![Song to Comus: The Complete Collection [Import]](http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0007W0KJ2.01.TZZZZZZZ.jpg)
| 1. Diana | |||
| 2. Herald | |||
| 3. Drip Drip | |||
| 4. Song To Comus | |||
| 5. Bite | |||
| 6. Bitten | |||
| 7. Prisoner | |||
| 8. Diana | |||
| 9. In The Lost Queen's Eyes | |||
| 10. Winter Is A Coloured Bird | |||
| 11. Down (Like A Movie Star) | |||
| 12. Touch Down | |||
| 13. Waves & Caves | |||
| 14. Figure In Your Dreams | |||
| 15. Children Of The Universe | |||
| 16. So Long Supernova | |||
| 17. Perpetual Motion | |||
| 18. Panophany | |||
| 19. Get Yourself A Man | |||
| 20. To Keep From Crying | |||
|
See all 21 tracks on this disc
| |||
Editorial Reviews
Product Description
Taking their name from a character in a John Milton poem, Comus was a short-lived but powerful folk-rock band that mixed elements of King Crimson with the influences of Pentangle, Fairport Convention and other more traditional folk outfits. This 2 disc Complete Collection contains the band's debut, First Utterance (1971) plus the Dawn EP and To Keep From Crying (1974). Castle Music. 2005.
In 1971, when hippies still roamed the earth , many strange records were made, and none stranger than this one. It's a complete one-off. Where to begin. Shall I describe it as an acoustic death metal album? Could be. It's not so much a piece of music as a pagan ritual involving some kind of sacrifice, and Comus are not a band, they're a very small cult. One thing which is sacrificed from the get-go is traditional song structures. Like the Incredible String Band, these melodies stretch out, meander, get lost, find themselves again, always surprising the listener with sudden flights of beauty as the two gorgeous high choirgirl female voices twine together creating lovely dreams which get pulverised by the guy with the goat-like bellow, a dead ringer for Roger Chapman (from Family, a contemporary band) and also strangely called Roger (Wootton).
The album creates its own unique style with acoustic guitars, violin, flute, percussion (as opposed to drums), and its two opposing male female ugly/beautiful lustful/chaste voices. It's demented, exciting, disturbing and really creepy, and very compelling, and it couldn't be sustained at this pitch - when they were allowed to make their second album, a couple of years later, the magic had completely vanished and they were just another second-rate folk band.
In 1971 Comus were completely ignored, and understandably so - too nasty and weird for folkies, too acoustic for anyone else. But great music will always survive, and so Comus crawls like an unstoppable cockroach back to the surface.
This record is for the adventurous.
The first disc, which contains the band's debut album, First Utterance, plus some single and previously unreleased material, is an amazing document of the grey area between the folk-rock and progressive rock genres in Britain in the late 60's/early 70's, a cross pollination that resulted in bands like the Strawbs, the Incredible String Band, and perhaps most well-known, Jethro Tull. Comus became a distant footnote in that hybrid form, but First Utterance is a marvelous document of that footnote. Savage, dark, and unabashedly pagan, it plays like the folk-rock equivalent of early Black Sabbath. The musicianship is strong, with an anything-goes style probably closer to the ISB than the other aforementioned bands, with bongo breaks, string quartet passages, and angry acoustic guitar strumming behind tales of human sacrifice, rape, and old-school (and I mean OLD school) eerieness. To me, it seems like this great band that I knew existed but had never heard, which of course means it never sold. This one is a *****, easily.
Which makes the second disc all the more dissapointing. Given a second chance at the brass ring by a then-fledging Virgin Records, the creative heads of the first Comus formed a new band, and cut the album "To Keep From Crying". The UK music scene had moved away from the folkies and into the Bowie/T. Rex glitter rock chart domination. "Crying" sounds like a half-hearted attempt to jump on the same bandwagon. Gone are the "Wicker Man" like tales of horror, and in their place are more benign cosmic/space boogie in the Marc Bolan mode, though without Bolan's showmanship or sense of fun, and alternately, without the mystery and decadent atmosphere of Bowie's Ziggy Stardust years. Perhaps more than that, Comus never solves the problem of doing glitter without electric guitar solos! There is nothing wrong, per se, with the musicanship, or the songs themselves, which are competently made and performed, just the spirit is gone. It all seems too serious and studied, like an academic exercise in glam. Clearly the band was trying to reach an audience with a style that was out of their element. Tacked on to the end of the disc are two solo shots from Comus creative lion Roger Wootton, which are in the same misguided vein, though "Fiesta Fandango" is catchy in an inane novelty single way. I give this one a **, maybe a *** for historical value.
