Warhorse Red Sea

Red Sea is the second album by English hard rock band Warhorse. The CD reissue has six previously unreleased bonus tracks, including a live version of "Ritual" (a song from the first Warhorse album) and five demos of Nick Simper compositions that do not appear on the two Warhorse LPs. Warhorse were a band formed by former Deep Purple bassist Nick Simper. He had left Deep Purple in 1969 and joined Marsha Hunt's backup band. Not long after, Nick Simper replaced her backing band with Ged Peck on guitar and Mac Poole on drums. While this was going on, Simper would play in an extracurricular band along with Ged and Mac, with singer Ashley Holt. When Hunt became pregnant, the band stopped touring and Simper re-organised the group as Warhorse. Holt became the bands singer, and they would bring keyboardist Rick Wakeman onboard, but proved unreliable, and when the first demo was recorded in April 1970, he was replaced by Frank Wilson.

Red Sea is the second album by English hard rock band Warhorse. The CD reissue has six previously unreleased bonus tracks, including a live version of "Ritual" (a song from the first Warhorse album) and five demos of Nick Simper compositions that do not appear on the two Warhorse LPs.

Red Sea is the second album by English hard rock band Warhorse. The CD reissue has six previously unreleased bonus tracks, including a live version of "Ritual" (a song from the first Warhorse album) and five demos of Nick Simper compositions that do not appear on the two Warhorse LPs. Warhorse were a band formed by former Deep Purple bassist Nick Simper. He had left Deep Purple in 1969 and joined Marsha Hunt's backup band. Not long after, Nick Simper replaced her backing band with Ged Peck on guitar and Mac Poole on drums. While this was going on, Simper would play in an extracurricular band along with Ged and Mac, with singer Ashley Holt. When Hunt became pregnant, the band stopped touring and Simper re-organised the group as Warhorse. Holt became the bands singer, and they would bring keyboardist Rick Wakeman onboard, but proved unreliable, and when the first demo was recorded in April 1970, he was replaced by Frank Wilson.

Red Sea is the second album by English hard rock band Warhorse. The CD reissue has six previously unreleased bonus tracks, including a live version of "Ritual" (a song from the first Warhorse album) and five demos of Nick Simper compositions that do not appear on the two Warhorse LPs. Warhorse were a band formed by former Deep Purple bassist Nick Simper. He had left Deep Purple in 1969 and joined Marsha Hunt's backup band. Not long after, Nick Simper replaced her backing band with Ged Peck on guitar and Mac Poole on drums. While this was going on, Simper would play in an extracurricular band along with Ged and Mac, with singer Ashley Holt.

Warhorse's second album was basically more of the same prog rock-proto metal. Sometimes it sounded a little more mainstream rock, as on "Confident But Wrong" or the cover of the old soul ballad "I (Who Have Nothing)." Ashley Holt was tending to hit more annoying high notes, though; the warbles on "Back in Time," for instance, were unconscious models for the kind of singing so ably parodied by Spinal Tap…

The members of the Zurich Ensemble are Fabio di Càsola (clarinet), Kamilla Schatz (violin), Pi-Chin Chien (cello), and Benjamin Engeli (piano). The ensemble’s web site doesn’t indicate when it was founded or even whether this is its first CD. (This is, however, the only CD listed on ArkivMusic’s site, so draw your own conclusions.) Be that as it may, this is a thoroughly delightful CD, headlined by a clever arrangement of Rimsky-Korsakov’s enduring warhorse, and complemented by the less familiar works by Khachaturian and Sergei Bortkiewicz.