To pump some life into this board, I'm thinking about starting my own weekly feature here, under the title you see above. It would attempt to introduce the work of different bands from the past who have made excellent or interesting music, but which time has mostly forgotten. In edition to examining the work of obscure bands, lesser-remembered albums of well-known artists would be featured. Others could also post their own enteries. What do you think?

I like it. So where's the first installment?

Todd - Benn ... perhaps an examination of CHASE would be in order for an opener to this thread?

(maybe not, I might've worn them out over other topics here)

Sounds like a good idea to me, Tod. Please kick things off.

I don't know much about Chase, but if you want to post something about them in this space, feel free. I've decided to treat the work of Captain Beyond in my first installment, which I'll try to post later tonight.

I'll not take away from Captain Beyond since Chase has already [haphazardly] been examined in other threads, perhaps a recap after the Captain Beyond featurette ...
I only mentioned it because it fit all the criteria you stipulated in the opening post.

Almost completely ignored by the radio playlists of the early seventies, Captain Beyond’s seminal debut album nonetheless engendered a fervent cult following that still persists to this day. In recent years this following has called the band out of retirement to tour and perform again, and has even produced a tribute album.
Captain Beyond can be viewed as a supergroup of sorts, since most of the members of the original lineup came from hard rock legends. Guitarist Larry “Rhino” Reinhardt and bassist Lee Dorman were fresh off the dissolution of Iron Butterfly, while vocalist Rod Evans had unceremoniously been ousted from Deep Purple to make way for Ian Gillian. And while the music the new band made could certainly be categorized as hard rock, it was like quite nothing no other hard rock band at the time was making. It might best be categorized as “speed prog”.
The band’s self-titled debut album issued at the beginning of 1972 consists ostensibly of thirteen separate tracks, but really has the feel of one long epi-suite. The sound relies mainly on an all-out blistering guitar and drum attack (Ironically it is Bobby Caldwell, the comparative unknown of the group, who really dominates the album with his frenzied drumming), yet with touches of virtuosity. Perhaps the album’s most impressive feature, aside from the superb musicianship itself, is the seamless transition in playing from track to track and between different sections of the same track. These guys could musically turn on a dime on this release. Soft breaks featuring Dorman’s piano occasionally slow things down a bit, and provides a counterbalance of moments of beauty to the sometimes frightening aural tableau. One standout track (and one of the few real stand-alone tracks on the album), is the bludgeoning, earth-shaking, doomcrying “Raging River of Fear.” However, the album’s true highlight is probably the suitelike structure which the second side mostly consists of. Lyrically, the record explores quasi-mystical themes without ever descending into hokum.
This remarkable debut album is the one that the band’s fame, such as it is, principally rests on. However, there would be two more studio albums in the Captain Beyond catalog. The followup, 1973’s “Sufficiently Breathless”, features more of the same style of music, but with more clearly delinated seperateness between the songs. Perhaps the band was seeking a more commercial direction. Certainly the gorgeous acoustic opening title track would have made a smash single. But it appears that that success eluded them, for the Captain went into hibernation for a few years.
They returned in 1977 with a new lead vocalist, Will Daffern, and an even more commercial effort called “Dawn Explosion”. Featuring a mainstream musical approach in contrast to the band’s previous work, this is the album that Captain Beyond fans tend to dismiss as everything from a mistake to the unquestioned weak sister of the trio. However, to my ears, “Dawn Explosion” is anything but a weak album, being a decent straightforward hard-rock package full of solid and memorable songs. This was the last Captain Beyond studio album issued to date.
At present, all three of the original Captain Beyond albums have been issued on CD and are readily availible. I found all three at my local tower for about ten bucks apiece.
Next week, I’ll look at the career of The Gods, the psychedellic-pop British group that provided a springboard for several progressive rock legends and even a future Rolling Stones member . . .

While the late nineteen-sixties band the Gods are usually remembered (if at all) for the one-time members who would later go on to fame and fortune in different groups, the two studio albums left behind by this ensemble bear re-examination as more than curiosities. While admittedly reeking of the unmistakable influence of the Beatles, Stones, Who and the other psychedellia-mod trendsetters of this era, their work also displays a degree of originality and consistency.
First off, the members and where they earned their fame. Early guitarist and blues disciple Mick Taylor, who would of course later replace Brian Jones in the Rolling Stones and become perhaps that band’s most melodic performer. Taylor actually left the Gods before the studio albums were recorded, and it is disputed whether or not he appears on an early Gods single. Then there was drummer Greg Lake, another early departure, of course is best known as the second of the immortal triad of Emerson, Lake and Palmer. Bassist John Glasscock later served for Jethro Tull through most of the mid-seventies. But the group’s undisputed leader was keyboardist, guitarist, vocalist, and chief songwriter Ken Hensley, later to strike it big with Uriah Heep (along with Lake’s replacement, the venerable Lee Kerslake).
Now, as to the music. The debut album, Genesis, is an impressive debut record. While (as noted before) it shows a heavy desire to imitate the sound of the Beatles (down to a spot-on cover of “Hey Bulldog” on an outtake which was released as a single), the album displays a variety and creativity in both songwriting and production that give it it’s own identity. The band also show a knack for effortlessly straddling more than one genre of the popular music of the time.
A killer album opener, “Toward The Skies”, features a high-charged arrrangement with some sizzling guitar riffs from guitarist Joe Konas and compelling singing from Hensley. Many other tracks are just as memorable . . . “Misleading Colours” is an all-out guitar attack in the tradition of Hendrix’s “foxy Lady”. “Radio Show” and “Farthing Man” are both playful ditties in the Lennon-McCartney vein. “I Never Know” and “Candles Getting Shorter” are both dreamy semi-psychedellic ballads. But the standout track on the first Gods album is probably the most original-sounding: the hauntingly memorable “Looking Glass”. With its organ-driven arrangement, operatic vocals, and la-la-la choruses, this song personifies the type of sound that would later define Hensley’s Uriah Heep, especially in tracks such as “July Morning” and “Easy Livin’”. Another unique touch is the segue between tracks in which a computer-sounding voice introduces each member of the band.
The follow-up to Genesis, the concept album To Samuel A Son, ends up being not as good an album. The problem is not with the songs themselves. There are many very good songs here, although no standout track. The problem lies with the album concept. The rock opera which makes up most of the album was obviously influenced (as was the Who’s Tommy) by the Pretty Things’ S.F. Sorrow album. But wheras the Who used that album to inspire their own highly original work, To Samuel A Son simply comes off as a lame S.F. Sorrow retread, lacking the depth and intricacy of that story. The best songs on To Samuel A Son arguably come at the end of the album, the small handful that do not appear to be part of the Samuel story. “Autumn”, which seems to be the closer to that cycle, is a ballad with some beautiful moments, but it lacks punch and doesn’t hang together well overall.
The Gods broke up and went their separate ways when guitarist Konas quit music to pursue another career. If they had stayed together, it’s interesting to wonder what they would have developed into and maybe how different the history of British prog rock would have been.
Speaking of progh rock . . . next week we’ll look at the legendary Nektar.