Lord Flimnap - Point of View. 1989 Israel

Had someone slipped me a cassette of this album, labeled it "unknown prog band 1982 UK", I would have believed it. Well the cassette part is true, but 7 years later - and from the unlikely country of Israel. This is square-on-of-the-era amateurish New Wave of British Progressive rock. It has the thuddy production, the meandering-don't-make-sense compositions, the semi-theatrical vocals, and the Rush like guitar breaks. Lord Flimnap could very well have been the predecessor/followup to groups like Trilogy or Tamarisk.

As these albums tend to be, it starts off unconvincingly, and I was struggling to buy into the concept. Though I was most intrigued by some of the odd breaks on opener 'The Wilderness' (aptly named I might add). After the somewhat mundane 'Trapped in the Marsh', the album really draws you in on 'Prodigy'. By the 10+ minute epic 'Out of My Way' (yet another well named song), the album is firing on all cylinders. It's completely unpredictable, but filled with great ideas, and by this time the ears have adjusted to the production. I love albums like this from the 80s, when everyone was making it up as they were going along, presuming (probably) few would hear it anyway. If you're a fan of the freewheeling 1980-1983 NWOBPR cassette scene, you'll want to obtain this one.

Personal collection

CD: 2004 Earsay

The original was an obscure cassette that is not even listed on Discogs as I write this. A year later, the somewhat chintzy, but well-distributed German label World Wide Records picked it up for CD release. The Earsay issue is the first domestic release. Special thanks goes to Gal for the gift!