-=- SHGZ -=-
* Shoegaze * Indie * Post-Rock * Grunge * Dream Pop * Psych-Rock * Ethereal *
ARTIST..: Leviathan
ALBUM...: The Legendary Lost Elektra Album
ARTIST..: Leviathan
ALBUM...: Leviathan: The Legendary Lost Elektra Album
GENRE...: Psychedelic Rock
STYLE...: Psychedelic Rock, Progressive Rock, Britpop
YEAR....: 2016
LABEL...: Grapefruit
COUNTRY.: UK
PLACE...: Brighton, East Sussex
FORMED..: 1969, April
ENDED...: 1969, September
ENCODER.: FLAC 1.3.1 -8 -V
BITRATE.: 834 kbps avg
QUALITY.: 44.1kHz / 2 channels
SOURCE..: CD
TRACKS..: 12
SIZE....: 344.13 MB
URL..: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Stuart_Span
- TRACKLIST
1 Remember The Times 2:46
2 Second Production 4:43
3 The War Machine 5:19
4 Through The Looking Glass 5:45
5 Blue Day 6:38
6 Time 3:59
7 Flames 4:47
8 World In My Head 4:29
9 Evil Woman 7:57
10 Flames (Single Version) (Bonus Track) 3:48
11 Just Forget Tomorrow (Single Version) 4:18
(Bonus Track)
12 Remember The Times (Australian Single 2:41
Version) (Bonus Track)
Total Playtime: 57:10
https://www.discogs.com/release/10080152-Leviathan-Leviathan-The-Legendary-Lost-Elektra-Album
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Leviathan-Legendary-Elektra-Album-Jewel/dp/B01LY0JLS4
https://propermusic.com/products/leviathan-leviathanthelegendarylostelektraalbum
Recorded 1969
Released 2016
*
The full release of an album that never saw the light of day back in 1969 --
a great first outing from UK group Leviathan, but one that got pulled from
the Elektra release schedule at the last minute! Fortunately, the whole
thing's been rediscovered and brought back out into the light -- and the
album's got a quality level that's really jaw-dropping -- right up there with
some of the group's best Brit contemporaries who were really pushing past the
blues-influenced rock of a few years before -- a mode that's not quite psych,
not quite hard rock -- but has elements of both, and a surprisingly sinister
current on some of the lyrics -- a bit like The Who were bringing to their
tone around the time of Tommy. Titles include "Evil Woman", "The World In My
Head", "Remember The Times", "The War Machine", "Blue Day", "Flames", and
"Through The Looking Glass". CD features three bonus tracks.
*
Leviathan were an English band from the late 60s with quite a backstory and a
decidedly sad ending. Rechristened from the more mod sounding Mike Stuart
Span, Leviathan were like many bands of the era, who were moving from catchy
pop oriented singles into more heady album material. Oddly the band's demise
appears to have come from a confusing promotion wherein Elektra decided to
issue 2 singles at once, and both failed to chart. The first two tracks on
this album represent the better of the singles, and demonstrates why
Leviathan should have been a force on the psychedelic / upcoming progressive
rock scene. Fantastic guitar leads, psychedelic infused vocals, and solid
melodies are the name of the game with Leviathan. The other single contained
'The War Machine' and 'Time', and were both a bit dated for the cutting edge
1969 mindset, though still quite good. My pick for the best track is 'Through
the Looking Glass', which is that rare breed of true "psych prog" as one
might hear on the Pussy Plays album for example.
In any event, the album was pulled by the label president, for reasons that
are still not clearly understood. It is suggested that the band still needed
to improve on the album, but funding was going to have to come from within if
the album wanted to see the light of day. This of course was not possible,
and the band disintegrated on the spot. As noted by the title, the album
indeed had gained legendary status via the record buying community going back
to the 1980s. It took almost 50 years in total, but finally we can all hear
this most promising group. It's bitter sweet though, as we'll never know the
what-if scenario.
*
First time CD release for the unreleased LP recorded by the former Mike
Stuart Span for the Elektra label in 1969....Ian Canty looks a band dogged by
bad luck and bad decisions, the stars of their own documentary which was a
real-life cross between Austin Powers and Spinal Tap.....
The Brighton band Leviathan, previously known as Mike Stuart Span, featured
in one of the very best TV programmes ever about Pop Music. It is also
unintentionally very funny indeed. In their episode "Big Deal Group", part of
BBC's "A Year In The Life" series, "the Span" begin as a group on the up
being managed by the hapless Mike Clayton, who demonstrates his acumen early
on by signing away an extra 5% of their earnings to a booking agency for
seemingly doing nothing much at all. Clearly way out of his depth when it
came to the London Showbiz mafia and not exactly a Peter Grant figure, it was
no surprise when he and the group parted company after a series of mishaps,
including an underwhelming television appearance and unwisely buying a record
shop on the royalties from a non-selling single. This left the Mike Stuart
Span forlornly rehearsing at a local Youth Club, contemplating a spell
working on building sites instead of the glamour in the last dying breathes
of Swinging London. Of Clayton, we saw no more.
After this inevitable parting of the ways, something new was needed for the
band. Luckily a deal with US label Elektra, home of the Doors and Love
amongst others, came out of the blue on the proviso that the group's name be
changed to the more 1969 sounding Leviathan. Though not that enamoured with
the new moniker (and the decision on this came right from the top, from none
other than Jac Holzman, Elektra president), the band generally welcomed this
unexpected upswing in fortune.
The tail end of "Big Deal Band" shows Clive Selwood, John Peel's mate and now
the band's handler, attempting unsuccessfully to hustle the newly
rechristened Leviathan some air time on the Kenny Everett radio show.
