A power-trio with progressive ambitions, Quatermass unusually eschewed the services of a guitarist, consisting instead of a bassist/vocalist, John Gustafson, drummer Mick Underwood, and Peter Robinson on keyboards. Underwood used to play with Ian Gillan and Roger Glover in their pre-Deep Purple band, and both he and Gustafson have appeared in Gillan’s solo bands. These Purple Family Tree alliances are just about the most interesting thing about the band and this album, to be perfectly honest.

The absence of a guitarist placed most of the responsibility for supplying compelling textures and melodies on Robinson, the keyboard man. While he cranks out fuzzy riffs and atmospheric chordal passages where needed, and puts together a passable string arrangement when called upon to, his soloing is very average. Someone with the melodic flash of Jon Lord or the tentacular wizardry of Tony Banks might have pulled this off; Robinson’s playing is too often meandering and generic when it should be focused and inventive. The rest of the band is a standard-issue competent rock rhythm section – bassist Gustafson cranks out some thumping lines, Underwood is pretty rock-solid, but that’s about it. 

The lack of songwriting chops is what hurts the album most; the strongest piece here, the one Ritchie Blackmore spent the Stormbringer sessions in a hissy fit over (the rest of the band wouldn’t let him cover it), ‘Black Sheep Of The Family’ is not written by any of the band members at all, but by Steve Hammond, a guitarist who seems even more obscure than the band he wrote song for. It’s a groovy early hard rock number with a solid central riff and a catchy vocal line, but the Quatermass original is totally blown away by Rainbow’s version, which is faster, more energetic and has Dio and Blackmore on it for crying out loud.

 
The remaining highlights are few, and far between. ‘Good Lord Knows’ is a sort of rock hymn with melodic vocals and some nice harpsichord tinkling – but I’m a sucker for a touch of harpsichord on a rock album. At least, it’s a very short piece. ‘Gemini’, another Hammond-penned number, comes closest to repeating the magic of ‘Black Sheep’, with a hard-rocking vibe that is interspersed with spacey interludes. Gustafson is in good voice on this song, and Robinson trots out one of his more focused solos. The best thing about the jamming on ‘Gemini’ is that it’s concise – in an under-6 minute framework, and with verses and suchlike taking up time, there isn’t much room for the band to run out of ideas. In stark contrast are the more stretched out jams on the album such as ‘Laughing Tackle’ which crosses the 10-minute mark. It’s clearly intended to be a sort of instrumental show-stopper, and it would make a great background score for a movie depicting a Roman legion striding purposefully across a vast, featureless plain but never really getting anywhere. As would much else on this album. 

Quatermass had a few promising ideas, and the occasional moment of balls-out rocking energy – but without a distinctive virtuoso or songwriter to structure their strengths around, it’s unlikely whether they’d have made a bigger impact even if they were around for longer. I got hold of this album to listen to the original version of ‘Black Sheep Of The Family, and that’s all I’ll really remember it for. Strictly non-essential, except for die-hard 70s completists. The rest of us can listen to ‘In Rock’ or ‘In The Court Of The Crimson King’ instead.

 

2 out of 5 Thadiyans.

Label: Harvest

Year of Release: 1970