Isaiah - Isaiah (1975) (Limited Edition, Remastered, 2014) 2CD

ISAIAH was an obscure Austrian jazz-rock band from Innsbruck that formed in 1971 and spent the next few years touring with a few notable gigs with Nazareth and Man but didn’t release this self-title debut album until 1975 however it made enough of an impression that it was picked up by CBS records. While the band started out as a quartet it grew to five members that consisted of Gerd Raabe (vocals, flute, guitar, percussion), Edu Weber (lead guitar, 12 string guitar, backing vocals), Hans Gasser (bass), Walter Reschauer (drums) and Erwin Eltz (trumpet, flugelhorn).

Coming from a German speaking country, ISAIAH gives no indication as such and despite the oft thrown around tag of Kraut Fusion doesn’t sound very Kraut in the least. In fact the tracks which are all sung in English sound very American actually given the soul and funk influences. While the borderline between standard rock and progressive rock keeps me wondering which side of the fence this one falls onto especially during the first three rather unremarkable tracks that lead the album, it becomes more apparent that the band certainly had some prog plaudits on the final two tracks “Afterward” and “Prophet” which despite also being soulful and funky still retain a bit of prog complexity.

The album is pretty much driven by guitar riffs especially rooted in standard rock and funk but the inclusion of the trumpet and flugelhorn take this into the world of jazz and the flute aspects give it a pastoral Genesis type of feel especially in the more psychedelic track “Afterwards.” This is a fairly decent album as all the songs are well-crafted and display immediately likable melodies. The musicians are all on top of their game and even the vocals of Gerd Raabe work quite well in the context of this style of jazz-rock but at the same time there’s nothing really outstanding about ISAIAH either as this band sounds like many a band of the same era cranking out exactly the same style of jazz flavored rock with a few prog touches.

The record label seem to be underwhelmed as well and refused to release a second album so the band ultimately broke up in 1979 with a bunch of extra material that wouldn’t see the light of day and released from the vaults until this album was reissued in a remastered format with a second album containing all the unreleased goodies that were supposed to make up a second album. This is certainly a pleasant album with nothing bad on it but at the same time it just doesn’t pack any sort of punch that makes it stand out significantly so it’s no wonder the band got lost in the shuffle of the crowded rock world of the 70s and the fact that the band was from Austria left it out of the loop of the nations that seemed to have a better conduit for promoting bands. Nevertheless if you are seeking obscure pseudo-prog that provides a nice calming jazz-rock context with a few excursions into higher energy, ISAIAH is an interesting exploration of sounds that have fallen into the vaults of obscurity. by siLLy_puPPy