Bodkin - s/t. 1972 Scotland

Bodkin were a major discovery from the mid 1980s, though the album was known to exist prior in very small quantities. The story goes that a German collector had befriended Scottish music engineer and label owner Jim West, and to his amazement, he still had in his possession plenty of vinyl - and no covers. So the story of the LP and the reissues is quite fascinating. See below for further detail.

As to the music, Bodkin hit near the bulls-eye of that organ drenched heavy prog sound. Think of all of those 1971 albums on the German Bellaphon or Philips label. Or the original Vertigo Swirl label roster. Even the Canadian band Warpig. It's got that sound. All 5 tracks here are well played, with memorable melodies and progressions, and fine performances from all. The vocals have that husky "lost" tone, that was popular is those blues infected days. For reasons I could not articulate back to anyone, I didn't care for this album much when it first hit the CD circuit in 1989. My stance softened about 10 years later, and it has grown in stature since then. To me it definitely earns the Excellent rating.

Personal collection
CD: 1991 Witch and Warlock
LP: 2000 Akarma (Italy)

As mentioned above, the story of the album itself is interesting. Popsike lists precisely one copy that has sold with the original cover (in 2012 - photo #1). It went for a cool $2300 and change (not shown on RYM as I write this). Most original copies out there in the wild did not have an album cover, and go for a much cheaper $1k (smirk) (photo #2). Sometime in the late 1980s, the album was released on vinyl in very limited quantities with paste on custom green or orange covers (photos #3 & #4), but weren't widely distributed at the time (at least that I can remember). In 1989, the German label Witch & Warlock debuted their catalog with a CD reissue of the album (with yet another different cover - photo #5). Ah, but you say, I know Witch & Warlock is a pirate concern right? Perhaps they ended up making poor decisions, but they didn't start out that way. Witch & Warlock are in fact the same guys behind the German Oak album. And I think we can safely presume they did not bootleg their own privately released album (though another story emerged in 2018 about this). The next CD on the label was Dom's Edge of Time, and while I later upgraded to the Second Battle versions (LP and CD), it's pretty apparent from the short notes on the CD that the members knew each other. Most everyone accepts this version as legit (though the sound wasn't improved upon at all). This was followed by an archival German Oak album, and then finally they decided to try their hand at needle drops and foregoing obtaining legal permission. (Confession: I still own their CD version of Diabolus and patiently await for a legit version to surface). They also issued two other albums from Scotland: Soho Orange and Tentacle - both of these being archival releases. Most websites consider these to be legit. And it makes sense, when you consider the German connection to the Bodkin album, as mentioned above. In any case, the CD was repressed multiple times, and it was many years later I picked it up again - mine being one of those reissues (originals are numbered with a different backplate).

Next up was the Akarma release (of course they'd get involved with something like this). And now we have our 5th unique cover (last photo)! This time it's quite extraordinary as the LP opens up as a multi part cross (similar to Necronomicon or Heaven's Brass Rock 1). This most assuredly is the definitive edition right? Wrong! What an utter disaster of a reissue. A needle drop (fine), but with skips and scratches (in the mastering!). C'mon, really? How stoned do you have to be? I eventually parted with it...

There is a legit LP that recently surfaced from England on the Acme label (and replicates the orange paste-on cover). I wouldn't have high hopes for a sonic revelation at this point.

Originally reviewed: June 20, 2014