The Flow - The Flow's Greatest Hits (1972) [2003]

Further proof that not every weird oddity from the late '60s and early '70s had been reissued quite yet (at least as of 2003), example 134313. The story behind this album is an interesting one -- a New York-based trio, dedicated to freaking out at the dawn of the '70s, gets it together enough to record an album, but lacks the money to do more than release it as a one-sided effort with a mix at once fairly crisp and astoundingly murky. A two-sided version came out later, while this edition of its existence, besides being its CD debut, adds on extra tracks to be as complete an overview of the group as possible. Guitarist/vocalist Pete Fine has some merry liner notes explaining the history of the band and where everyone ended up. The music itself? Definitely a curio in all senses of the word -- in fact, at times it's downright headscratching, with plenty of studio chatter, brief song snippets, and random cheers. On the one hand, at certain points, it's very much heavy rock of its time and place, reflecting what seems to be an unstated fascination with Black Sabbath's cryptic early compositions. But Fine's not Ozzy -- if anything, he seems a slightly smoother, higher-voiced take on what Jack Bruce was doing. Meanwhile, the music's shifts between doom/sludge, semi- jazz/funk breakdowns and acoustic frippery, suggest a group that could have easily played a triple bill with Budgie and Dust, say, possibly even scoring that one Led Zeppelin opening slot. A neat extra touch is the occasional inclusion of primitive synthesizer whoops courtesy of Fine. While hardly as focused on the instrument as, say, Gary Numan was later, like Numan, Fine clearly loved the noises it could make as opposed to making it something to demonstrate instrumental virtuosity. The certifiably strange opening number "It Swallowed the Sun" is a definite highlight, while covering Bach's famed Toccata on solo electric guitar arguably invents a fair amount of '80s prog/metal just so (but with far more enjoyable results).