Waniyetula - Iron City
(Garden of Delights CD121)
Waniyetula - Iron City
(Garden of Delights CD121)
From Aural Innovations April 2010 update
This CD is a compilation of tracks from 1971 to 1978. The label has released all of the bands other LPs. Lindis Farne starts things off from 1971 and is a loose spaced out jam track that last nearly 9 minutes. The band is clearly experimenting here and it is pretty cool. The next 4 tracks were recorded in 1974 and the sound changes dramatically, so much so you would not even think it was the same band! It starts with Wish I Were Happy, which starts off happy enough with very nice fingerpicking guitar and keyboards before it kicks into a more progressive symphonic rock but is also quite experimental with lots of different parts over the 12½ minutes. You Really Got It Fixed starts with an eerie organ before the bass and drums kick in at a quick pace and the track gets rolling. It features some really excellent duelling organ and guitar. It strangely almost fades to nothing at 8 minutes and slowly comes back a bit like Pink Floyd in a way and leads right into the mellow starting Iron City that around 5 minutes really starts to grow and take off with some jazzy guitar and nice interaction between the keyboard and guitars. It takes a quite strange twist in the last few minutes with a spoken word section and totally different guitar section. Look at the People is the last track from 1974 and this is quite a different track about war and peace and features a nice solo guitar that leads the track after the vocal section. The last tracks are from 1978 and start with Alone. The sound of the band is quite different now and more slick (drum sound is terrible), and now the band has a new synthesizer that has a special sound. The rest is very piano driven. It almost reminds me of Kansas or Styx. Valley of Unrest ends the CD and it is a little spacey with some nice guitar. Cool band.
Visit the Garden of Delights label site at: http://diregarden.com
Reviewed by Scott Heller