Ex- Procol Mates Make Good
Peter Baklava | Charles City, Iowa | 03/30/2007
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Booted from Procol Harum just after "Whiter Shade of Pale" became a mega-hit, drummer Bobby Harrison and guitarist Ray Royer regrouped to form a Procol wannabe group, "Freedom". They were hired to provide a soundtrack for one of Italian filmmaker Tinto Brass' first sexploitation flicks, and the result was this surprisingly good album, "Black on White", which didn't see the light of day until 1999.
Harrison and Royer were fortunate enough to find a keyboardist whose talent was on a par with (Procol organist) Matthew Fisher's, named Mike Lease. It's Lease's cascading organ fills that catch your ear on the first cut, "To Be Free."
Comparisons with the first Procol Harum album are unavoidable. "You Won't Miss" sounds similar to "She Wandered Through the Garden Fence" (and even more like "The Wee Small Hours of Sixpence"). "We Say No" is a madcap tune with a countrified fiddle, like Procol's "Mabel", and "Relation" ambles along like Harum's "Salad Days" with bassist/vocalist Steve Shirley sounding uncannily like Gary Brooker.
Other highlights: "Butt of Deception", which despite its duff lyrics, sports a nice baroque piano arrangement reminiscent of the American group Left Banke. And Ray Royer gets to riff heavily on a couple tunes, " Seeing is Believing", and "Decidedly Man", although he doesn't solo anywhere near as powerfully as Robin Trower.
The album never rises to the level of Procol Harum records in terms of musicality or intelligence, but its an interesting footnote to the band's history. Most of the credit for that goes to Mike Lease, who in addition to playing piano and organ, arranged the songs and scored some string arrangements.
This line-up of Freedom didn't last long. Harrison reformed the band as a power trio with Walt Monaghan (bass) and Roger Saunders (guitar) to play heavy blues rock for a couple more albums. Then he formed "Snafu"."
Freedom - 'Black On White' (Angel Air)
Mike Reed | USA | 01/17/2007
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Whoa!Possibly the best Freedom title,I've heard yet.But then again they only have maybe four or five lp's out on CD reissue.Either way,this is a darn good British progressive effort.This 16 track release was reportedly recorded in 1969,but wasn't put out until many moons later.Go figure.Tunes here that are well worth mentioning are the awesome "Attraction-Black On White/With You","Butt Of Deception","Seeing Is Believing" and the expressive "Decidedly Man".This must obviously be an early formation of the band.Can see that guitarist Ray Royer and drummer Bobby Harrison were joined up with organist Mike Lease and bassist/vocalist Steve Shirley.Never heard of those last two mentioned.A should-have."
