Album: Egg - The Civil Surface (24-bit Remastered Edition)
Released: 1974 (2007)
Genre: Canterbury Scene
Gnosis Rating: 11.09
File Format: EAC->FLAC 1.2.0 (EL5, CUE + LOG embedded), CUE, LOG, Scans (full set, 600dpi)->RAR(228.30MB)
Source: Esoteric Recordings - ECLEC 2003
Why is this a 'Masterpiece'? Because it is totally unique in all the progressive rock spectrum...and because it is damm good! By this album Dave Stewart was about to break up the band but got himself a deal with Caroline (Virgin records sub) and composed some of the most amazing music ever. It is quite diferent from the other Egg albums as the music here feels much more detailed and refined. Also a 'medieval' flair is present trhough out as a woowind ensemble is used to great effect. Also there is a lot of humor and experimentation . Great solos from all and a true canterbury gemm composition wise. Get it anyway you can if bands like National Health and Hatfield and the North are your cup of tea...but expect something quite diferent anyways! - Miguel Hiraldo? ProgArchives.com
The wonderfully whimsical and quixotic “Germ Patrol” may be familiar to some, as it has been known to appear on progressive rock ‘various artists’ compilations. As for the rest of the album there are two splendid wind quartets while “Enneagram” is a an altogether heavier proposition with classic organ/ bass/ drums interplay a la “Long Piece No 3” (off Polite Force) with Mont Campbell’s dexterous bass playing a particular joy with Clive Brooks (poached by The Groundhogs whom Egg had supported) managing to keep up admirably with the changes in tempo and an inevitable Hatfield and the North influence in the keyboards. (Dave Stewart was actually a member at the time).
“Prelude” is a rather melancholy, Bach-like piece with the wonderful Northettes choir creating an atmosphere akin to Holst’s “Neptune”. “Wring Out The Ground (Loosely Now)” has the first vocal by Campbell and an exquisite organ solo by Stewart (almost reaching Hatfield’s “Share It” for visceral impact) and also boasts a superb electric piano sequence.
The fusion of the classic Egg sound with Hatfield and the North influences provides an intriguing and often uplifting listening experience made all the more special by the appearance of guest players such as Steve Hillage and members of RIO band Henry Cow.
Esoteric Recordings have done justice to this criminally underrated Canterbury band by their remastering- I’ve never heard Egg sound better! (ECLEC 2003) - Phil Jackson, Progressive Ears Album Reviews
Their first release is an old classic from the Canterbury scene, featuring the brilliant keyboard pyrotechnics of Dave Stewart (*not* the guy from the Eurythmics). Mixing progressive rock styles with the complexity of jazz, filled with unusual time signatures, and adaptations of Bach and Grieg, this is one of the masterpieces of prog rock. The Polite Force was Egg's second release, and was better developed musically from their debut, a style that was carried on to the subsequent The Civil Surface. It is quite revealing to see what kinds of complex rock music can be accomplished with a small three-piece band. Blending classical rearrangements with odd time signatures, they were one of the most adventurous groups to emerge from the Canterbury scene, prior to making way for ELP, etc. - New Gibraltar Encyclopedia Of Progressive Rock
Egg performed some new material during their last concerts before they broke up. This material was very well received by the audience, so the trio decided to re-unite in 1974 just to record the material and it resulted in this album. In many ways, this was their least accessible and most avant-garde album. It featured several guest-musicians on wind instruments who performed two atmospheric instrumentals. They also performed on the very weird and avant-garde "Nearch". However, the band was a lot more recognisable on "Enneagram" and "Wring Out the Ground (Loosely Now)". Both are excellent tracks in the classic Egg-style and just as good as anything on their masterpiece "The Polite Force". The opening piece "Germ Patrol" sounds like a mix of Egg and Stewart's new band at that time, Hatfield and the North. This is an instrumental-track that is somewhat hard to grasp. "Prelude" is the least interesting moment on the album, and it sounds like a typical unfinished takeout (that's probably just what it is too). Although "The Civil Surface" is not as good as the two first album and has a stronger Canterbury-feel (in a rather negative sense of the word for me) but it's still a worthy farewell with an often underrated progressive rock trio. - VintageProg.com
