EMI 1973 / Angel Air 2017 / Think Like A Key 2025
On The Frontier
There and back again: long-forgotten borderline adventure of former Yardbird and his intrepid cohorts gets revisited and refreshed.
“I just fancied singing my own songs and composing them on the piano”: that’s how, in Jim McCarty‘s words, this band came to be once the drummer had left RENAISSANCE in the middle of sessions for their second album. Moving to the front as a singer, he secured a solid ensemble to flesh out those compositions, with ex-RAW MATERIAL guitarist Dave Greene and MANFRED MANN CHAPTER THREE drummer Craig Collinge opening it all to improvisational possibilities, yet the enterprise proved to be short-lived. The band’s only LP may have sunk without a trace – only that trace was always there as a missing link in the great melodicist’s chain of timeless tunes.
Jim’s former group would cover the title piece of “On The Frontier” a few months down the line, but there’s a charged urgency to the ivories-driven original to send ripples across the tracks and veer away before voices, and Graham Preskett’s violin. elevate the country-tinctured “Midnight Train” above the painstakingly textured surface of the record – best felt on “Sepia Sister” which, in its grand understatement, could shine on McCarty’s next venture, ILLUSION. In a SHOOT context, though, the momentum-gaining “Living Blind” unfolds as a demonstration of the band’s jazzy edge, from electric keyboard strokes to the shards of brass that are also sprinkled over Greene’s acid-kissed six strings to add a touch of psychedelic delight to “The Neon Life” whose previously unreleased live-on-radio version extended it to highlight the collective’s interplay and vocal harmonies.
Another bonus, “Storms As Sorrows” where wah-wah has a field day, didn’t make the cut, but if it did there would be a nice arc between this number and an almost orchestral “Ships And Sails” which is weaving exquisite acoustic lace around the same bobbing bass. Just as majestic, and helped by a new RENAISSANCE’s John Tout on piano, “Old Time Religion” paints patinated lines over a hymnal swell, yet it’s “Mean Customer” that rhythmic wonders are housed in to blow off the cobwebs and welcome raga into the fold, while “The Boogie” introduces a western sway flavors to the mix
Slightly exotic, although not going all over the place, the album would struggle to find a listener, so after a handful of concerts, the players became disillusioned and soon went separate ways for their only collaboration to remain an essential piece of British art-rock rock puzzle.
****
