Marsupilami
Arena (1971)
Label:   
Length:  45:52
    Track Listing:
      1.  
      Prelude To The Arena (The Undertones Of Violence In A Drifting Generation)    5:23
      2.  
      Peace Of Rome (They Manufactured Death To Keep The Peace)    7:01
      3.  
      The Arena (The Fighting, The Killing, The Mother Of Fornicaton)    12:55
      4.  
      Time Shadows (Lay Low The Past, The Future Brings Hope.)    11:16
      5.  
      Spring    9:16
    Additional info: | top
      England [Transatlantic 230]

      Prog Archives

      Review by hdfisch (Dieter Fischer)

      4 stars Very early intricate Prog and close to a masterpiece!

      Second album by MARSUPILAMI was an ambitious concept one about the brutality of the ancient Roman culture involving not less than eight musicians. BTW it has been produced by Peter Bardens whose band CAMEL was still waiting for their big success at that time. On ARENA the band had refined and further improved their sound by adding Mellotron, sax, electric piano, more woodwinds and percussion. But central instrument is still the Hammond played incredibly skillful by Leary Hasson covering its full potential spectre.

      Apart of the involvement of more instruments the most striking difference to their debut is that the compositions on here are much less catchy and very intricate with a rather strong jazz influence at times almost towards RIO. Thus this one needs definitively a few spins to get into it. Prelude to the Arena opens the albums with a fluttery organ sound followed by narrative vocals by Fred Hasson leading to a quite heavy part with screaming, furious drumming and guitar but as well more quiet parts with e-piano, Mellotron or flute. First track is already a highlight! Second song Peace of Rome is as well a very versatile one varying between mellow, beautiful sections and more savage ones. Thereafter the very intricate epic songThe Arena is following with 13 minutes of timing and including awesome solos on Hammond and flute. Initially the track has a very oriental inspired sound developing more into a Canterbury vein. Time Shadow is the one where the sax comes into play and probably the best one with an incredibly intricate interplay between flute, sax and Hammond. It starts with psychedelic sounding spoken vocals then a dramatic intro with organ and drums which segues into a rather quiet part with flute, organ and short amazing solo on Harmonica (!) before vocals come in. This track has a very strong jazzy Canterbury touch not mainly due to the sax playing. Really an absolute highlight! The initial part of The Spring is the weirdest and oddest one of the album with a strange and disharmonic Hammond sound and a savage free jazz jamming, then it segues into a very pleasant theme on flute followed by a solo by Harmonica and the song switches more into a psychedelic folksy vein with mesmerizing vocals not unlike the band Quintessence. The final part is a reprise of the flute theme with tubular bells added on.

      CONCLUSION

      IMHO this album is an almost masterpiece in early Prog and an absolute essential one deserving a much higher attention than it actually has. Just the fact that I try to be more careful with giving the highest score keeps me off rating it with 5 stars (but 4,5 in real!).


      Review by Trotsky (Martin Vengadesan)

      4 stars This concept album about the drama of the gladiator's arena during the Roman Empire is the second of two intriguing albums Marupilami recorded in the early 70s. The pair of proto-prog albums are of almost equal strength, and both are worth investigating. While the first album wins marks for being such a unique work and sounding like very little like anything that came before it, Arena's greater variety in terms of instrumentation probably tips the scale in its favour.

