Thursday 15 May 2008

DIABOLUS - Diabolus (aka High Tones) UK 1971

John Hadfield (guitar, vocals)
Anthony Hadfied (bass, vocals)
Philip Howard (flute, keyboards, saxophone, organ, piano)
Ellwood Von Seibold (drums)

Their only LP, "High Tones", was recorded in 1971, in London, produced by Hugh Murphy and Shel Talmy (THE WHO).
Music runs from folk tunes to excessive instrumentation, including flute, sax and chorus sang by three of the members of the band, passing through jazz-fusion and complex time composing. GENTLE GIANT's choruses run similarly to DIABOLUS'; flute sound takes them close to JETHRO TULL. Sax prefigures later PINK FLOYD sound, but while in PF sax is "invited" in DIABOLUS it comes as part of the whole. Some of the tunes approach electric jazz through the use of broken times and an open drumming, with moments of total free improvisation.

Excellent !!! For all hard psych folk prog lovers !!!

Link : http://rapidshare.com/files/51617410/diabolus71.rar

Enjoy and leave your comments.

2 comments:

xylem777 said...

Misinformed review. I met one of the Hadfield brothers once (in 1978), and he came from Leicester. He knew well of the Bellaphon release of their LP, and was quite proud of it. The Sunrise label is a dodgy unofficial label, so I guess you are reiterating their promo info? Not official at all as far as know.

imnotgod said...

Thanks for these précisions Alan !