Snakes Alive. 1975 Australia

Snakes Alive were a group that I discovered in my early CDRWL research days. There was much question of its authenticity at the time, especially given the obvious photoshop cover. But it was real, a demo pressing from a circle of Australian musicians who had access to a recording studio and took advantage of it. About nine years ago I wrote the following in the blog days:

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In the early 70s, the music world was teeming with jazz fusion / jazz rock bands. The major two schools were a) The technically proficient, as defined by the Mahavishnu Orchestra, Return to Forever, and Weather Report. And b) The Miles Davis long track deep groove, with many followers in Germany (in particular the MPS label), Poland, Italy, USA, and beyond. These were jazzers who were fascinated with rock's rhythms and power. But finding rockers who were fascinated by jazz was a much more rare breed. Snakes Alive are a rock fusion band. Of course bands like Mahavishnu still come to mind. Even early Zappa and Xhol Caravan to be honest. But, you know, Finch came to mind too. There are vocals, but they are sparse. Trumpet, sax, flute, organ, and guitar are the solo instruments. And it rocks with a capital R. This is a good one, that's now receiving its just notoriety.

Ownership: CD: 2017 Belle Antique (Japan). Papersleeve edition and the first readily available copy to market. Originals are extremely obscure and was only a demo pressed in a quantity of 50 without a cover. A cover therefore has been appended in modern times (via the Poor House Record shop and subsequent bootleg), and this is what this CD issue used as well.

2008 (review); 9/13/10 (CDRWL); 12/26/17 (new entry)