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.