Rock On! Wednesday, 27 december 2023 – Ayers Rock, Mackenzie Theory, Fermáta, Larry Coryell and the Eleventh House & Isotope

Psychedelic, heavy, prog and more innovating sounds spanning the late 60s and the early 70s –  Wednesday August 15th.  Dan’s pick of the week: Ayers Rock (Big Red Rock), Mackenzie Theory (Out of the Blue), Fermáta (Fermáta), Larry Coryell and the Eleventh House (Introducing Larry Coryell and the Eleventh House) & Isotope (Live at the BBC).

Ayers Rock was een Australische progrock band die in de jaren 1970 een zeker succes had in de Verenigde Staten.  Hun debuut Big Red Rock flirt met jazz fusion, funk en blues shrink verpakt in een Frank Zappa achtige gevoeligheid.

Prog Archives review: “Australian band’s Ayers Rock debut album was recorded live, but the sound quality is excellent! As it often happens with marginal prog markets, even if this album was recorded in 1974, it sounds more as US band from 1969-70.

The music on this album is mostly slightly psychedelic blues-rock with some jazz-rock elements. Album’s opener “Lady Montego” is melodic and energetic song mixing blues rock, sax and CCR influences. Vocals are really strong and have some John Fogherty timbres. “Talkin’ ‘Bout You” is another bluesy rocker with plenty of sax. The sound could be compared with early “Bad Company” american version with plenty of sax added.

“Goin’ Home” is r’n’b composition influenced by “Status Quo”. As on all previous songs, music is not very original, but nicely played and very inspired. “Crazy Boys” is first really jazz-rock song, but it sounds as excellent Frank Zappa’s early material copy ( even Frank’s vocals is perfectly imitated!). From musical side, this song demonstrates great band’s musicians musicianship and includes long psychedelic soloings. Possibly, it is the best album’s composition. (…)

In all great early bluesy jazz-rock album, not very original, but extremely inspired and energetic. Really recommended for all early bluesy jazz-rock fans (but possibly too obscure to be wide popular).”

Wednesday, December 27, 2023 12:00 noon CET Brussels – 11 a.m. GMT London. Repeated: 16:00 & 20:00 hrs CET Brussels, 3 p.m. & 7 p.m. GMT London

Ends: 12 midnight CET Brussels, 11 p.m.  GMT London.