First Light - First Light (1978)

(Australian 1978-1979)

In early 1978, the band Aleph fell apart. Later in the year, Ron Carpenter formed First Light, an obscure band from Northern NSW which issued a self-titled, self-financed album. Some sources report the release date as being 1979 [see havegravity.com], however according to John Sayers [at johnlsayers.com], a friend of his who knew the band, stated that 1978 was the correct release year. I'm gonna go with 1978. 

Australian band First Light's rare self-titled album is a concoction of mid-70's jazz-rock, jazz-fusion and progressive rock with prominent and proficient interplay between the sax, electric piano and the electric guitar with the occasional moog lead; one online reviewer comparing them to Aussie bands Mackenzie Theory and Crossfire. The music is predominantly instrumental with the exception of three tracks which feature female vocals - the standouts are the dreamy flute, mellotron and classical guitar driven prog of 'Zenith' (the sound on this track is quite different to the rest of jazz-oriented material on the album) and the frantic jazz-rock track 'Earthwave', which features some Linda Hoyle-esque vocals courtesy of Marian Henderson.

                                                   

The album was privately released on the M.F.S. label, which had been based out of the Music Farm Studios in Coorabell, Northern NSW. The only other album on this label is the 1977  'Just Playing' Compilation', used to promote the newly-created studios and the many artists and bands based in the Byron Bay area; this release seems to be much more difficult to track down than the First Light album, which is quite rare itself.

First Light consisted of John Gray on Guitars, Harry Freeman on pianos and keyboards, Graham Jesse on saxophones and flute, Allan Freeman on bass and most notably, Ron Carpenter (see left) on drums and mellotron, who was the main composer for Australian prog-rock band Aleph, drummed for AC/DC at one point in time and also played with Bogislav in the early 70's.

Moreover, John Gray and Harry Freeman were also in the progressive rock band Aeon, who are featured on the aforementioned 'Just Playing' compilation; although the musicianship on that song is nowhere near the standard on this album.

Allan Freeman (see right) moved on as a session player for Terry Gorka, Cascade and Kerrie Biddell  [Bass] and eventually joined the Delltones in 1984, playing on their LP's 'Tickled Pink', 'Out In The Open', 'Oasis', and 'The Sunshine Club'  [Vocals, Bass, Keyboards, Producer] 

Album Review
by Julian Ryan at progressreview.blogspot writes:

My favourite fusion album from Australia, no question. It really covers a lot of territory in one album, with Mahavishnu-style guitar arpeggios, softer jazz ballads, acoustic guitar solo, etc. I'll let the music speak for itself. First example, the stunning ballad (track A5 called Zenith), starting with a chromatic descending arpeggio on acoustic guitar, leading into a beautiful female chorus singing the lines, the chord changes, to a musician, are just astonishingly creative. As usual flute provides a delicately bucolic and transcendental experience to the whole. Again, there has never been another song with this sequence, guaranteed-- (in the stanza not intro) (major chords unless otherwise indicated) C, Dflat, Bflat, Eflat, Eflat minor, Dflat, Eflat7, Bflat, C7, Gminor7, Gmajor. An incredible sequence that works because of the wavering melody which pulls all the disparate keys and modulations together.

The ninth track (Solar Illusion) is your basic Mahavishnu guitar-fusion machine, but beautifully composed:

' First Light is a mighty fine instrumental jazz rock effort. Sunny in its approach, with some fine guitar leads, at times reaching a Santana like intensity, but falls just short (sadly). Some nice ensemble unison runs with sax, flute, electric piano, and the female voice on side 2 gives it a Northettes feel, that adds points.

I would suggest, then, that Side2 is the better of the two. Though not by a whole lot. The music is highly melodic, and isn't showoff-y in the slightest. Sits comfortably between jazz fusion and progressive rock, though I would categorize it as the former.

Back cover says: "Mellotron and special effects kindly supplied by Aleph". Solid effort. File next to Crossfire, Mackenzie Theory and Galapagos Duck. A natural choice for Aztec to re-release I think.

Martin Pruckner, the famous krautrock specialist from Germany tells us: "FIRST LIGHT from Australia is the band formed by ALEPH drummer Ron Carpenter. He also played with ACDC in 1974 and COLD CHISEL in 1978. Release date must be 1979 I guess." '

This record deserves to be bought as vinyl to be truly enjoyable--but good luck finding a copy!

This post consists of FLACs ripped from vinyl (thanks to Kinetic at Midoz Forum) and includes full album artwork for vinyl only.  Although this album has been released on CD by Paisley Press in 2022, I have yet to source the artwork for it. [If any blog followers have this release on CD, please share the artwork via the comments section]

Track List:

Side One:

A1. First Light 04:00

A2. Emerald Tide 04:04

A3. Sonidos Negros 02:55  

A4. Duologue 05:15

A5. Zenith  04:02

Side Two:

B1. Earth Wave 04:40

B2. Tropical Inequation 05:03

B3. Azure Azimuth 03:27

B4. Solar Illusion 04:48

B5. Fire In The West 02:16

Personel:

John Gray - Electric, Classical and Acoustic Guitars

Harry Freeman - Electric and Acoustic Pianos, SH 5 and Moog synthesisers, string ensemble

Graham Jesse - Soprano, Alto and Tenor Saxes, Flute

Allan Freeman - Bass Guitar, Vocals

Ron Carpenter - Drums, Mellotron, Vocals

Marion Henderson, Beth Freeman, Jeanette Freeman - Vocals

Gerald Frape - Percussion

First Light Link (254Mb)