ZUIDER ZEE

Zeenith Light in the Attic Belated release for 1970s US power poppers’ more intriguing early work.

We like to think that bands choose their musical direction through a clear creative philosophy arching over everything they do. In truth, of course, it’s invariably far more chaotic, organic and plain accidental than that. They’re feeling their way far more often than they are beating a path to a predetermined artistic goal.

So while those of you who have heard the one officially released LP by 1970s Memphis power pop quartet Zuider

Zee might think they don’t have a lot in common with prog, this compilation of earlier material suggests otherwise.

These previously unreleased songs, recorded between 1972 and 1974, reveal a band whose more appealing idiosyncracies might later have been ironed out in the pursuit of power pop mass appeal, but who were capable of a much more diverse sound.

You can see the conflict within their music right from the opening song. Richard Orange’s trippy, slightly breathless vocals on Haunter Of The Darkness initially set up camp at the darker end of psych rock, while angsty Hammond organ chords and yelps of guitar add to the sense of foreboding, until they’re incongruously offset with snatches of honkytonk piano and summery vocal harmonies.

Again, the pastoral flute that introduces Lancelot’s Theme pushes us further down a proggy path, before Orange’s McCartney-esque vocals and an upbeat chorus is abridged by a gorgeous trickle of minor chord piano. Will the real Zuider Zee please stand up?

Then again, there’s something gloriously unpredictable about this 12-track set, as Old echoes Paperback Writer’s classic riff and then seems to channel ELO’s symph boogie before After The Shine’s Gone points to the

Big Star-y direction they’d later take, punctuated by tempo jumps, acidstreaked synth distortion and warped guitar hooks. Then Royal Command Performance resembles 10cc after being spiked by pre-Dark Side… Pink Floyd and joining in a festival jam with Caravan. Curiouser and curiouser…