Saturnalia (2)

Saturnalia is a progressive rock/psychedelic rock band from London, England, that was founded in 1972. Saturnalia (the name coming from the Roman holiday honoring the deity Saturn who was known as the god of generation, dissolution, plenty, wealth, agriculture, periodic renewal, liberation, and time - clearly a busy agenda), featured the talents of drummer Tom Crompton, singer Adrian Hawkins, bassist Richard Houghton, singer Aletta Lohmeyer, and lead guitarist Rod Roach. Hawkins and Roach had previously recorded a 1970 album as members of the band Horse. Lohmeyer had apparently been featured in a Dutch touring version of "Hair". Living and working in London they found a mentor in the form of manager Mark Hanau. Hanau had been one of the forces behind Curved Air and when that band dropped him as their manager, he latched on to Saturnalia as his next project. Signed by the small Matrix Records label they were teamed with former Yardbird Keith Relf in the production seat. The band spent late 1972 rehearsing and recording their debut which was released in early 1973. "Magical Love" was apparently intended as a concept piece built around the work of Richard Gardner and Tammo de Jongh - the cosmology concept reiterated by the album's elaborate picture disc design that replicated de Jongh's Magical Circle of the Mind (Wonder if the band members really subscribed to all that stuff ...) While the album may have been released in the mid-'70s, musically this was prime '60s hippy feast. Everything about the set, including the band's look, their sound, and the sometimes goofy lyrics sounded late-'60s (which probably explains why some references show the album with a 1969 release date). Featuring all original material, the nine tunes offered up an odd mixture of English folk, jazz, conventional rock, and even occasional progressive genres. There were certainly resemblances to early Renaissance (which made sense given producer Relf had been a member of that group). At the same time it was more rock oriented than say Fairport Convention, but not exactly something that was going to make Top of the Pops. To be honest, the first couple of plays the collection really didn't make all that much of an impression on me. The characteristic that actually stuck in mind was Lohmeyer's pseudo-operatic voice, which I found quite grating and irritating. Luckily, given an opportunity, it was also an album that slowly, but surely grew on you. To my ears, Saturnalia were at their best on the more conventional rock oriented tunes like 'She Brings Peace', 'Traitor', and 'Step Out of Line' (the latter sounding a bit like an English version of The Jefferson Airplane). Roach and Hawkins wrote most of those numbers. Largely penned by Lohmeyer, the band's more folk-oriented numbers weren't horrible, but just weren't my cup of tea. The album's also become collectable as one of the first 3-D picture discs. Original copies came with in a clear plastic cover, detachable holographic centers, a booklet on astrology, a paper insert, and a concert ticket. So here's a technical tidbit - the vinyl was pressed by a German firm, but the technology was in its infancy. It shows. A disproportionate number of the original albums suffered from lousy sound quality; particularly side two. Many copies simply didn't track very well. leading to lots of returns. No idea if it's true, but there's a story that guitarist Roach had a couple of thousand copies of the faulty picture disc in storage. Over the years I've owned four or five copies of the album and about half have suffered from sub-par sound quality. The album also generated a bit of attention for the racy artwork. All of the band members were featured in a topless pose. I doubt anyone cared about the four guys, but Ms. Lohmeyer's revealing picture apparently raised some mid-'70s eyebrows. (source: http://badcatrecords.com/BadCat/SATURNALIA.htm )