11/11/2008

Comus - First Utterance


One of the UK's greatest unsung bands along with Dark and Zior. They released their debut LP "First Utterance" in 1971 on Dawn records and it failed to do well due to a postal strike that held up distribution and it sank without trace making prices of the original gatefold LP to rocket. The album contains some of the best byrdy wyrdy folk along the lines of Trees,Subway,Fairports but with more of an mystic eastern feel. One of the main things about Comus is their un-nerving sound that comes from Roger Wooton's vocals delivered in a pained shrilled way that is very compelling and this is layered upon the droning eerie violin tones of Colin Pearson and the female vocals from Bobby Watson. Lyrical content is not for the faint hearted involving such themes as Rape,violence, mental disorders and murder (Not your usual skip through the folky forest). They split right after this LP only to regroup in 1974 for 2nd LP "To Keep from Crying". The line up was expanded to include Gong sax blaster Didier Malherbe among others.


First Utterance

1 comment:

Pete Sasqwax said...

hehe - I'm always behind, dude. only just discovered this after all this time. You KNOW I'm doing something for a mixtape with the bassline from "Diana"