Important early progressive trio that broke through many musical barriers no one dared to approach before. The first album features outright dissonance (as on the short-circuiting organ-solo "Blane") and askew rhythmic figures (like the 13/8 meter in the middle section of "I Will Be Absorbed") to a degree never dreamt of before. The band consists of Dave Stewart on organ, piano and "tone generator" (a very primitive, home-made synth), Mont Campbell on bass and vocals and Clive Brooks on drums. Very primitive-sounding by today's standards, and featuring some awful, hippie orientated lyrics by Campbell which date the music to a good degree. Still, this is light-years ahead of, say, the Nice as far as musical sophistication goes, although even here there are "rock" interpretations of classical pieces (Well, Bach pieces, anyway). Important more for the doors they opened for other progressive bands to explore than the actual music they produced themselves, still of historic interest as one of Dave Stewart's earliest bands, pre-Hatfield, National Health et al. The third album, The Civil Surface, was recorded much later, and is supposed to be much more Canterbury-like in sound, and as a result much less dated-sounding - Mike Ohman, New Gibraltar Encyclopedia Of Progressive Rock
Ever since I came across the work of Andy Tillison a few years, I began hearing more and more about the music of the Canterbury Scene and how it drastically influenced The Tangent. I decided to investigate some groups further on this basis. The Civil Surface is my first foray into the Canterbury genre and it left quite an impression. Egg began in 1969 with the trio of Dave Stewart (organ, piano, bass on Nearch), Clive Brooks (drums) and Mont Cambell (bass, voice, french horn, piano). After two records the group disbanded in 1972. Fortunately, two years later Dave Stewart signed a deal with Virgin Records owner Richard Branson and commenced working on their third album The Civil Surface.
The Civil Surface begins with Germ Patrol. Starting off with a bolero like drum beat, it gradually builds in strength with distorted guitar and organ passages. This theme ends and gives way to a different, complementing passage in the same manner. A good choice for an opener.
bWind Quartet parts 1 and 2, as the names imply, are songs consisting only of four wind instruments (clarinet, flute, french horn and bassoon). The first part serves as a quirky and effective transition between the hectic Germ Patrol and Enneagram. Part 2, however, is much of the same and serves as a somewhat dull ending for an otherwise energetic album. Overall, even though they are a bit different, I enjoyed these pieces and have not yet had the urge to skip over them.
Next up is Enneagram, a complex, instrumental tune much in the same vein of Germ Patrol. It features some excellent drumming by Clive Brooks and skillfull organ and piano playing by Dave Stewart. There is a strong hint of Mahavishnu Orchestra type fusion on this. Excellent track and one of my favorites on the album.
Prelude is entirely organ driven with female vocals. This was the first song that struck me as bearing resemblance to The Tangent. More specifically, Skipping The Distance. The chanting female vocals share great resemblence to those of Sam Baine of The Tangent. Other than a little smile from Deja Vu, I think this is the only real weak moment on the album. In four minutes it doesn't hold its own.
Wring Out The Ground [Loosely Now] is, lyrically at least, one of the stranger songs to have crossed my path. For about two minutes, in one form or another, the phrase "wring out the ground" is sung just about non stop. They also reprise this idea towards the end. Sandwiched in between is a pretty interesting instrumental section that seems to borrow from Gentle Giant and even Yes in a few aspects. Again, very jazzy and more excellent organ by Dave Stewart.
Nearch is also a bit of an oddity. It begins with what seems to be a nod toward Lizard era King Crimson. About two and a half minutes into the song it just stops and for about a minute drum beats occasionally pop up through the silence. I would assume that this is here as a joke of some sort?
