Morgan - The Sleeper Wakes (1973) [2012]

MORGAN was formed in the early '70s by two musicians (Morgan Fisher and Maurice Bacon) who had played in the late sixties British pop group The Soul Survivors (a pretty good semi-pro soul band) that became The Love Affair (the hit pop band of "Everlasting Love" fame, whose singer Steve Ellis left when he realised that the soul had gone and pop had taken over) and later L.A. (the prog version of the previous band, with a new singer). L.A. failed in terms of sales because their largely pop audience couldn't understand what they were up to, playing in 5/4 and so on. It was time for a new band, MORGAN: the line-up was formed by keyboardist Morgan Fisher, drummer Maurice Bacon and bassist Bob Sapsed. Singer Tim Staffel, who would put lyrics to Fisher's music, joined from Smile, the pre-Queen outfit of Brian May and Roger Taylor. Ex King Crimson's Ian McDonald even jammed with them while they were auditioning for their fourth member, although as it turned out he didn't join up. They released their debut album in 1972 called "Nova Solis", recorded in RCA Studios in Rome, one of the best that could be found at the time, with every type of keyboard and percussion instrument imaginable. The music in "Nova Solis" is typical '70s progressive rock, with the predominant sound of Fisher's keyboards (Hammond-Organ, Moog, VCS-3 synthesizer, mellotron, electric piano, piano) and a strong rhythmic section. A second record, initially titled "Brown Out", was recorded in 1973, and is a mix of crazed, hysterical-toned synthesizer solos, winding high operatic vocals, pretentious pseudo-classical keyboard art-rock ? la ELP, and artly, experimental song structures in the mold of more serious artists like King Crimson or Gentle Giant. progarchives