Amber Soundroom
Fresh Maggots -LP-(UK,1971,re.2005)***°'
At the time of Fresh Maggots sole album on RCA in 1971 this duo, Mick Burgoyne and Leigh Dolphin were just 19. Since then it wasn’t entirely forgotten. The last 10 years it was bootleg-reissued on CD a couple of times (in UK, South-Korea,..). What for me made the music so strong are the wistful happy acoustic songs with attractive vocals, accompanied by acoustic guitars and some flute, mixed here and there with soaring electric fuzz guitars. This gives the songs with fuzz an acid folkrock feel, while the more acoustic guitar songs, -some with flute and glockenspiel-, are with a spring time romantic sweetness in style, improved with a couple of great orchestrations (like on “Rosemary Hill” and “Spring” and “Who’s to die”). Also the guitar pickings, like on “Elizabeth R”, are worth mentioning. As the title suggests they have references to the refined music styles of Elizabethian days. The last 6 minutes track, “Frustration”, is another highlight, with layers of rocking guitar arrangements : fuzz guitar with acoustic guitar, then with whirling orchestrations on top of the song. This item is considered generally to be a classic, and it deserves to be known as such.
- Another reissue from the Amber Soundroom label, Busker I reviewed at next page
