Kolejny album dla tych, którzy nie boją się latać. :->
May Blitz was a short lived British-based trio that consisted of two Canadians and an Englishman. The two Canadians were guitarist and vocalist James Black and bassist Reid Hudson, with the Englishman being drummer Tony Newman, formerly of the Jeff Beck Group. This band basically combined psychedelia with blues and hard rock that’s not unlike the Jimi Hendrix Experience or Cream.
May Blitz only released two albums, this one, which is their debut, and The 2nd of May in 1971 before breaking up. The opening song, “Smoking The Day Away” sounds a lot like Hendrix, in fact, my brother was convinced it was Hendrix when he first heard it. The song has tends to be drug-oriented, and you can practically smell the marijuana smoke hearing this. The song is also loaded with some killer guitar jams. “I Don’t Know” is much in the same vein, with rather strong hippie overtones (the lyrics deal with the back to the land movement of the hippies of that time).
“Dreaming” starts off acoustic and mellow, but before you know it, you get blasted with some truly insane drumming and more killer solos. “Squeet” is one of my favorites, I can’t really explain it, but the lyrics are pretty silly, it keeps “Squeet all over the walls” over and over, then the band goes off soloing again.
“Tomorrow May Come” is another favorite of mine, it’s a really cool and mellow psychedelic piece. “Fire Queen” is a totally wild song that sounds a whole lot like The Crazy World of Arthur Brown (James Black sounds a whole lot like Brown on this song), the only difference is this song is dominated by guitar rather than Hammond organ.
The album closes with “Virgin Waters”, it’s the closest thing to prog rock on this album, but still sticks to their bluesy hard rock roots. I really love that spoken dialog. This is a truly wild album and if the description of their music sounds interesting to you, get this album.
The 2nd of May they pretty much continued on that same bluesy hard rock/psych path of their first album. “Snakes and Ladders” starts off a bit on the Hendrix-side, even the vocals remind me of Hendrix, and the second half sounds like how Black Sabbath might have sounded like if they went psychedelic. There’s a bunch of strange electronic effects to go with this song. An amazing piece! “The 25th of December, 1969″ is a more lightweight number for May Blitz, but there’s also a nice jazzy passage too. “In Part” is perhaps the album’s only real weak spot. Although it starts off fine, I like the way the music grooves, and there’s even flute, the second half is wasted on a drum solo. “8 Mad Grim Nits” is the band’s only instrumental piece, which is guitarist James Black’s time to shine, so he obviously shows what he’s got, and he includes more strange sound effects from he guitar as this piece progresses. “High Beech” is a nice, pleasant psychedelic piece complete with reverb. “Honey Coloured Time” is a mellow, bluesy number with some whispered dialog. The closing piece, “Just Thinking” starts off rather slowly, and I love how this piece builds up to a wonderful psychedelic climax. Of course, this was the last time we’ll hear from May Blitz. The two Canadian guys (James Black, Reid Hudson) returned to Canada (in British Columbia), and Tony Newman went on to other things like Three Man Army.
Whatever the case, May Blitz is a truly excellent hard rock power trio, and if you like this kind of music, you’re sure to like their albums.
The second album kicks off with “For Mad Men Only”, with a heavy fuzzy power chord guitar and driving beat, it contains some great riffs and solos, certainly a sign of things to come as they are similar to bands such as Black Sabbath. This track also reminds me of the typical heavy sound from UK underground Psyche/Space rock band “Stray”. The style of vocals in “Snakes and Ladders” sounds reminiscent of Hendrix, has a strong bass line, fuzz power chords which sound very Black Sabbath indeed. There are echoed backing vocals and “space” effects swirling around, now we’re in Hawkwind territory!
“The 25th of December” as you’d guess is a Christmas song which swings along beautifully, occasionally leading into whispered vocals and a jazzy style rhythm and bluesy guitar.
“In Part” is a jazzy style number which has a flute playing in the background, funny thing the vocals are half sung half spoken, almost rap-like, which leads into a fine drum solo. I don’t care what anyone says, i love ‘em!!
The next track on the cd is called “8 Mad Grim Nits”, not sure who they refer to but it is a crazy fast jazzy jam featuring very fast drum and bass playing and some wild fuzzy, phased over- amped lead guitar, really sounds like they had a lot of fun doing this one! Here’s another group i would have loved to have seen live.
“High Beech” is a beautiful folky song overlaid with watery acoustic guitars and nice lyrics, “shadows spring to life”, “today is the beginning of the rest of our lives”. “Honey Coloured Time” is another beautiful song about our hypocritical world with hushed vocals, which includes some fine jazz style guitar and bass and a Hendrix style ending, talk about mixing styles.
“Just Thinking” is a ponderous, dreamy love song, very laid back, and features some interesting echoed “squeaky” guitar effects.
It’s a shame May Blitz didn’t do more after they were dropped from Vertigo. James Black and Reid Hudson returned to Canada and Tony Newman went on to work with such artists as Three Man Army, Marc Bolan, David Bowie & Mick Ronson, Chris Spedding and Whitesnake.