All the album lives up with that devilish affair...the loss of innocence/the innocence's lust!! We can dance with devil in search of "Diana", the free goddess of hunting...and running out chasing pure young virgins, frightening them with licking lips...well, this is all very pagan, isn't it? And Roger Wootton the perfect incarnation of that melancholic devil, his impressive intonation is catchy as a gargoyle in a gothic cathedral...at the end there's a sad Christian and a prisioner in his dungeon, reaching for freedom...the record's coda is a frenzy repetition of the word "insane", certainly a unusual moment even in 1971...I think Comus, without knowing, invented the acid-psych-gothic-folk or something like that!!
Well, "To Keep From Crying" (1974) is another different story...the group, now augmented by other musicians, seated down and forgot the morbid imagery...the music and lyrics are more dream-like tales, sometimes a little urban or sentimental, driving all to a more conventional collection of songs, without losing a certain eccentricity of the past..."Touch Down" is the greatest moment, a perfect ballad...but all the album is very interesting, balancing like a troubled ship in the ocean, growing up with several listenings...
This "Nice Pair" is completed with the inclusion (for the first time in cd, as is with "To Keep From Crying") of the maxi-single (predecessor of "First Utterance") containing two terrific non-album songs and a slightly different version of "Diana". A previously unreleased one is included to end up the first cd. In the second we have as bonus tracks, Roger Wootton's solo single (and the b-side) of 1974, nice to have in this completist edition...
The only negative aspect of Castle compilation is the lack of both covers. There's only, inside, a reduced image of "First Utterance" inner gatefold and outer cover art, but none from "To Keep From Crying"...it's really a pity not to have (as does Bgo records, for instance) the two covers side-by-side or as is usual to do, the two covers in different pages...instead of that, we have a very conventional cover with any image, at least they need a strong one...
Mikael Akerfeldt from the experimental death metal outfit Opeth helped, I believe, to resurrect this gem. In the numerous interviews I've read with Mikael, there is one question that seems to always be there:what music influences you? Mikaels reply is always an interesting one because you know you're going to get a list of high quality, rare, and somewhat odd music. Comus is one of those bands.
If your reading this you more than likely know how bizarre the music is. Sinister beauty.
Taking their name from a character in a John Milton poem, Comus was a short-lived but powerful folk-rock band that mixed elements of King Crimson with the influences of Pentangle, Fairport Convention and other more traditional folk outfits. This 2 disc Complete Collection contains the band's debut, First Utterance (1971) plus the Dawn EP and To Keep From Crying (1974). Castle Music. 2005.
Song to Comus: The Complete Collection,Comus,Castle Music UK,Acid Folk,British Folk,Pop,Prog-Rock/Art Rock,Rock,Rock/Pop
Song to Comus: The Complete Collection [Import]
Average customer rating: 
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Song to Comus: The Complete Collection
Comus Manufacturer: Castle Music UK ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD  General
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ASIN: B0007W0KJ2 Release Date: 2005-06-20 |
Tracks:
- Diana
- Herald
- Drip Drip
- Song To Comus
- Bite
- Bitten
- Prisoner
- Diana
- In The Lost Queen's Eyes
- Winter Is A Coloured Bird
- Down (Like A Movie Star)
- Touch Down
- Waves & Caves
- Figure In Your Dreams
- Children Of The Universe
- So Long Supernova
- Perpetual Motion
- Panophany
- Get Yourself A Man
- To Keep From Crying
- After The Dream
Album Description
Taking their name from a character in a John Milton poem, Comus was a short-lived but powerful folk-rock band that mixed elements of King Crimson with the influences of Pentangle, Fairport Convention and other more traditional folk outfits. This 2 disc Complete Collection contains the band's debut, First Utterance (1971) plus the Dawn EP and To Keep From Crying (1974). Castle Music. 2005.Customer Reviews:
Creepy, demented, almost essential.......2006-11-13
In 1971, when hippies still roamed the earth , many strange records were made, and none stranger than this one. It's a complete one-off. Where to begin. Shall I describe it as an acoustic death metal album? Could be. It's not so much a piece of music as a pagan ritual involving some kind of sacrifice, and Comus are not a band, they're a very small cult. One thing which is sacrificed from the get-go is traditional song structures. Like the Incredible String Band, these melodies stretch out, meander, get lost, find themselves again, always surprising the listener with sudden flights of beauty as the two gorgeous high choirgirl female voices twine together creating lovely dreams which get pulverised by the guy with the goat-like bellow, a dead ringer for Roger Chapman (from Family, a contemporary band) and also strangely called Roger (Wootton).
The album creates its own unique style with acoustic guitars, violin, flute, percussion (as opposed to drums), and its two opposing male female ugly/beautiful lustful/chaste voices. It's demented, exciting, disturbing and really creepy, and very compelling, and it couldn't be sustained at this pitch - when they were allowed to make their second album, a couple of years later, the magic had completely vanished and they were just another second-rate folk band.
