Heron - Upon Reflection: The Dawn Anthology

I stumbled upon this late '60s band through the FHF Internet Music Show that was mentioned over at Aversionline (hat tip). The guy at FHF has an amazing knowledge of music and each individual past show is available for download streaming, so I recommend checking it out. From the little information available online about this band, I have gathered that Heron had come into existence in Maidenhead, England in 1967. These recordings represent everything that they had recorded between 1970-72 on the record label. There are 43 songs included on the 2 cd set, and rounds out at about 2 1/2 hours of listening in total. There is certainly a development in songwriting from the first cd (earlier material) to the second. It seems that after going into the studio to record an initial single, the band was unhappy with the whole studio experience. The band got a decent mobile recording set-up and went out into a field away from society to record in a setting fitting their music, complete with the sounds of birds chirping away in the distance. As you may have guessed, their sound is definitely folk, progressive at times, but influences from Bob Dylan to the Incredible String Band have been noted. I can picture some Bert Janech at time's as well. It's really an incredible experience when taking in the setting of the recording and considering the time period and cohesion of the band-mates. The band's obscurity adds to the mystique and sense of detachment from society when listening, with much of the popularity of folk in the last ten years, and particularly folk-ish musicians from this era (Nick Drake, Dylan, Janech, etc.) it is surprising to find this band buried away as they have been.


Heron - "Car Crash"

Even on cd you immediatly here the soft hum of the outdoor recording, the mics taking in everything of the surrounding. Softly strummed guitar, and dual vocals, panned one the right one to the left. The dual guitars split off at times. The vocals are seperated just barely at times and this creates a wonderful echo-like effect. The lyrics paint a wonderful picture matching the natural setting, particularly I love the following passage:

the running damp of raindrops is as water
paint to wash away
thoughts of you

Toward's the end of the song, one of the guitars frees itself and wonders off on its own momentarily. There is about twenty seconds at the end of the song where one of the band-members can be heard remarking about the "little black insects crawling all over" in the field.


Heron - "Madman"

"Madman" is the first track from the second cd, and was originally part of the band's final release Twice As Nice & Half The Price. The album was also recorded outdoors, but with a few more instruments including a cleanly played electric guitar. "Madman" carriers an infectious bouncy rhythm, a Sunday afternoon feel to it. Also the percussion is simple but much more pronounced than anything from their earlier outputs. The wonderfully done dual vocals remain a staple, but we see even more guitar lines flowing here and there. Nothing overly original per se, but layered very well and creating quite a bit of warmth. The fact you can hear laughter at times and discourse between the band-mates towards the end of the song only adds to the fun and looseness of the album. Hell, its not rocket science if you think about, having a relaxed recording environment helps to translate to the creation of a very relaxing sound.

These recordings as mentioned above were released on Dawn Records, which existed from 1970-75 and was notable for releasing a couple Donovan albums amongst a few other releases. I've seen a couple Upon Reflection... cd's over at amazon.com. I found a link to a rapidshare posting of both album's for download. Currently, I'm enjoying the earlier works (the first cd) a bit more, its simple and really relays the tone of the music and feel of the band a little better. But, there are some strong songs on the second cd as well ("John Brown" and "Winter Harlequin" as examples) and the songs are more diverse here. Heron has done a great job of creating a truly varied and honest set of recordings combined here on this double cd release.