      Prelude To the Arena: The Undertones Of Violence In A Drifting Generation begins with some threatening noises from lead vocalist Fred Hasson over some frenzied attacks but soon settles down into a truly beautiful melancholic passage with acoustic guitar, flute and mellotron. Fast-paced jazzy vocals and a great electric piano solo from Leary Hasson take this piece home

      The second track Peace Of Rome: They Manufactured Death To Keep The Peace, has a nice, dark mid-section led of course by organ and flute, before a searing special from Dave Laverock (actually the best guitar solo I've heard from him) takes the music to a new level. Marsupillami's longest song The Arena (The Fighting, The Killing, The Mother Of Fornication) doesn't start off so well but after a couple of minutes becomes an outstanding organ-dominated psychedelic improvisation, drawing heavily from Eastern themes, with drummer Mike Fouracre also making his presence felt. This track loses momentum, but again resolves itself towards the end, even if the very last notes of the song seem unbearably harsh

      Time Shadows (Lay Low The Past, The Future Brings Hope) is a sombre, almost eerie affair, with Jessica Stanley Clarke's flute and Leary Harsson's organ doing a good job in building up an atmosphere (Fred Hasson's harmonica works rather less well). It eventually breaks into jazzy flute driven prog. There's some nice piano playing, and another pleasing surprise when a saxophone kicks in to good effect. Laverock's jazz guitar solo is also of note, while the ferentic stomping conclusion to the piece ensures that a good time is had by all.

      The closer Spring is another strange one With a pastoral acoustic guitar/organ/flute opening giving way to a veritable cacophany of sound for more than a minute before a beautiful almost soft-rock passage comes into play. This portion is rather remiscent of Camel's tamest moments which is perhaps no surprise given that future Camel stalwart Peter Bardens produced this album. There's a harmonica solo, a powerful jam with an eerie conclusion and a restatement of the soft-rock passage before the show shuts down.

      By and large Arena is an album that doesn't really follow any precedents, which is exactly what makes it, to my mind, so darned fresh. ... 80% on the MPV scale.
      _________________________________________________________________

      VintageProg.com

      Marsupilami followed up their excellent debut with this ambitious concept album about the extremely brutal and sadistic culture of ancient Rome. They had now also got an additional member on flute and saxophone, while keyboardist Leary Hasson (probably vocalist Fred Hasson's brother) had expanded his set of equipment to include Mellotron and el-piano beside the organ and piano, something that made their sound even better. Producer Peter Bardens also contributed with some percussion. The opener "Prelude to the Arena" opens with some vibrating organ sounds that leads right into a surprisingly heavy part with screaming and partly narrative vocals from Hasson, followed by wild drumming and guitar. But it quickly slows down to a melodic and harmonic part before a beautiful theme played on flute appears, and here we also hear the first tones of the holy Mellotron. The song then goes into a fast and catchy vocal part followed by a solo on el-piano and finally ends with the opening riff again. This is classic 70's progressive rock at its best, and the high standard lasts for the rest of the album. "Peace of Rome" is stuffed with themes that varies from mellow and beautiful to faster and more disharmonic stuff. The most complex track is undoubtedly the 13-minute "The Arena". The lyrics on the record are naturally full of gladiators, violence, fights in the arena, martyrs and evil emperors, and the band manages to capture all this drama very well in the music. The 11-minute "Time Shadows" starts with some echoing narration that sounds EXACTLY like what Michael Moorcock would do on Hawkwind's superb "Warrior on the Edge of Time" four years later. After that, the track goes into a jam where new member Mandy Reidelbanch is allowed to stretch out on saxophone. This is very efficiently followed by some themes from "Peace of Rome" and "The Arena". The album closes with "Spring" that is based around a nice melody on flute, but also features lots of chanting vocals and long duels between the two female flutists in the band. Marsupilami would unfortunately broke up after "Arena", but they left behind two obscure classics of 70's progressive rock.

      -----------------

      A progressive rock outfit whose albums are now collectable. Their first effort is full of atmospheric, moody, rambling songs which were typical of the progressive rock era. It's full of fine organ work and nice flute, though the guitar playing is a bit dodgy. Pete Bardens played on their second album. One track from this, Prelude, was later included on the Transatlantic 1970 compilation, Heads and Tales. This progressive piece begins with wild vocals and manic guitar work which mellows into a keyboard solo with the wild vocals returning at the end. Certainly they were one of Transatlantic's most exciting outfits.
    Links/Resources | top