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Captain Beyond has a rather legendary status in the ranks of hard '70s rock. Their fame is actually in the "cult status" category. Dawn Explosion, their third album, was a good disc, but really did not live up to the greatness of the first two releases. The only personnel change is on lead vocal, where Willie Daffern has replaced Rod Evans, and though Daffern is a decent singer, he didn't have the presence or vocal force that Evans exhibited on their two earlier albums. Daffern started his career as a drummer and in this role he played on albums by Hunger and Truk, the latter a cult act among 70s hard rock konnoisseurs who released a very good album on Columbia in 1970. After his stint in G-Force post Pipedream he released a solo album on Rochsire and a couple with an act called ZoomLenz.
Larry "Rhino" Reinhardt's guitar riffs hard when the going gets tough and waxes melodic at the appropriate introspective moments, but other than one passable pop song ("Do or Die") and an amusing Jeff Beck-ish instrumental ("Oblivion"), the remaining tracks are not really up the standard of their first two albums.
Still, in showcasing the group's unique blend of hard rock, psychedelia, and progressive-type arrangements, there is still some strong material present. The hard-edged and frantic "Icarus" and the nearly ethereal, building mini-epic "Breath of Fire (Part 1 and Part 2)" can arguably stand up to most of the material on the other releases. Where they falter here is on such songs as "If You Please" and "Midnight Memories," which seem to be trying to reach toward accessibility, but come much closer to banality and mediocrity.
Reinhardt and Caldwell reformed Captain Beyond in 1998 with Jimi Interval on vocals, Dan Frye on keyboards, and Jeff Artabasy on bass. Since then they have been performing at shows and have released a four track EP - Night Train Calling EP (2000). I will post this at a later stage, so stay tuned.
The rip included here was taken from Vinyl in FLAC Format and includes full album artwork.
Note: CD reissues split "Breath of Fire, Part 1 & Part 2" into two tracks (subtitled "A Speck Within a Sphere" and "Alone in the Cosmos", respectively), and "Oblivion" into three tracks (with the preceding "Space Interlude" and succeeding "Space Reprise" being the sound effects and percussion that bookend the main section of "Oblivion")
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NEW IMPROVED RIP
Track Listing
01 Do or Die
02 Icarus
03 Sweet Dreams
04 Fantasy
05 Breath of Fire (Parts 1 & 2)
06 If You Please
07 Midnight Memories
08 Oblivion
Band Members
Willy Daffern (vocals)
Lee Dorman (bass, vocals)
Larry "Rhino" Reinhardt (guitar)
Bobby Caldwell (drums)
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Captain Beyond Link (281Mb) New Link 25/02/2024.
the first album was a maaterpiece on percussion. Indeed, after that album, Bobby Caldwell could have hung it up retiring as incomparable among all the other incomparable percussionists. Don't think I didn't notice when having to put the flames out every time he got my turn table sizzling. Indeed, that first album from beginning to end is the pinnacle of percussion.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely agree with the comments about the debut CB album, all 4 members were performing at the peak of their powers & the songs were uniformly brilliant. the other 2 studio LPs the band made were always going to be overshadowed in comparison to that debut, however, taken on their own merits, there's a lot to enjoy on those LPs too. Just don't expect them to replicate the steamrolling cosmic eefect of their 1st album. 'Sufficiently Breathless' is mellower with a latin feel courtesy of all the additional percussion, whilst 'Dawn Explosion' harks back in places to both preceding albums, but also consoidates both styles into something fresh too. Willie Daffern's vocals are really good on this material & i like his style quite a bit. His next band, Pipedream, with Tim Bogert of Vanilla Fudge, Beck Bogert & Appice and Cactus released a lone self-titled 1979 LP which ought to appeal to fans of 'Dawn Explosion'. Top notch platyng with memorable melodic hooks but delivered without sacrificing the balls.
ReplyDeleteBTW, the bio details are in need of updating as Reinhardt unfortunately passed away a decade or more ago.
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