Pass the clock (Mostly Autumn) (LP 3287 - 3289)

Mostly Autumn  Passengers (CD, Classic Rock Legends Records, 2003) ****  

Mostly Autumn  Storms Over London Town (CD, Mostly Autumn Records, 2006) **** 

Mostly Autumn  That Night In Leamington (2CD, Mostly Autumn Records, 2011) *** 

Genre: Prog rock

Places I remember: HMV, Fives, Fopp.

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Pass The Clock Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Gear costume: Spirit Of Autumn Past

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5

Active compensatory factors: I happened upon Mostly Autumn via a sampler (called Shine On) from Classic Rock magazine. Their song, Pass The Clock Parts 1, 2, & 3 clicked with me instantly. The cover of that sampler says '100% guaranteed goblin-free zone' and introduces '12 tracks of epic ambient symphonic metal and frankly mad new prog'. Bang on!  

BTW - It's a great sampler - it introduced me to Riverside, Porcupine Tree, The Flower Kings, Frost and Spock's Beard, as well as Mostly Autumn.

Speaking of which... their guitar heavy prog rock sound is at the Pink Floyd (Dave Gilmour influenced version) end of the spectrum, so it was a bit of a no-brainer that I would latch onto them.  

Storms Over London Town was the first Mostly Autumn album that I found in Fives, just a minute's walk from where we lived in Leigh-on-sea. I instantly fell for the band and this album. 

It is full on and glorious in its embrace of almost metal prog. The classic rock sound of co-lead vocalists Heather Findlay and Bryan Josh (Mostly Autumn is mostly his baby) won me over completely.

The band has gone through many line-up changes over the years (Pete Frame is sorely needed with his family tree chart) but Heather and Bryan are on all of these three albums.

The fact it's a single album live album also works in its favour - no flab - just killer song after killer song!  

Passengers is the only studio album I own by the band but it houses Pass The Clock Parts 1 to 3 which I still love to bits.

The double live album That Night In Leamington, celebrates Heather's last efforts with the band before leaving to go solo. Being a double it's not as cohesive as Storms Over London Town but it still gives a worthwhile overview to the band's career to that point.  

Where do they all belong? Always keen to find more of their albums but nothing doing in NZ record shops I'm afraid.

Every day a little sadder, A little madder, Someone get me a ladder

I have a real soft spot for progressive rock bands and therefore I'm a sucker for a prog sampler. I bought one yesterday - one of those el cheapo 'Essential Progressive Rock' CDs from the good people at Sanctuary Records. It joined my collection and nestled into the prog rock CD racks next to 'Frog Spawn' (12 lipsmacking new prog tracks) and others. Classic Rock magazine (left) invariably have prog specials and one such free CD a few years ago was 'Shine On' (12 tracks of epic ambient symphonic metal and frankly mad new prog). This is a brilliant collection of prog bands that has inspired me to buy a lot of albums by Porcupine Tree, Riverside and Mostly Autumn to name three. All three bands are worthy of further investigation and have albums freely available in NZ (although I bought most of their stuff in the UK).

Why prog? I love the noodling - usually the songs stretch out and include a lot of cosmic instrumental interplay/jamming/noodling. They're always skirting with the pretentious. They usually have lots of guitars going on (I'm not a Genesis fan - too little wig out guitar). They have a playfulness and intensity missing in other genres. They are not afraid to dip into jazz or classical or folk for melodic inspiration. And I guess I like the tag - progressive - it implies a forward movement. Unfortunately it gets a bad press because of all the reasons I love it but there are a lot of great bands out there playing prog (try to think beyond Yes, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Genesis). Instead seek out Van Der Graaf Generator, Caravan, Barclay James Harvest, and Procol Harum of the old school and the new prog of the three bands I've listed above.

For now I'll concentrate on Mostly Autumn. Their live album - 'Storms over London Town' is a great place to start. They have a classic rock/prog feel with female vocals (a la Grace Slick's soaring, harmony style), a terrific lead guitarist and great songs. These two songs are pretty representative of their approach - nice soft melodic accoustic strum builds into classic rock out. Cool! Go ahead - search on youtube and dailymotion for other songs by them and visit their website - http://www.mostly-autumn.com/

Mostly Autumn - The Spirit of Autumn Past
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