Madden & Harris "Fool's Paradise" (Aussie Prog-Folk 1975)

Madden & Harris were the Sydney, Australia-based duo of music teacher/multi-instrumentalist Peter Harris and his guitarist student Dave Madden. In 1974 they put out a decent single on the Albert label, "Remember Me"/"A Simple Song," which unveiled their mild brand of folk-rock, heavily influenced by both British folk-rock and British progressive rock. They went in a slightly less pop-oriented direction for their only album, 1975's Fool's Paradise, on which non-members Paul Baker (bass) and Doug Gallagher (drums) also played. The LP was issued as a private pressing, probably numbering only a few hundred copies, on their own Jasmine label. Harris described their sound to the Australian magazine Go-Set as "very formal in a way, with lots of traditional structures and harmonies, probably more influenced by 16th century harmonies than anything recent." He continued, "Our music lies halfway between a 16th century chamber sound with light jazz-influenced breaks."

Actually, the music wasn't quite as unusual as that, but it was a decent if somewhat derivative British folk-rock-styled album, colored by a fair bit of influence from both classical music and progressive rock. Judicious synthesizers helped give the arrangements a more modern texture than many a more basic British folk-rock-styled album, and the vocal harmonies and wistful melodies were among the most audible manifestations of their classical influence. They never put out another recording, although Harris had done a solo album for the Ritz Gramophone label in 1974. Understandably, their music has seldom been heard outside of Australia, but it at least became more accessible to the next generation via a CD reissue that added both sides of the pre-LP single as bonus tracks. ~ Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide