CMU

• 180 GRAN HIGH QUALITY VIRGIN VINYL

Also known as Contemporary Music Unit, this sextet from Cambridge, was an interesting progressive soft rock/folk rock band, who also incorporated blues rock, jazz-rock and psychedelic influences and whose main point of difference was the really nice vocals of Larraine Odell.

Their debut album Open Spaces is a well-meaning, pleasant prog album with no obvious weaknesses, but also with some major highlights like the opening jazzy "Henry" and the revisited of Pharaoh Sanders' "Japan" further to the trully challenging title track with unusual viola contributions, glockenspiel, spacey electric guitar and silent/minimal parts. A pearl of the Prog scene of the early Seventies dispersed into oblivion, to be rediscovered and re-evaluated.

PERSONNEL:

• Larraine Odell - (vocals, tambourine, bells)
• James Gordon - (vocals, maracas, tambourine, bells)
• Ian Hamlett - (rhythm guitar, flute)
• Terry Mortimer - (guitar, piano, e-piano, organ)
• Ed Lee - (bass, guitar)
• Roger Odell - (drums, congas)

TRACKS:

• SIDE A
• A1. Henry
• A2. Voodoo Man
• A3. Slow And Lonesome Blues
• A4. Chantecleer

• SIDE B
• B1. Japan
• B2. Clown
• B3. Mystical Sounds
• B4. Open Spaces