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Customer Reviews of Quatermass

Not quite the creeping unknown . . .
. . . to borrow from an early Quatermass film. If you are looking for something new and original, you've put in the wrong CD. I don't get the Who or Zepplin comparisons, but their sound being close to Uriah Heap is right on the money. HEAVY keyboard album, this one. If you've also listened to Spooky Tooth, you can appreciate the blues touches that pervade this album. I don't think progressive rock is an apt description for these guys. Power trio definitely is. To give them some due, they did experiment with some jazz and orchestral touches. Personally, I think they should have taken an advertisement out for a guitarist, because the keyboard predominance is too sludgy and restrictive during certain moments when a guitar solo could have taken some of their songs much further than they didn't go. As far as the songs themselves go, "Black Sheep", "Good Lord Knows" and "Up On the Ground" are straight ahead blues rockers. "Post War Saturday Echo" is my favorite, because it is the only one that comes close to living up the the progressive rock moniker. Slow, wailing and surreal, this is the band in its finest moment. If there is any song that charts the band in ELP territory, it is "Make Up Your Mind", which sports a laborous organ and synthesizer duet. On the "Laughing Track" they pull out all the stops by adding an orchestra, an onerous keyboard solo, and a very laborous drum solo. The Laughing song unfortunately may scare you away; the orchestral arrangements may seem on a first listening to be out of place and the drum solo is stricly filler material. Of the bonus tracks, "One Blind Mice" (a ridiculous title-from a grammar standpoint) is another blues rocker. "Punting" dabbles in some funk and jazz. Thus, Quatermass. If you like your music served up loud and bluesy then you've come to the right album.

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I'm the black sheep of the family
This album is AWESOME! This album has a different range of music, anything from Led Zeppelin, King Crimson and Emerson, Lake and Palmer, it's hard to believe that hardly anybody has ever heard of this band and this album should be alot easier to find than it is cause it's that excellent, what's amazing is that there is no guitar player on this album and Quatermass is one of the best power trios out there.
My favorite song on this album is Black Sheep of the Family, Gemini and the instrumental Laughin' Tackle.
If you love King Crimson, Led Zeppelin, The Who, ELP and Deep Purple, then you should get this album, don't be afraid to get it cause it's a great album, and the liner notes are also a bonus.

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Where hard rock and prog meets
Quatermass released this one and only album in 1970 on Harvest, which turned out to be one of the more rare and sought after items on the label. Luckily it's seen the light of day on CD. Quatermass is an odd band, because during the vocal passages, they play strictly in the Deep Purple and Uriah Heep vein, but unlike those bands, Quatermass never had a guitar player (the heavily fuzzed organ makes up for the lack of guitar), while during the instrumental passages, they're strictly a prog rock band, much like ELP, with Emerson-like keyboards. Comparisons to Atomic Rooster are also pretty common, as well as even the original 1969-1970 incarnation of Rare Bird (for the fact Rare Bird at that time also featured no guitar player, and the keyboards dominated as well). Quatermass featured bassist and vocalist John Gustavson, organist Pete Robinson, and drummer Mick Underwood. The one musician I recognize most is Robinson as he was later the keyboardist for Brand X in the late 1970s (1978's Masques, 1979's Product, and 1980's Do They Hurt). But what he done in Brand X is so different from Quatermass that it's hard to believe this is the same guy. John Gustavson was with some Liverpool club band from the early 1960s called The Big Three, who apparently was a regular at the Star Club around 1962 the same time as the Beatles. I don't recall Underwood's background. Anyway, "Black Sheep of the Family" was later covered by Rainbow on their 1975 debut. "Post War Saturday Echo" is one of the slower, more bluesy songs. The ballad "Good Lord Knows" features the use of orchestra. "Up on the Ground" sounds like some synthesizer is being used (and given this is from 1970, a big modular Moog was likely used as the Mini Moog just came out that year). The instrumental "Laughin' Tackle", because there's no vocals, is the band being strictly progressive all the way. Anyway, if you're a prog rock purist, you might want to stay away from this album, same if you're a hard rock purist, but if you like a fascinating blend of both, give this album a try.