A few minor discrepancies aside, I really enjoyed this album. I can't really say I have heard anything quite like it. If you are into older prog like the above mentioned bands, than this is a no brainer. Also, for those like me who are curious to see were many great bands, like The Tangent, got their influence from. Pick this up. Highly recommended. - Chris Jackson, DPRP
Egg's third and last album, The Civil Surface, is a reunion album of sorts that includes a roster of Canturbury all-stars such as Steve Hillage and Lindsey Cooper augmenting the trio of Dave Stewart (keys), Mont Campbell (bass), and Clive Brooks (drums). This album does not begin where the last album left off, but rather a few steps ahead of that. Stewart, by now a well established keyboard player with supergroup Hatfield and the North, and Mont Campbell, now in possession of a music composition degree, had finely honed their chops in the previous couple of years. All these things make for a much fuller sounding album. The complex counterpoint and tart harmonies on The Civil Surface set the stage for the sound that would later be National Health's trademark.
Beginning with a metronome click, sped up drums, and organ fanfare, "Germ Patrol" is the sound of an Egg rehatched. The masterstroke on the album, however, is "Enneagram". This track expertly synthesizes all of the Stravinsky ostinati, jazz chords, and space sounds that Egg had touched upon earlier in their career but hadn't quite mastered. Shorter, but just as telling of things to come, is "Prelude", filled out by the Northettes on vocals. Not everything is as revelatory as the previously mentioned tracks, but the lesser tracks are enjoyable nontheless and feature a sense of humor not heard on prior releases. - Ground and Sky review - Egg - The Civil Surface
Egg evolved out of Uriel, after they'd lost their guitar player, Steve Hillage, who left in the summer of'68 to resume his studies at the University of Kent in Canterbury (where he later met members of the 'Caravan Family'). This left Dave Stewart (organ), Mont Campbell (bass/vocals) and Clive Brooks (drums) with a new musical concept to define (after deciding they'd now dispense with a six-stringer). For a while, the name Uriel was still used, but by early 1969 their management got them to change for Egg. So far, they'd only played covers (or personal arrangements of others' compositions), but with Campbell's writing abilities now evident, the trio decided to focus on original material. Both Stewart and Campbell had classical influences, and were inspired by Keith Emerson's pioneering classical/rock fusion with his band The Nice, also an organ/bass/drums trio. Eventually, Egg's music became very complex and tight, using riffs played in unison by organ and bass and constantly changing time signatures. No wonder their first (and only) single was named "Seven Is ? Jolly Good Time", referring to the unusual structure (in 7/4) of its chorus. As with most of the songs they would perform (their repertoire was a balanced mix of vocal and instrumental material), Campbell's lyrics displayed a typically British, tongue-in-cheek sense of humour, that was to become the trademark of the Canterbury movement. This is one of the reasons for which Egg can be considered an integral part of the Canterbury School, even though direct links only happened later, when Stewart joined Hatfield and the North (and Steve Hillage, at the same time, joined Kevin Ayers, then Gong). During its four-year existence, Egg released two albums on the Decca label, "Egg" (1970) and "The Polite Force" (1971). Both included one very long instrumental piece that filled the entire second side of the vinyl. Although a number of the tracks may now sound naTve (for instance the arrangement of Bach's "Tocatta" on the first album) or dated, these are undeniably pioneering works. Pre-dating by several years the birth of the R.I.O. movement, which followed the same idea of mixing classical and rock elements, without the over-the-top and purely "rock'n'roll" indulgences of Emerson and the like, yet not without a healthy dose of humour. After struggling for over a year with hardly enough gigs to survive, Egg eventually broke up in July 1972, leaving almost an album's worth of unrecorded compositions, some of which had become stage favourites. So when the opportunity came, in the summer of 1974, to record a third album for the Virgin sub-label Caroline Records, the trio was re-united for "The Civil Surface". In addition to the old pieces, a couple of wind quartets on which Campbell was working on at the time were used to fill up the album. Guest participants included Steve Hillage, The Northettes and Henry Cow's Tim Hodgkinson and Lindsay Cooper. Following thebreak-up of Egg, Clive Brooks had joined the Groundhogs, a blues-rock band with whom the trio had toured several times, and worked intermittently with them (or leader Tony McPhee in a solo context) until the early 80's. As for Mont Campbell, after a 1-year stint in the original line-up of National Health (1975-76), he stayed out of the public eye for two decades, and only returned in 1996 with his first solo album, "Music From A Round Tower". - Mason Records Release Notes
In 1969 the so-cailed "progressive" or underground" rock boom was taking hold of Britain's long haired youth. Short "pop" material was out and long complex compositions, drawing their inspiration from jazz, blues, psychedelia and classical music, was the order of the day. Album sales had overtaken single sales considerably and, anxious to capitalise on this new trend, the major UK record companies established imprints (inspired by the success of independents such as Island and Elektra) with an "underground" credibility and scouted for acts to sign. EMI records established Harvest with great success whilst Phillips developed Vertigo and Decca set up the short-lived Nova label as companion to their Deram imprint.
