QUINCICASM SAYDISC UK LP 1973
Seemingly obscure 73 Brit Jazz lp in a free avant-fusion-prog type vein with no vocals. Don't know if this quintet were from Gloucestershire but Saydisc records are an occasional sighting in the South West charity shops. All but 2 of their releases, as far as know, are local spoken word comedy and observation esp. by the likes of Geoffrey Woodruff, church bell lps or Victorian mechanical music records. The other ‘band’ lp is a folk lp I haven’t heard by ‘Black and White’. It’s usually touted as acid folk but apparently it is quite bland, although I admittedly haven’t heard it but does look like cabaret folk . Who knows, it may be amazing because of this and maybe I will never find out.
Anyway I have affection for Saydisc what with there local roots and that oval label design that reminds me of the now demolished ‘aids recovery’ Lucozade building. It looks like it was created in the 50s and still thought of by Saydisc, as a perfect logo even for something 20 years later like early seventies free jazz prog.
Apparently the recording is taken from a live gig in front of a load of school kids at Dartington Hall and the key man went on to form 'the flying Lizards' who had a hit with Money in the late 70s. Got this info from the highly informative and sometimes infuriatingly opinionated Galactic Ramble book'.
The overall sound is quiet apart from ‘Winds of Change’, a non-whistling, free jazz excursion with electric piano stabs and effective Sabbath-prog bass/electric piano intro and coda from Geddy Lee-a like Malcolm Bennett. Lots of sax blowing followed by flugel horn and nice wah organ. Shame there's no fuzz
Side 1 is taken up by Time & Motion, a band composition which on the whole is very mellow for the first part with just percussion and tends to go from electric-miles type freakouts to very contemplative parts with a wide range of sounds including vibes and flute. All quite free and one of the stronger tracks on the lp.
Side 2 is taken up by 3 tracks written by key man Julian Marshall. Trent Park Song is quite calm and meditative with some Norma Winstone-type scat vocal from Katy Zeserson. In my limited knowledge it reminds of some of Nucleus’ more quiet moments although not as memorable. Its pleasant enough though.
Karen, the last track is a polite instrumental love song of some kind and it’s the weakest track for me. Nice enough but nearly lounge and probably sealed the deal with the Saydisc gang.
Its hard to track down but that’s probably due more to the obscure band name. What or who is Quincicasm?
Prof