Flat Baroque & Berserk - ROY HARPER***

Don't You Grieve/I Hate The White Man/Feelin' All The Saturday/How Does It Feel/Goodbye/Another Day/ Davey/East Of The Sun/Tom Tiddler's Ground/Francesca/Song Of The Ages/Hell's Angels

1970 was a good year for folk-rock singer Roy Harper as he achieved his highest chart placing with Flat Baroque & Berserk, plus the ultimate accolade of a tribute track on the latest Led Zeppelin album. The Nice helped out with some of the backing here. (UK:20)

“The rich intense English folk-rock sound is present through most of the tracks, as powerful as the best acoustic moments of any of the best proto-folk prog groups.”

“Flat Baroque And Berserk mostly features the acoustic folkie side of Roy Harper, though a couple of tracks rock. The closing Hell’s Angels does so quite heavily with Keith Emerson’s guest performance on keyboards. The album isn’t exactly a consistent work with Harper all over the map in terms of his mood and the different feelings conveyed by the various songs. Nearly all of the music is of high quality though.”

“The album contains occasional commentary from Harper as well as off hand studio remarks and laughter included for effect. All of it is cool enough to hear a few times, but becomes tiring upon repeated spins. Regardless, this is one of Harper’s better early albums with the strongest five tunes being extraordinarily moving.”

“Here is a musician and poet who has travelled a long way from his acoustic roots. This album represents the acoustic side edged with an electro quality that at certain moments simply lifts it out of the familiar and into a more dynamic landscape. It represents a ground shift in Roy's writing, due in part to the luxury of recording in a quality studio, but also because at this time Roy Harper was writing and playing with confidence.”

“A man who writes lyrics like this and plays music as honest and intense must be trustworthy and deservers my total admiration and respect. The music is at the same time humble and sweet.”

“Every song has something interesting and unique to offer, and with the exception of Hell’s Angels they have a folk tinge to them, although you can't exactly call this a folk album even though it is primarily him and his guitar. He puts in such a brute honesty to his music that make no mistake this is really how he felt when he was making this music.”