Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Waterloo "First Battle" 1969

First Battle by Belgian band Waterloo is one of those re-releases from the dawntime of progressive rock. The band's name refers to the village where Napoleon suffered his final defeat in 1815. This was Napoleon's last battle but since this album was Waterloo's debut album they called it First Battle instead. There's a little irony here because it was also their last album, and therefore in a way also their last battle.

The music on this album consists of all ten tracks from the original release, five tracks from non-album singles and one previously unreleased track. The sound quality isn't too good, which is partly due to the fact that the original master tapes are lost and the album had to be recorded onto CD directly from the record.

Most of the tracks are around three minutes length and quite poppy in nature. The overall style reminds a lot of early Jethro Tull. Waterloo's sound is folky, with a large role for the organ. The narrative vocals and of course the flute also add to the Tull impression.

I'm not certain what Musea's aim with this release is other than preserving a small piece of the Belgian musical scene of the very early seventies. The appeal to modern listeners will be limited, due in main part to the very dated sound of the recordings. However, the clear Tull influence I mentioned earlier might interest Jethro Tull fans to investigate this album further.

5 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks a lot for this one, I admit I have never heard it, but it sounds interesting, so I'll give it a listen. Thanks again for your great blog and the interesting selection of goodies!

Any blog named after a Nick Drake song CAN'T be bad!!!

24 January, 2007 00:07  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

One more great post. Beautiful !!!!!
Brilliant Blog.
Do you have the new Strawbs' Box - A taste of Strawbs ?????
Many tnx for your work
Brazil

24 January, 2007 02:55  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

beautiful. is there any chance of re-upping forst and fire by the watersons? i'd just heard c93's version of idumea and would love to hear the original...thanks!

24 January, 2007 05:44  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

THANK YOU THANK YOU!
heard a song on the "circus days" comp. thought it was amazing.

thanks,
keep

24 January, 2007 12:34  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I like it a lot!

Thanx Lizardson,

Armute

25 January, 2007 05:10  

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