In 1971 Comus were completely ignored, and understandably so - too nasty and weird for folkies, too acoustic for anyone else. But great music will always survive, and so Comus crawls like an unstoppable cockroach back to the surface.
This record is for the adventurous.
Travel to the beat of a different bongo.......2006-09-01
Fierce folk-rock, for one disc, at least.......2006-05-02
The first disc, which contains the band's debut album, First Utterance, plus some single and previously unreleased material, is an amazing document of the grey area between the folk-rock and progressive rock genres in Britain in the late 60's/early 70's, a cross pollination that resulted in bands like the Strawbs, the Incredible String Band, and perhaps most well-known, Jethro Tull. Comus became a distant footnote in that hybrid form, but First Utterance is a marvelous document of that footnote. Savage, dark, and unabashedly pagan, it plays like the folk-rock equivalent of early Black Sabbath. The musicianship is strong, with an anything-goes style probably closer to the ISB than the other aforementioned bands, with bongo breaks, string quartet passages, and angry acoustic guitar strumming behind tales of human sacrifice, rape, and old-school (and I mean OLD school) eerieness. To me, it seems like this great band that I knew existed but had never heard, which of course means it never sold. This one is a *****, easily.
Which makes the second disc all the more dissapointing. Given a second chance at the brass ring by a then-fledging Virgin Records, the creative heads of the first Comus formed a new band, and cut the album "To Keep From Crying". The UK music scene had moved away from the folkies and into the Bowie/T. Rex glitter rock chart domination. "Crying" sounds like a half-hearted attempt to jump on the same bandwagon. Gone are the "Wicker Man" like tales of horror, and in their place are more benign cosmic/space boogie in the Marc Bolan mode, though without Bolan's showmanship or sense of fun, and alternately, without the mystery and decadent atmosphere of Bowie's Ziggy Stardust years. Perhaps more than that, Comus never solves the problem of doing glitter without electric guitar solos! There is nothing wrong, per se, with the musicanship, or the songs themselves, which are competently made and performed, just the spirit is gone. It all seems too serious and studied, like an academic exercise in glam. Clearly the band was trying to reach an audience with a style that was out of their element. Tacked on to the end of the disc are two solo shots from Comus creative lion Roger Wootton, which are in the same misguided vein, though "Fiesta Fandango" is catchy in an inane novelty single way. I give this one a **, maybe a *** for historical value.
Here comes...Comus !!!! (A pity we haven't both covers!).......2005-11-12
All the album lives up with that devilish affair...the loss of innocence/the innocence's lust!! We can dance with devil in search of "Diana", the free goddess of hunting...and running out chasing pure young virgins, frightening them with licking lips...well, this is all very pagan, isn't it? And Roger Wootton the perfect incarnation of that melancholic devil, his impressive intonation is catchy as a gargoyle in a gothic cathedral...at the end there's a sad Christian and a prisioner in his dungeon, reaching for freedom...the record's coda is a frenzy repetition of the word "insane", certainly a unusual moment even in 1971...I think Comus, without knowing, invented the acid-psych-gothic-folk or something like that!!
Well, "To Keep From Crying" (1974) is another different story...the group, now augmented by other musicians, seated down and forgot the morbid imagery...the music and lyrics are more dream-like tales, sometimes a little urban or sentimental, driving all to a more conventional collection of songs, without losing a certain eccentricity of the past..."Touch Down" is the greatest moment, a perfect ballad...but all the album is very interesting, balancing like a troubled ship in the ocean, growing up with several listenings...
This "Nice Pair" is completed with the inclusion (for the first time in cd, as is with "To Keep From Crying") of the maxi-single (predecessor of "First Utterance") containing two terrific non-album songs and a slightly different version of "Diana". A previously unreleased one is included to end up the first cd. In the second we have as bonus tracks, Roger Wootton's solo single (and the b-side) of 1974, nice to have in this completist edition...
The only negative aspect of Castle compilation is the lack of both covers. There's only, inside, a reduced image of "First Utterance" inner gatefold and outer cover art, but none from "To Keep From Crying"...it's really a pity not to have (as does Bgo records, for instance) the two covers side-by-side or as is usual to do, the two covers in different pages...instead of that, we have a very conventional cover with any image, at least they need a strong one...
Not for the Weary.......2005-07-08
Mikael Akerfeldt from the experimental death metal outfit Opeth helped, I believe, to resurrect this gem. In the numerous interviews I've read with Mikael, there is one question that seems to always be there:what music influences you? Mikaels reply is always an interesting one because you know you're going to get a list of high quality, rare, and somewhat odd music. Comus is one of those bands.
If your reading this you more than likely know how bizarre the music is. Sinister beauty.
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