Leviathan: Legendary Lost Elektra Album

well i was not aware of this release until a couple of months ago and now that i am sitting here listening to this i feel this is basically the mss band under the name leviathan, this is great psyche/pop from the uk and it was a sin this was supposed to be released on elektra so long ago and never was, these songs are all great and some even have a radio friendly feel to them, i cant say these guys would have won the world over with this release but i can hear that by changing the band name and as these songs where recorded there sound got a bit more melodic probably becouse a major label was paying the bills, the booklet that comes with this is great and explains this whole disaster stuart hobday had to go through back in 1969, what i also love about this disc are the guitar solos i really feel had this come out back in 69 it would have gone somewere, i really like the spooy tooth cover of evil woman here and the 3 bonus tracks are great to have especially the original 1969 remember the times australian 45 to finish this disc out, well what more is there to say???? this is yet another fantastic release from grapefruit records and i look foward to more releases like this in 2017 now that the new year has kicked off

"We were devastated, absolutely devastated. We thought it was the big break we had been waiting for." Gary Murphy, drums, Leviathan.The Mike Stuart Span (MSS) was one of countless English bands playing music that ranged from Mod/soul to pop/rock to psyche in the late 1960's. Signing to Elektra Records they had a change of name more in keeping with the Elektra image and settled on Leviathan. They issued some singles and then recorded an album. Jac Holzman, Elektra owner, rejected the album for some reason still not clear and wanted the band to re-record the album. But with no money Leviathan split up and the album was shelved, never to be heard until now. Four "stars" because I've always liked the MSS and Leviathan is just a slim hop away from that band's sound. So take my rating accordingly.The band consisted of Roger McCabe-bass, Stuart Hobday-vocals, Brian Bennett-guitar, and Gary Murphy-drums. The band had a decent/good sound sometimes reminiscent of the MSS--it was the same band after all. Some of the songs were from that band's era and were reworked for the Leviathan album. Songs like "Remember The Day", "Second Production", and "Blue Day" show how good the band could be on more up tempo things, with "Time" and "Flames" displaying their slower tempo sound. "The War Machine" is a real period tune, locked into the era of the Vietnam War. It now sounds a bit dated but back then this would've been taken a bit more seriously. There's also a version of "Evil Woman", perhaps best known from Spooky Tooth's heavy/almost over the top version. Leviathan puts their own feel to the song which isn't as heavy as Tooth's but still has a good period feel to it. Both the bass and guitar work (especially) is pretty good/great across a number of these tunes. Bennett's guitar work is sometimes reminiscent of Kossoff's work in Free, with short sharp bursts of sound, but doesn't hit the emotional highs like Kossoff could. Like I said, if you're familiar with the MSS you have an idea of what a lot of this sounds like.The original Elektra master tapes were used for this CD release. The sound is very good--clean and fairly open but with some (to my ears) a bit of vinyl warmth which doesn't hurt things. The 14 page booklet has an essay on the band and the music along with period photos (including Leviathan's "launch" at a juice bar in '69), other ephemera and a track list with information. The three extra tracks are singles--"Flames", "Just Forget Tomorrow" and the Australian mix of "Remember The Times".For once, the term "long lost album" is appropriate for Leviathan's album. Was Leviathan ever going to be in the big leagues with other bands of the time? Maybe not. But on the evidence of this collection they certainly deserved much more notoriety than they ever received. From time to time some of my more knowledgeable music friends would bring up the band's name only to be met with shrugs and maybe a vague memory of the unissued album. This album and the MSS album ("Children Of Tomorrow") is a good one-two punch of some very decent second tier English music from the late '60s. Fans of the era might want to check out both albums.This is a good time for difficult/impossible to find tracks by lesser known bands--Everything by Tales Of Justine has also been recently issued which is a good thing for fans of that whole period in British music.

Fun to listen to. The downside with cds is they are expensive to buy with little resale value. They should cost much less up front. I have hot bought any in a year.