'Progressive Rock of the Canterbury school is heard echoing off the fjords.' Yes indeed, and to my surprise I actually don't mind. Because this Walking Up That Valley, from what I can ascertain, Oslo band Needlepoint's fifth in ten years is a great sounding record, even if it's clearly a record from 1973 despite being in actualityreleased last month.
So put on your pixie boots, grow your beard and hair long and we'll skip together down the Yellow Brick Road together all the way to a support slot with Gabriel's Genesis we trust. Seriously, I'm not exgerrating things here because Walking Up That Valley is truly a time machine back to a place that time forgot.
It's quite odd to me that anyone would want to do this, but any musical age, no matter how ridiculous, has some redeeming features, and Needlepoint do their best to locate the pleasure points of this particular Lost World.
So in amongst all the Dungeons,Dragons and Tolkien tosh, and trust me there's a lot of that, you come across some taken melodic indulgences, some truly fantastic drumming, (Jaki of Can comes to mind) and some neat Colin Blunstone, Gary Brooker and Gabriel touches from the vocalist.
Some of this is really rather sweet. Though I'm not sure I ever need to listen to it again. I've got Foxtrot, Selling England and The Lamb on my shelf, (handed down to me by my older brother I hasten to add), for when I want that particular listening experience. But Needlepoint certainly made me smile for forty five or so late yesterday afternoon.
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