Garden Shed

First off I like the music here it sounds very clean and may resemble some others' music to a degree but these guys stand on their own well. The founder of Band of Rain, Chris Gill turned me onto this. Never heard of it before. Chris has put out 6 CDs under the Band of Rain banner. I am very happy to own all of them. These people like Chris are well seasoned musicians and are putting out fine new music that I would recommend to anyone. One reason I was told of this by Chris is that the new album by Band of Rain that is coming out, is called Petrichor. Chris did the six CDs almost by himself but did enlist the help of some fine musicians and on Petrichor, Robert Webb the fine keyboardist of England will be playing on it as well as Jon Camp bassist from Renaissance. . So.....that is the best I have to prop this CD up is to say they are great musicians as well as anyone doing any kind of this music at least. There is lots of new music out there folks and these are some very well seasoned musicians and performers and they are all putting out some great CDs. So.......England.....Garden Shed.......is some good listening and they have their own sound. Highly recommend.

Although I like this recording because its Progressive base, I have to be very honest:First, I think that it wasn't easy for a symphonic Progressive band, like ENGLAND, to had been released in the middle of a difficult musical period (like the Punk era), without consecuences... not without being called a type of Dinosaur... though the music was good... and second, you have to be a very experimental and creative keyboard player to get a real own style only to play the mellotron in a simple way without listen like a GENESIS copy... unfortunately tracks like "Yellow" or "Poisoned Youth" confirm this...Almost all the musical songs of this band are embellished with choruses that reminds me the 70's PILOT Rock band, but by the other side you have this track "Three Piece Suite" that contains a lovely melodic classical guitar intro a la Steve Hackett. And the commercial track in this recording is "Parafinalea".On the compositional aspect, this band is not very talented and their complexity is not at the level of another english Progressive Rock bands. although their songs are long and well crafted, they are very predictable musically and there's no surprise in listen to it... But I must say that the real track that identificates the emotion and the sound of the band is the instrumental "Nanagram" because it sounds like ENGLAND and not like GENESIS. Funny! if we consider that this magnificent instrumental was not released with the oficial album (???...). So these are some of the circumstances that round about this 70's recording. The highlights are: "Midnight Madness" and "Nanagram"... Good Luck!

I am very excited to get this CD - I've been hunting after it for years, and the wait has been worth it - it's a real gem. These guys play a very smooth and complex symphonic progressive rock. Very lush textures and intricate instrumental interplay, great vocals conrtibute to a rich, unique sound that makes this album a joy to listen to. The vocalist sounds familiar - he is sort of a much better version of Anthony Phillips, and has the ability to make himself sound like whomever he wants, for example like Peter Gabriel, on "Midnight Madness"."Poisoned Youth" is an monstrous piece of 16 minutes, superbly crafted and carefully composed, and one of the best progressive rock songs I've ever heard. "Yellow" is a beautifully haunting song, with chiming 12-string guitars, which could have been on "Wind And Withering" or "Geese And The Ghost". "Three Piece Suite", another epic, is a bit disappointing, and is the only weak spot on this otherwise solid album, since it shows a lot of promise in the first half, sounding like a lost Yes song, but later the momentum gets lost as the band changes directions a couple of times. "Paraffinalea" is a happy and bouncy tune, very quirky in a typical English prog way. The little piano interlude "All Alone" is also a very beautiful and melancholy piece. "Midnight Madness" is a classic example of what great progressive rock is all about. I love the lyrics too, they are very original and humorous.While not very innovative, England combines the classic progressive rock elements in their own way. Each song is unique which makes it easy to form a mental image of the entire album. One gets the impression that the album is very well thought out and balanced. Happy and melancholy, beautiful and monstrous, quiet and loud, dark and light - all these changing dynamics and moods make it an exciting listening experience.This release benefits from great equipment and production, coming out in 1977, which made it possible to create a smooth and rich sound comparable to Camel and Genesis recordings of the same period.It's a shame that England remains nearly unknown and forgotten, thanks to a vindictive and greedy music business that decided to vilify and destroy progressive rock. This album definitely sits well alongside "Wind And Wuthering", "The Snow Goose", "The Geese And The Ghost" or "Close To The Edge".

England were obviously influenced by Yes and Genesis but there was more to them than that. I bought the record back in the late 1970s and still have it.Listening to this clear sounding CD has reminded me of how the band had their own ideas and style over and above the obvious comparisons with Yes and Genesis. They could be quite subtle. My favourite is still the track Poisoned Youth but the additional instrumental is an unexpected bonus.Three Piece Suite also has a good mix of Yes inspired vocals plus originality.This album is not going to be to everyone's musical taste but I think the band were unfairly pushed to the side-lines and beyond by punk. It is 38 years old but I still like it. It is not over-produced.

I loved listening to this album and still do, the discovery of the musical streams of consciousness that Prog Rock bestows is a beautiful experience - made all the more so by the discovery of this band, who it seems were commercially just a few months too late. By the time this was released and ready for promotion, the public were listening to Punk Rock. A bright light of Prog Rock, eclipsed by Punk Rock.Light your pipe, venture into the Garden Shed and sit in your favourite chair.

A great slab of later 70s prog. Recommended by a friend. First cd is superb, bonus cd ok.

One of the most significant albums I ever heard, thanks to introduction of Mr.John Young (Lifesigns). It's a double decker : first cd is original 1977 release, second cd consit of beautiful bono materials (incl. version of Carmina Burana). Its a treat formy heart and soul.

Hugely underrated album from English 70s progsters. 'Poisoned Youth' is a stand-out but all the tracks hold the interest.