Lucien Mars Last Harvest

Recorded using techniques sympathetic to the 1970s Canterbury-style Progressive Rock sound. The Kentish Spires collectively bring a vast wealth of musical experience – weaving woodwind and reed instruments over beautifully crafted songs with the stunning eccentric English vocals of Lucie V. The Kentish Spires are an UK group formed by Phil WARREN and Danny CHANG from FYREWORKS, that is inspired by the Canterbury scene of the 70's. Robert REED of MAGENTA and CYAN collaborated with them on mastering their debut album which was released in 2018 and features Lucie V, Rik LOVERIDGE, Paul HORNSBY and Helen WILLIAMS on that line-up.

Recorded using techniques sympathetic to the 1970s Canterbury-style Progressive Rock sound. The Kentish Spires collectively bring a vast wealth of musical experience - weaving woodwind and reed instruments over beautifully crafted songs with the stunning eccentric English vocals of Lucie V.

Esoteric Recordings are proud to announce the release of a newly re-mastered and expanded edition of the classic gold selling 1978 album by Barclay James Harvest,"XII". Originally released in September 1978, the album was another big selling release for the band achieving Silver disc status in the UK and Gold in Germany. The album followed in the wake of “Gone to Earth” and saw BJH consolidate the success they had found in Germany and Europe.

Like Lucien's first effort (1970's I Am Now), Rashida didn't set the world on fire commercially speaking, but it solidified Lucien's status as a purveyor of intelligent romantic ballads and poetic if not gushy lyrics. Even to fans of jazz/R&B/pop, Lucien is a love or hate proposition, and Rashida was the effort that all but etched his persona in stone. Produced by Shep Meyers and Larry Rosen, Rashida, displays Lucien's soothing baritone and romantic nature with much aplomb. As the arranger here, he also shows an immense capacity for melodies. Although this album has a few clunky but danceable tracks, at this point Lucien was much better at handling the ballads. "Kuenda," a mellow, wordless vocal, sets the stage for the album's ambience; "Would You Believe in Me" benefits from Lucien's relentless poesy and a strong idiosyncratic horn arrangement. To a listener, Lucien no doubt might seem like an odd bird, (having a track called "Satan" doesn't help), but often when the arrangements and Lucien's vocals are in sync, he is simply one of the most focused and emotional balladeers to even step in front of a microphone.

Barclay James Harvest was, for many years, one of the most hard luck outfits in progressive rock. A quartet of solid rock musicians – John Lees, guitar, vocals; Les Holroyd, bass, vocals; Stuart "Wooly" Wolstenholme, keyboards, vocals; and Mel Pritchard, drums – with a knack for writing hook-laden songs built on pretty melodies, they harmonized like the Beatles and wrote extended songs with more of a beat than the Moody Blues…

Although there are those who nail their spirals to Vertigo as the prog label of choice, EMI’s Harvest certainly vies with it for pole position. With Harvest, the detail was everything. Loaded with the bizarre, striking and the strange, turns abounded like the Third Ear Band, Kevin Ayers and The Greatest Show On Earth. From the bad acid of Edgar Broughton’s There’s No Vibrations, But Wait through the squiffy majesty of Dave Mason’s You Shouldn’t Have Took More Than You Gave, to Be- Bop Deluxe’s future pop of Jet Silver and the Dolls Of Venus, this collection is impressive and nostalgic – its very lack of a house style providing its consistency.

Live (1974). Though it seems odd that a live album could serve as a band's breakthrough release, Live shows the band clearly building upon the strengths of their previous studio albums while avoiding their excesses. Without a string section to back them up - or to smother them, depending on your thinking - the band draws more heavily on its rhythm section and on the tonal colorings of Wolstenholme's Mellotron, the latter most clearly on "The Great 1974 Mining Disaster." The rich harmonies, political content, and poignant twang of John Lees songs like "For No One" come across here with the same kind of ragged majesty as Neil Young's live work. And an epic-length "Medicine Man," unburdened of its heavy orchestral arrangement and beefed up with a newly emphasized guitar and drum parts, reveals the brawn lurking beneath the lassitude of the studio version…

I Am Now is the album that introduced the late West Indies singer, songwriter, guitarist, and arranger Jon Lucien to American audiences. Issued by RCA in 1970, Lucien's meld of flawlessly executed jazz, pop, and theatrical song remains highly original and sophisticated. The material on I Am Now is unlike anything else in his catalog. Of the 11 songs here, only "Find Yourself a Lover" was penned by Lucien. With its swirling strings, bossa guitars, smooth soul vocals, and lithe Caribbean rhythms, the song was a precursor to the kind of genre blending that is so prevalent in the 21st century.