Of the initial releases on the Nova label, few had the quality or enjoyed the subsequent status of the debut album by a young trio from London who had assumed the identity of EGG. The trio who comprised the group had evolved from a band formed at the City of London School, Uriel.
Uriel featured fellow pupils Dave Stewart (a guitarist turned keyboard player), guitarist Steve Hillage and Hugo "Mont" Campbell (a bass guitarist). Drummer Clive Brooks was recruited via an ad in Melody Maker magazine. With an average age of 17, Uriel's first concert took place at a youth club in Sheen, Surrey in early 1968. Inspired by acts such as The Nice (featuring Keith Emerson's pyrotechnic Organ playing), Jimi Hendrix, Cream, Pink Floyd and Fleetwood Mac, Uriel played a handful of local concerts. In the Summer of 1968 Uriel secured a residency at the Ryde Castle Hotel on the Isle of Wight and also opened concerts for both Fairport Convention and The Crazy World of Arthur Brown.
By September of that year Steve Hillage departed the fold to attend university in Canterbury, studying history and philosophy. Stewart, Campbell and Brooks decided to dispense with a guitarist. A series of concerts at the "underground" Middle Earth club at The Roundhouse in Chalk farm led to the band securing management with Middle Earth's promoters Dave Howson and Paul Waldman, who suggested the band change their name to "EGG".
1969 began with a series of high profile support slots for Love Sculpture, Family, The Pretty Things and Soft Machine. By now the management team of Howson and Waldman were beginning to get record company interest in their new signing. Egg began to drop cover versions in their set and began to experiment with writing more complex material, with Mont Campbell's lyrics displaying a distinctly British sense of humour.
This change of direction paid off when Egg secured a contract with Decca records in June 1969. The single "Seven is a Jolly Good Time" b/w "You Are All Princes" was released on August 29th as Deram DM 269. As the single's A-side proclaimed, its chorus was indeed in 7.4 time, a clear indication of the band's musical direction. "Underground" press reaction was favourable with comparisons being made with musicians such as Soft Machine (a declared influence on the trio).
Although the single failed to chart, Egg were offered the chance to record their first album for Decca's new progressive label, Nova. Prior to sessions commencing Dave Stewart, Mont Campbell and Clive Brooks reunited with ex-colleague Steve Hillage (then on a Summer break from University) to record an album for the obscure Zel label under pseudonym "Arzachel". Steve Hillage subsequently returned to his University studies in Canterbury and Egg entered Landsdowne Studios in Holland Park in October 1969 to record their eponymous debut album for Decca.
The material recorded revealed a surprising musical maturity for a group not yet 20 years old and remarkably Decca gave Stewart, Campbell and Brooks the unprecedented freedom of being able to produce their first album. "Egg" was released on March 13th 1970 as Deram Nova SDN 14 with a striking cover photograph devised by David Wedgbury. It's release coincided with albums such as "Expansions on Life" by The Elastic Band, "Places and Faces" by Harvey Andrews, "Barbed Wire Sandwich" by Black Cat Bones and "Feeling Free" by Pacific Drift. As a Nova release the album retailed at a lower price of 28 shillings and sixpence, a ploy by Decca to entice the "underground" record buying public to purchase albums by new acts.
Unfortunately "Egg" was promoted alongside the entire Nova catalogue which meant that the possibility of any potential attention being lavished on an individual album was slim. Although "Egg" was one of the two biggest selling Nova releases (the other being the debut by rock duo Clark-Hutchinson), the album failed to reach the wider audience it deserved.
