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Gryphon — About As Curious As It Can Be
(Hux Records 027, 1975/2002, CD)

by David Ashcraft, Published 2003-02-01

About As Curious As It Can Be Cover art

This CD documents two BBC concerts from 1974 and 1975 by the wonderfully eclectic medieval progressive band, Gryphon. The liner notes by guitarist Graeme Taylor tell the tale of a trio of lads in London who started out by playing folk and medieval music to diners in a trendy vegetarian restaurant in 1971. They eventually added a bassist, a drummer, and banks of electric keyboards to their core instrumentation of recorders, krumhorns, bassoon, and guitar to create a more progressive-sounding version of early English music. Gryphon managed to set themselves apart from other “progressive” bands with their sense of whimsy and humor (the title of this album comes from a quote from the Gryphon in Alice in Wonderland). The live performances are spirited and reasonably good sounding given the fact that the recording and mixing were done simultaneously by the BBC engineers. The material is mostly from their second and fourth albums, Midnight Mushrumps and Raindance. The omission of anything from their most overtly progressive album, Red Queen to Gryphon Three, is a bit puzzling, but the band stresses their medieval roots with a Renaissance dance medley and some traditional jigs that are played at dizzying tempos. Overall this is a fine live recording that captures the history of an extremely creative and original band.

Filed under: New releases, Issue 26, 2002 releases, 1975 recordings

Related artist(s): Gryphon

 

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