarist lend his licks to the belligerent swirl of “Last Merry Go Round” as one of Moorcock’s prominent guests. Michael’s permanent partners in rhyme were less celebrated performers, though. Singing six-stringers Graham Charnock and Steve Gilmore, who co-penned half of the pieces on offer, shine on the likes of the funky “You’re A Hero” and the riff-driven “Octopus” – but first and foremost, perhaps, on the groovily memorable “Dodgem Dude” and the sax-smeared “Starcruiser” that, laid down in 1974 with Moorcock’s vocals at the fore to serve as a starting point for the entire “Fair” trip, got salvaged much later, when the auteur became part of the Flicknife stable. Strangely, the declamatory “Candy Floss Cowboy” had to be stripped of its song form and be distilled to pure poetry in order to turn into the proper platter’s intro and set a spoken-word momentum in motion.
Once launched, the histrionics, anchored here and there with snippets of narration, don’t get in the way of the country pleasures the mellifluous “Fair Dealer” serves up, helped by Simon House’s violin or the rockabilly rumble the rambunctious “Sixteen Year Old Doom” rides on, flaunting Snowy White’s solo down the middle. It’s interesting nonetheless, to see how “Song For Marlene” speeds up to switch from faux-orchestral balladry to an infectious dance cut, how “Come To The Fair” reaches for folksy sensibilities, and how “In The Name Of Rock And Roll” slyly reveals the band’s love for middle-of-the-road cheesiness. But if “Ferris Wheel” takes sentimentality to the verge of gorgeous tragedy, “Dude’s Dream (Rolling In The Ruins)” resolves the album’s flow rather theatrically, climaxing with a singalong destined to linger in one’s mental cache for a long time.
Its pages might have yellowed, yet, as a travelogue documenting a dangerous journey of fancy, “The New Worlds Fair” hasn’t lost its charm in the fifty years which passed since the record emerged.
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