Despite sales being less encouraging than expected, critical response was extremely positive. The band had gained a small but loyal following thanks to sporadic concert appearances supporting the likes of Procol Harum, Family and Taste. The performances also led to enthusiastic support from the British music press with Richard Williams of Melody Maker (later an early presenter of BBC TV's "The Old Grey Whistle Test") referring to Egg as "super-efficient rock musicians with the kind of enquiring minds which make the current scene so exciting".
Egg also had a major supporter in Decca staff producer Neil Slaven, Neil and his fellow Decca staff producer David Hitchcock were keen for the "Supreme Record Company" to sign underground darlings Soft Machine when they became free of their contract with US-based Probe records. Despite such overtures being
made CBS records eventually secured Soft Machine's commitment. Slaven saw Egg as potential competitors to Messer's Wyatt, Hopper and Ratledge and it was he who persuaded Decca to give the band the chance to record a second album which would appear on the full price and prestigious Deram label. By May 1970 Egg were encamped at Morgan Studios in Willesden to record what would be Egg's final opus for Decca.
Recording took place throughout most of May interspersed with a concert at the London Roundhouse on May 2nd (supporting Family and Taste) and a headlining appearance at Hounslow Arts Lab on May 26th. The format of Egg's second album followed on from the inspired complex time signatures of their first. Compositions such as "A Visit to Newport Hospital" (Mont Campbell's dry account of the bands experiences whilst playing a residency at the Ryde Castle Hotel on the Isle of Wight when still known as Uriel), "Contrasong", (featuring a horn arrangement written by Mont Campbell performed by some of Britain's leading session players such as Henry Lowther and Bob Downes), "Boilk" and the lengthy suite, "Long Piece No. 3" were all huge leaps forward in terms of creativity from the first Egg album, but concern from Decca Records over the fact that the band no longer had management or agency representation (as Middle Earth club promoters Dave Howson and Paul Waldman had abandoned their young signings some months previously), were playing relatively few concerts in comparison to other contemporary acts, and had delivered a record that was distinctly "underground" and avant garde in places meant their faith in Egg was wavering.
Dave Stewart would later comment on this time thus; "After we'd recorded the album Decca told us they didn't want to release it. Why the f*** had they let us record it? Because someone in the Sales/Marketing department had failed to tell someone in the Contracts department, presumably; but if you attempt to understand the workings of record companies' employees' minds you'll end up as mad as they are. This is the worst thing you can do to a band, though - let them sweat blood over recording an album they're proud of, with all its false starts, nerves, anxiety, eventual triumphant completion of good backing tracks, hours of overdubbing, problems with headphones, more nerves, the occasional brilliant bit of playing, arguing about the mix, persuading the drummer the snare's loud enough, getting through the mix without fucking up, making sure all the mixes are the right level, sorting out the running order - and then say, "Oh, by the way -we're not putting it out."
On October 31st, Melody Maker's Richard Williams, a keen supporter of the Egg cause, wrote that Decca were reluctant to issue the band's recently completed work and lamented the lack of concert appearances by the group. Such press coverage, boosted by discreet placing of acetates of Egg's recent work by producer Neil Slaven, may have prompted Decca into action as a release was finally agreed.
A session for BBC Radio One's Alan Black on January 4th 1971 was followed four weeks later by the release of Egg's second album, "The Polite Force" as Deram SML 1074. The albums release coincided with an appearance on Radio One's "Sunday Concert" on February 4th and broadcast on February 14th. "The Polite Force" was received favourably by the music press which saw a slight upturn in concert appearances with March seeing Egg support bands such as Yes, If, Audience, Lindisfarne, Gentle Giant and The Groundhogs. The summer of 1971 was spent writing new material and saw the formation of The Ottawa music Company, a large ensemble formed by Dave Steward Henry Cow member Chris Cutler, which featured all members of Egg. Soon after Egg were offered a support spot on The Groundhogs December UK tour.