Presumably it was also Selwood's idea to release two singles by the band on
the same day - the kind of ploy that rarely worked, but I suppose desperate
times called for desperate measures. By the time the documentary aired, the
band were no more, their dreams of UK and Stateside success dashed when
Elektra (and Holzman again being personally involved) rejected their first
attempt at making an album. They told them to go back and try again, but by
this time Leviathan had run out of money and with nothing forthcoming from
the US, that was that.
The LP that they recorded has remained in limbo ever since, apart from a
brief vinyl release a short while back, but now we can hear it in all its
glory, nearly 50 years after it was recorded. And, despite at times taking
rather too strongly an influence from the preeminent UK band of the time
Cream, it is a beaut. Though looked upon as a change from the "Psychedelic"
Mike Stuart Span to a more "Progressive" sound, it's not a startling
alteration of style. Leviathan do occasionally fall back on the kind of
"Blues" jamming that tended to rule in Blighty at the time - but for the most
part inventive, catchy Heavy Psych/late period Freakbeat is the order of the
day.
Their best single "Remember The Times", cruelly missed out on the charts
despite being on a par with great bands like the Move and there's a touch of
"Sunday Afternoon" era-Kinks in the mix, very agreeable indeed. Though a
touch more guitar gung-ho than in their Span years (even further back they
started as a Soul band with a full brass section), they still manage to make
a catchy concoction of their contradictions (i.e wanting the fame and fortune
that success would bring, but also a need to be "taken seriously").
Occasionally they trip over into self-parody, with the multi-section anti-war
"War Machine" making one stifle a few giggles but feel a bit mean afterwards,
as they were undoubtedly being earnest. "Flames", another single side,
manages to neatly bolt together the Progressive and Pop with a complicated
guitar riff dovetailing nicely with a doleful but memorable song. They never
lost their Pop smarts, though perhaps "Evil Woman" does go a little too far
down the "Clapton Is God" path. "Just Forget Tomorrow", another side of the
ill-fated double single, is another good one. At times they had a bit in
common with the Who of the same period, with strong vocals complimenting
powerful but fluid instrumentation. Also Leviathan had the advantage of not
having to weld their cracking tunes to an unwieldy concept unlike Rog and the
boys.
"Leviathan - The Legendary Lost Elektra Album" may well have disappeared
without making much of a ripple even if it had seen the light of day back in
1969, knowing the band's luck, but that is not to blind us from its many good
qualities. Though Leviathan were never destined to make the higher reaches of
the charts and struggled to even get their records released, they had an
innate skill for producing excellent Psychedelic-toned Pop Music and finally,
all these years later, we have the proof.
*
The desire to change one's name when one's attempts at establishing oneself
is understandable, especially if previous attempts had proven disastrous or
embarrassing. Sometimes the change comes for a more positive reason-members
have left and said departures led to a general consensus that the band no
longer warranted such a moniker. Sometimes, it's simply business: another
band has used or is using said name. In many instances, it is because the
band's sound has radically changed.
In the case of Mike Stuart Span, the name change came was due to a number of
factors. Though they had released a handful of singles that were modestly
received, their breakthrough never quite came. Still, they had impressed
enough people to justify soldiering on, and in late 1968 they signed on to be
the subjects of a BBC documentary that followed them over the course of a
year. In the interim, they had impressed Elektra Records, who signed them;
shortly thereafter, boss Jac Holzman insisted they change their name, in
order to give them a fresh start.
The decision was understandable, because the music they were now making
proved to be much wilder and much heavier than Mike Stuart Span's
psychedelic-tinged pop-rock. Leviathan proved to be an excellent choice for
their new sound, as witnessed by the band's first two singles, released
simultaneously. "The War Machine" was a pure political rocker, a hard lament
against the violence of the era, while its b-side continued the political
message, this time in a downtempo ballad. "Remember The Times" is poppy, but
much more aggressive than anything they had previously released, while its
flip-side, "Second Production," is pure psychedelic blues-rock, heavy on
proto-metal guitar licks that predict the coming of Black Sabbath.
"Second Production" is the most indicative of the band's new direction, as
evidenced by the majority of Leviathan's album cuts. The songs are longer,
heavier, and tend to lean a bit heavy on jamming, it's a formula that works
wonderfully on the heavy (metal) blues of "Evil Woman" and "Blue Day," yet
unfortunately makes otherwise good songs "Through The Looking Glass" and
"World In My Head" sound unfocused. The song "Flames"-which would be remixed
and released as the band's final single-proves the point; the album version
meanders, while the single version is a bit easier on the ears, and even
though it's not one of the band's better songs, it's much better than the
album version. (It's a puzzling choice for an A-side, too; the b-side, "Just
Forget Tomorrow" is a much better number.)
Unfortunately for Leviathan, their fortunes would soon change when Jac
Holzman declined to release the album, having lost enthusiasm for the band.
It was a crushing blow, and would prove to be the final for frontman Stuart
Hobday, who would use this rejection as the impetus to leave the music
industry. Holzman wasn't necessarily wrong in rejecting the album; it is
rough, and their sound isn't particularly well-defined, as there's an odd
dichotomy between the songs that had been released as singles and the
heavier, occasionally unwieldy album tracks. Those complaints aside, they
don't detract from the overall promise that the band offers. Leviathan was
very much a debut album in that regard-it's intriguing in what it promises
for the band's future direction-and it's a shame that it never got the chance
to grow.
-=- SHGZ -=-
-=-=-==-=-=-
Shoegaze
is a genre of alternative rock that
originated in the late 80s. The genre is very
difficult to define, and it is even more difficult to evaluate music
within it. Generally, the genre is characterized by its
shimmering vocals, reverberating guitars, and
textural distortion that create
a tranquil, opaque
feeling.
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