Dave's 500 Bus Albums. No 3 - Rare Bird "Rare Bird" (1969)

I've been meaning to have a listen to UK progressive rock band Rare Bird for years , and finally here's their debut album from 1969. What I would call "creepy keyboards". You know the kind of thing - The Nice, Emerson Lake and Palmer - that echoey Hammond sound that you associate with Keith Emerson, Jon Lord, and chase sequences through Swinging London in Hammer horror films set in the early 70s.

This is true "progressive" rock music, and isn't what we'd now label as "prog rock" (a far more melodic style of music). Rhythms and time signatures change at the drop of a hat, the soundscape is very stark and brittle, dominated by keyboards and bass, and at first listen you'd swear there was no guitar anywhere in the mix. Overall it has a doom-laden and cavernous sound, but you can definitely hear the influences of many of the later 70s bands in here. Bits of Black Sabbath sound like this, and a lot of Genesis. In fact the Genesis debut album wouldn't look out of place next to "Rare Bird" on the shelves of a 1971 University student's room. This is not to say that these bands were directly influenced by Rare Bird, but more that this album gives us a window into a style of music that was very prevelent at the time.

Is it a classic? Probably. Is it any good? I'm not sure. To my ears in 2011 it's a difficult listen and to be honest I think time has passed Rare Bird by.