East of Eden - Snafu (1970) (New Rip) 24-bit/96kHz

This music is probably the great-grand-daddy of today's avant garde progressive music. It is an eclectic blend of psychedelia, jazz, blues, folk, celtic, eastern, and various forms of world music. Instruments include bass, flute, tenor and alto sax, trumpet, drums and guitar. Keyboards are largely dispensed with in favour of Dave Arbus's electric violin which provides plenty of texture and background, as well as taking the lead in many passages. There are long sections driven by a jazzy bass guitar playing with almost loop-like repetition, while solo spots are taken in turn by guitar, violin, flute and sax, vocals are sparse.

With song titles like "Xhorkom","In the Snow for a Blow", "Nymphenburger" and "Leaping Beauties for Rudy", you can imagine that this is an off-the-wall piece that isn't meant to be taken too seriously. It's fun, it displays some stellar musicianship, and it's adventurous. This was released in 1970 when experimentation was peaking - and this LP was at the forefront of that movement. The 1970s listening public was more receptive to this kind of music and SNAFU made the British Top-30, "Ramadhan," made number 2 in France, and the Celtic novelty song "Jig-a-Jig" hit the Top-10 in England. Despite that brief success though, East Of Eden remained something of a cult act, and - like all avant garde music, it never really took off in even the progressive music circles. rockasteria.blogspot

Track listing:

01. Have To Whack It Up
02. Leaping Beauties For Rudy - Marcus Junior
03. Xhorkom - Ramadhan - In The Snow For A Blow Medley: Part I, Better Git It In Your Soul, Part III
04. Uno Transito Clapori
05. Gum Arabic/Confucius
06. Nymphenberger
07. Habibi Baby/Boehm Constrictor/Beast of Sweden
08. Traditional: Arranged East of Eden

Personnel:

Dave Arbus: Violin (acoustic & electric) , tenor sax, flute, trumpet, Indian bells, bagpipe chanter
Ron Caines: Alto & soprano sax (electric & acoustic), vocals, piano, stylophone
Geoff Nicholson: Guitar, harp, vocals, piano, strings
Andy Sneddon: Bass guitar, strings, vocals
Geoff Britton: Drums, claves, African hand drum, percussion
Recorded at Decca and Tangerine Studios, London
Produced by David Hitchcock with East of Eden.
Marcus Junior produced by Ritchie Gottehrer

Technicals:

Knosti RCM.
Michell GyroDec full version.
Funk Firm FXR II Tonearm.
Audio Technica AT33PTG/II MC Cartridge.
Harman Kardon HK990 Integrated Amplifier.
Gold Interconnects. E-MU 0204 Audio Interface.
Recording, split and manual de-click with Adobe Audition 3.0.1
Click Repair 3.9.1
Vinyl transfer by son-of-albion, December 2013