Battered Ornaments – The Crosswords And The Safety Pins
Battered Ornaments – Staggered
Battered Ornaments – Smoke Rings
I was initially drawn to this record because of the surrealist cover art. Not knowing anything about the band, I originally thought they were called Mantle-Piece and the record was The Battered Ornaments, a look at the spine fixed that. When I checked things out inside the gatefold, I found that they definitely fit my criteria in choosing psych/prog-rock records from this period of time, with reeds, flutes, organ, “african” percussion and even tambourine listed in the credits in addition to the usual guitars and drums. At the very reasonable price of $6 (downright bottom of the barrell pricing at Burbank’s Atomic!), it was worth a gamble to check them out.
Turns out, the Battered Ornaments were an English group that originally featured Pete Brown. Brown is notable for his collabortions with Cream, co-writing many of their hit songs. As the story goes the band recorded “Mantle-Piece,” their second album, only to unceremoniously kick Brown out of the band before releasing the record. Brown’s vocals were removed and Chris Speeding magically inserted his vocals into the mix.
Personally, nothing on Brown or Speeding, I would have preferred if they had just released this as an instrumental record. I really love the sound of this record, especially Rob Tait’s drums. On the slightly slower songs like “Sunshades” the instrumental “Staggered” and my personal favorite “The Crosswords & the Safety Pins” the drums have this huge and slightly hollow sound, just perfect to Hip-Hop tuned ears. They’re also super crisp on the upbeat numbers like “Smoke Rings,” which has this really great psychedelic passage with flute and electric guitar after the vocals drop out in the first minute or two. Unfortunately, there are no really clean breaks, Tait’s drums always seem to be on the verge of massive breakdowns but they never materialize (though there still is plenty of spots to chop up, if that’s your thing).
In terms of overall musicality the group has more of a slightly jazzy prog feel to their work, not as heavy as King Crimson not as subtle as McDonald & Giles, but a really great mix of sounds. Apparently the UK Harvest versions of this record go for big money, alas my copy is the US version, but for $6 it still is a steal and maybe one of my top finds of the first half of 2010.
Cheers,
Michael