Hugely obscure, Horace grew out of some informal "hash" jams
that guitarist/bass player Jim Mercer and drummer Ric Parnell held in the
autumn of 1970. Mercer was already a veteran of the British Blues Boom having
played in the Tenement Blues Band and Uncle Bud (with Screw guitarist-to-be,
Graham Neill) whilst Ric, son of well-respected drummer and band leader, Jack
Parnell, had been playing in the later-to-be-revered Horse, and Atomic Rooster,
as replacement for Carl Palmer.
Ric wangled some free studio time through mate Andy Ced
Curtis, and with Ced at the controls, Ric and Jim went into Central Sound
Studios in London's Denmark Street on 1st January 1971 to cut a few of their own
numbers.
The three tracks they laid down had an indefinable magic and
musicality that Shagrat Records felt deserved a wider audience, and they have
been taken from an old acetate Jim preserved for the past 40 years and lovingly
released on vinyl (as they would have been back in the day) for the first time.
The music has a strong bucolic yet at times experimental
feel to it, conjuring up comparisons with Traffic, Caravan, Frank Zappa’s
seminal Hot Rats album, and the more pastoral moments of early Stackridge. Ric
Parnell, perhaps best known for his role as the spontaneously combusting
drummer Mick Shrimpton in This Is Spinal Tap is a revelation as the band’s lead
vocalist and the tracks are made even more special by Mike Piggott’s
magisterial violin playing, adding edge, textures and atmosphere to the songs.
Waiting for the Moon is a moody blues shuffle somewhat reminiscent of The Grease Band’s debut LP for Harvest cut around the same time, whilst See the Sun shines with an exquisite West Coast aura, Parnell’s scatting in the closing moments reminiscent of the great David Crosby! The closing instrumental, Mongrel Polyop based around some haunting violin riffs is just plain beautiful – a kind of Brit version of Peaches en Regalia with Curtis’s cascading grand piano runs to the fore.
Waiting for the Moon is a moody blues shuffle somewhat reminiscent of The Grease Band’s debut LP for Harvest cut around the same time, whilst See the Sun shines with an exquisite West Coast aura, Parnell’s scatting in the closing moments reminiscent of the great David Crosby! The closing instrumental, Mongrel Polyop based around some haunting violin riffs is just plain beautiful – a kind of Brit version of Peaches en Regalia with Curtis’s cascading grand piano runs to the fore.
Sadly these numbers were all that Horace recorded. Despite
Mercer and Parnell landing a publishing deal, Ric soon re-joined the Rooster
for a further two albums and a life in music that has seen him play with the
everyone from Italian prog-jazz-fusion band, Nova to more recently, Mick
Farren’s (LA-based) Deviants. He’s currently playing with Montana psychedelic
collective, Donovan’s Brain.
Andy Curtis joined Rare Bird for their Polydor albums. Jim
and Mike would both go on to long careers in music (for more details of which
please read the sleeve notes). Long time followers of the Shagrat label will
fondly recall that Mercer went on to form the short-lived Sandoz, a wild
psychedelic power trio (produced by Curtis), whose surviving acetate Shagrat
released in 1995 as Pay Attention.
Mastered by Tony Poole, the 7” EP comes in an astonishingly beautiful full-colour
gatefold sleeve, and inner bag designed by psychedelic artist John Hurford with
extensive sleeve notes by Colin Hill.
Pressed on heavyweight 70g vinyl, it has been produced in a sure to become collectable limited edition of
250 copies. Before they all disappear in to the hands of collectors, music and art lovers may place their order with the nice folk at Shagrat Records.
A super-nifty item.