Decca records resisted overtures to commit to a third Egg album, although further demos were recorded and submitted. In February of 1972 two of these new compositions "Wring Out the Ground Loosely Now" and "Germ Patrol" were recorded for Radio One's "Top Gear" show. This was followed by a further session on March 13th where another new piece "Enneagram" made its debut. Alas these recordings have long since vanished from the BBC archives. Also in March 1972, Dave Stewart had guested on the album "Space Shanty" (released on June 2nd as Deram SDL 14) by his former band mate Steve Hillage's new outfit KHAN.
With Egg's concert work drying up the decision to break the band up was taken. July 9th 1972 saw Egg's final live appearance at the London Roundhouse. Clive Brooks took up an invitation to replace Ken Pustelnik in the Groundhogs and appeared on their 1972 album "Hogwash". Mont Campbell initially quit the music scene to become a plumber before gaining a place in the Royal College of Music to study French Horn. Dave Stewart became a full member of Steve Hillage's Khan.
Dave Stewart subsequently replaced ex-Caravan member Dave Sinclair as a member of Hatfield and the North, joining Dave's cousin and former Caravan cohort Richard Sinclair on bass. Pip Pyle on drums and Phil Miller on guitar in January 1973, releasing an eponymous album for Virgin records later that year. Hatfield and the North proved to be a popular live attraction, particularly on the Continent and were one of the more successful early signings to Richard Branson's new label. In the Summer of 1974, after overtures from Dave Stewart to Richard Branson and Simon Draper of Virgin, Egg surprisingly reformed one final time to record a third album.
In August 1974 sessions were undertaken at Saturn Studios in Worthing which would revisit such material as "Wring out the Ground Loosely Now", "Enneagram" and "Germ Patrol". Aside from featuring Dave Stewart, Mont Campbell and Clive Brooks, the album would also feature guest appearances by vocalist Barbara Gaskin, Lindsay Cooper and Tim Hodgkinson from fellow Virgin sigings Henry Cow. The sessions would also be noted for the fact that Steve Hillage reunited with his former Uriel colleagues to guest on "Wring out the Ground Loosely Now".
In an interview with the fanzine "Ptolemaic Terrascope" in 1990 Dave Stewart declared; "Future events were to partly compensate for the lack of interest that led to the band's demise, as in 1974 we got the opportunity to reform the band for the album. This effectively mopped up the unrecorded material from the post-"Polite Force" era, though we had to pad it out a little with some wind quartets Mont had written - not really Egg Material! Although the mix on "Civil Surface" is a bit naff (we couldn't persuade Clive that the drums were loud enough) I'm really glad we recorded 'Enneagram', one of my favourite Egg pieces. We used to steam through that at gigs. It was our opening number and peoples' faces would drop!"
Released in December 1974, "The Civil Surface" appeared on Virgin's Caroline label, an imprint designed to serve as a home for Virgin's more "esoteric" and avant-garde acts. The album gained airplay from DJ John Peel, but with all members of Egg now returning to their respective musical acitivities and no touring possible, the album sold healthily, but not in quantities sufficient enough to make a mark on the British album charts. Despite this, "The Civil Surface" was another classic offering from one of Britain's most talented and unsung outfits. This remastered CD reissue finally gives a chance for those with discerning musical taste to rediscover the delights of Egg's final album. - Mark Powell, Release Notes
Dave Stewart (organ, piano, tone generator)
Mont Campbell (bass, vocals)
Clive Brooks (drums)
with
Jeremy Baines (germophone and bonk)
Lindsay Cooper (oboe & bassoon on Nearch and Germ Patrol)
Tim Hodgkinson (clarinet on Nearch and Germ Patrol)
Amanda Parsons, Ann Rosenthal & Barbara Gaskin (singing on Prelude)
Also:
Steve 'speshul guest star' Hillage (guitar on Wring Out The Ground)
Wind Quartets performed by:
Mont Campbell (french horn)
Maurice Cambridge (clarinet)
Stephen Solloway (flute)
Chris Palmer (bassoon)
1. Germ Patrol - 8:31
2. Wind Quartet 1 - 2:25
3. Enneagram - 9:09
4. Prelude - 4:17
5. Wring Out The Ground Loosely Now - 8:10
6. Nearch - 3:27
7. Wind Quartet 2 - 4:44
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