01	Germ Patrol						08:31
	02	Wind Quartet 1						02:25
	03	Enneagram						09:09
	04	Prelude						04:17
	05	Wring Out The Ground Loosely Now						08:10
	06	Nearch						03:27
	07	Windquartet 2						04:44

Virgin Japan
1974/1989
VJD-5026

Dave Stewart - organ, piano, bass (on "Nearch")
Clive Brooks - drums


Egg - "The Civil Surface" (1974)
Egg performed some new material during their last concerts before they broke up. This material was very well received by the audience, so the trio decided to re-unite in 1974 just to record the material and it resulted in this album. In many ways, this was their least accessible and most avant-garde album. It featured several guest-musicians on wind instruments who performed two atmospheric instrumentals. They also performed on the very weird and avant-garde "Nearch". However, the band was a lot more recognisable on "Enneagram" and "Wring Out the Ground (Loosely Now)". Both are excellent tracks in the classic Egg-style and just as good as anything on their masterpiece "The Polite Force". The opening piece "Germ Patrol" sounds like a mix of Egg and Stewart's new band at that time, Hatfield and the North. This is an instrumental-track that is somewhat hard to grasp. "Prelude" is the least interesting moment on the album, and it sounds like a typical unfinished takeout (that's probably just what it is too). Although "The Civil Surface" is not as good as the two first album and has a stronger Canterbury-feel (in a rather negative sense of the word for me) but it's still a worthy farewell with an often underrated progressive rock trio.


Egg
The Civil Surface
Caroline (CA 1510)
UK 1974

Dave Stewart, organ, bass, piano, keyboards;
Clive Brooks, drums;
Mont Campbell, bass, piano, French horn, vocals;

with Steve Hillage, guitar; Lindsay Cooper, bassoon, oboe, wind; Jeremy Baines, flute; Maurice Cambridge, clarinet; Barbara Gaskin, vocals; Tim Hodgkinson, clarinet; Christopher Palmer, bassoon; Amanda Parsons, vocals; Ann Rosenthal, vocals; Stephen Solloway, flute

Tracklist:
1. Germ Patrol - 8:31
2. Wind Quartet I - 2:20
3. Enneagram - 9:07
4. Prelude - 4:17
5. Wring Out the Ground (Loosely Now) - 8:11
6. Nearch - 3:22
7. Wind Quartet II - 4:48

total time 40:36



nick

Egg's third and last album, The Civil Surface, is a reunion album of sorts that includes a roster of Canturbury all-stars such as Steve Hillage and Lindsey Cooper augmenting the trio of Dave Stewart (keys), Mont Campbell (bass), and Clive Brooks (drums). This album does not begin where the last album left off, but rather a few steps ahead of that. Stewart, by now a well established keyboard player with supergroup Hatfield and the North, and Mont Campbell, now in possession of a music composition degree, had finely honed their chops in the previous couple of years. All these things make for a much fuller sounding album. The complex counterpoint and tart harmonies on The Civil Surface set the stage for the sound that would later be National Health's trademark.
Beginning with a metronome click, sped up drums, and organ fanfare, "Germ Patrol" is the sound of an Egg rehatched. The masterstroke on the album, however, is "Enneagram". This track expertly synthesizes all of the Stravinsky ostinati, jazz chords, and space sounds that Egg had touched upon earlier in their career but hadn't quite mastered. Shorter, but just as telling of things to come, is "Prelude", filled out by the Northettes on vocals. Not everything is as revelatory as the previously mentioned tracks, but the lesser tracks are enjoyable nontheless and feature a sense of humor not heard on prior releases.

12-20-03

c ground and sky