"...Grand Canyon and The Future Relayer..."
In 2020, the
three multi-instrumentals that made up England's REFUGEE are a footnote in Prog
Rock's rich and illustrious history – a banks-of-keyboards band that could have
become a force to be reckoned with, but were hit with bad luck and inopportune
timing.
To set the scene
- newcomer and then virtual unknown Swiss Keyboardist Patrick Moraz had joined
forces with two other virtuoso players – Bassist Lee Jackson and Drummer Brian
Davison – both of whom had done Prog and Classical Rock time with The Nice
before Keith Emerson broke of to form ELP in 1970. Taking their name from a
girlfriend's comment, Refugee made one album on Charisma Records in 1974 but
then promptly imploded when Moraz was poached for YES (replacing Rick Wakeman).
This beautifully
done 3CD Box Set from Esoteric Recordings of the UK (part of Cherry Red)
remasters their solitary self-titled album and throws in two live shows on
Discs 2 and 3 recorded in the same year (1974) – one Previously Unreleased BBC
Concert, the other only issued in 2007 – with the whole lot newly remastered
under the supervision of Moraz. Let's get to the Grand Canyon and the future
Relayer…
UK released 30
August 2019 - "Refugee" by REFUGEE on Esoteric Recordings ECLEC 32685
(Barcode 5013929478503) is a Expanded Edition 3CD Mini Clamshell Box Set of Remasters that plays
out as follows:
CD1
"Refugee" (51:27 minutes):
1. Papillon [Side
1]
2. Someday
3. Grand Canyon
First Movement -
The Source
Second Movement -
Theme For The Canyon
Third Movement -
The Journey
Fourth Movement -
Rapids
Fifth Movement -
The Mighty Colorado
4. Gate Crasher
5. Ritt Mickley
[Side 2]
6. Credo
First Movement -
Prelude
Second Movement -
I Believe
Third Movement -
Theme
Fourth Movement -
Lost Cause
Fifth Movement -
Agitato
Sixth Movement -
I Believe (Part II)
Seventh Movement
- Variation
Eighth Movement -
Main Theme Finale
Tracks 1 to 6 are
their debut and sole album "Refugee" - release 19 April 1974 in the
UK on Charisma CAS 1087 and July 1974 in the USA on Charisma FC 6066. The
one-minute track "Gatecrasher" appeared on the US LP (in the position
its placed on this CD) but was not credited on the UK vinyl variant.
CD2 "BBC
Radio One In Concert 9 May 1974" (33:13 minutes):
1. Ritt Mickley
2. Someday
3. The Grand
Canyon Suite
First Movement -
The Source
Second Movement -
Theme For The Canyon
Third Movement -
The Journey
Fourth Movement -
Rapids
Fifth Movement -
The Mighty Colorado
Produced by JEFF
GRIFFIN and Engineered by JOHN ETCHELS (introduction from Mike Harding) -
PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED
CD3 "Live At
The Newcastle City Hall 16 June 1974" (64:22 minutes):
1. Outro - Ritt
Mickley
2. One Left
Handed Peter Pan
3. The Diamond
Hard Blue Apples Of The Moon
4. Someday
5. Papillon
6. She Belongs To
Me
7. The Grand
Canyon Suite
First Movement -
The Source
Second Movement -
Theme For The Canyon
Third Movement -
The Journey
Fourth Movement -
Rapids
Fifth Movement -
The Mighty Colorado
8. Refugee Jam
First issued 2007
as the CD "Live In Concert (Newcastle City Hall 1974)" on Voiceprint
VP421CD. Tracks 3 and 6 are cover versions - 3 originally by The Nice and 6 by
Bob Dylan.
These mini
Clamshell Box Sets always lend a release a whiff of class and the Remastered
and Extended "Refugee" is no different. You get three card sleeves -
the two live sets featuring new artwork, a 16-page booklet with new liner notes
from MARTYN HANSON author of "Hang On To A Dream: The Story Of The
Nice", period photos of the three-piece in live mode and trade adverts.
More importantly, the whole shebang is touched up with top-notch Remasters by
JEFF RISTORI at MTX Mastering (CD 1 and CD3) - whilst long-time association
audio engineer to Esoteric BEN WISEMAN handled the new BBC In Concert
recordings on CD2 - all supervised by Moraz. The Audio is massive and full on -
multi-instrumental passages coming at you like Todd Rundgren's Utopia on too
many Vitamin C shots. To the music...
The second the
wild piano-playing of "Papillon" hits your speakers, you know you're
in the presence of a beast - a full-on ELP outburst in all but different name.
Brian Davison plays Drums, Timpani, Gongs, Tibetan Temple Bells, African Drums,
Kabassa and even a bit of Broken Glass - and you can hear the lot.
"Someday" features Lee Jackson on Lead Vocals shouting about going on
a trip to far flung places - locking up the house and the Bass Guitar - and
while his vocals haven't dated that well - the sheer Greenslade exuberance of
that keyboard break has. The first of the album's centerpieces is a
seventeen-minute five-moment called after an appropriately majestic thing -
"Grand Canyon". The keyboard flourishes and clear-as-a-bell Bass
notes are so Yes and remind me of passages in Jon Anderson's 1976 masterpiece
"Olias Of Sunhillow".
The keyboard
throwaway moment (complete with cough and voices) that is
"Gatecrasher" is huge - one minute of Moraz getting funky with his
synth before it crashes into Side 2 proper and the very ELP "Ritt
Mickley" - fantastic muscle in the audio. We piano-slide into the album's
second centerpiece - eighteen minutes of the eight-part "Credo" -
Moraz really getting to shine as he races up and down that grand piano. Those
huge organ notes and vocals around about seven minutes are now bigger than I
remember it. Audio-wise I’d admit the BBC session is good without ever being
great - huge chunky notes and the rhythm section of Bass and Drums rattling
across your speakers with intent - even if it feels as if the keyboards are too
far back on occasion. But when Moraz is soloing – it’s damn impressive. The
2007 set are simply more of the same.
When Refugee
imploded, Swiss Keyboardist Patrick Moraz joined the ranks of Yes replacing
Rick Wakeman who was pursuing a successful solo career over on A&M Records
with "The Six Wives Of Henry The VIII" (1973) and "Journey To
The Centre Of The Earth" (1974). Filling very big boots, Moraz would be
successfully launched by Yes in November 1974 with the brilliant
"Relayer" album on Atlantic Records and then get his own solo LP in
1976 on Charisma with "The Story Of 'I'". Brian Davison did a short
stint in Steve Hillage’s Gong in 1975 - another band getting noticed over on
Virgin Records while Bassist Lee Jackson would stay out of the limelight until
the 2010s when he joined a reformation of his old Charisma Label Prog Rock
muckers The Nice for live shows.
Despite original
refusals to join Yes, Moraz was too good to stick around with Refugee and
ultimately made the right choice (a perfect fit for the English supergroup).
Still – Refugee had had their moment and left behind a rich one. And as a
remembrance with both stylistic presentation and top Audio - this is as good as
any almost-supergroup could have hoped for…
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