Jason Crest - Collected Works Of Jason Crest (2008) @ Flac

 

Update

From the suburbs of Kent, UK. Originally known as The Good Thing Brigade, they changed their name to Jason Crest when they signed a recording contract with Philips in 1968. Changed their name to High Broom in the spring of 1970.

Members: Terry Clark (vocals), Terry Dobson (guitar), Ron Fowler (bass, replaced in 1968), Roger Siggery (drums), Derek Smallcombe (guitar), John Selley (bass)

Biography by Richie Unterberger

Jason Crest were one of many, many British groups who got to record a few psychedelic rock tracks in the late '60s without having much sales or renown to show for it. In large part because several of their recordings have shown up on numerous collector-oriented reissue compilations, the band has garnered a modest cult reputation. While not nearly as good or special as top-flight British psych bands like Procol Harum, whom they occasionally resembled, they were one of the better acts among the little-known U.K. psych groups who recorded a few rare releases. In Jason Crest's case, these were limited to five non-hit singles, released on Philips in 1968 and 1969. (Incidentally, there was no one named Jason Crest in the group.)

Part of Jason Crest's problems commercially might have been that their style wasn't easy to describe, nor especially well-suited to the singles market of the time. While it had much in common with the storytelling/fairytale whimsy of late-'60s British pop-psychedelia, it was moodier and more meditative than most such music, and often put hymnal organ to the fore. At the lightest end of their repertoire, they covered the Move's "(Here We Go Round) The Lemon Tree" and offered a jolly Small Faces-type original ("Good Life"). At their heaviest, their final single, "Black Mass," had quasi-demonic vocals and lyrics that anticipated metal bands of the '70s that dovetailed with Satanic imagery. They also did a pop tune, "Waterloo Road," that made number one in France when French singer Joe Dassin covered it under the title "Au Champs Elysees," although the band themselves disliked the song. Jason Crest broke up around the end of the 1960s, shortly after their contract with Philips expired. Much of their material has shown up on reissues, embellished by several unissued acetates.

Jason Crest - Collected Works Of Jason Crest (2008)

 1. Jason Crest - Turquoise Tandem Cycle 

 2. Jason Crest - Teagarden Lane 

 3. Jason Crest - Patricia's Dream 

 4. Jason Crest - A Place in the Sun 

 5. Jason Crest - My House Is Burning 

 6. Jason Crest - King of the Castle 

 7. Jason Crest - The Collected Works of Justin Crest 

 8. Jason Crest - Black Mass 

 9. Jason Crest - Charge of the Light Brigade 

 10. Jason Crest - (Here We Go Round) The Lemon Tree 

 11. Jason Crest - You Really Got a Hold of Me 

 12. Jason Crest - Two by the Sea 

 13. Jason Crest - Juliano the Bull 

 14. Jason Crest - Education 

 15. Jason Crest - Waterloo Road 

 16. Jason Crest - Good Life 

Review by Richie Unterberger

This British LP does a good job of managing to stretch out Jason Crest's slim legacy to the length of an album, with both sides of four of their five singles keeping company with half a dozen previously unissued late-'60s acetates. (One of their singles, "Waterloo Road"/"Education," is not included because, according to the liner notes, the band hates it.) It's fairly good and pleasing, though not striking, period British psychedelic rock that occasionally, though not always, brings to a mind a somewhat more pop-inclined early Procol Harum. Only a couple of their tracks, though, upped the stakes from acceptable period fare to memorable performances. One was their debut 1968 single, "Turquoise Tandem Cycle," where the Procol Harum comparisons were most apt, and which is typical of a certain strand of British psychedelia, down to the florid title, classical-influenced melody, wah-wahing guitar, and celestial organ. The other is "Black Mass," where the blood-curdling vocal, monkish chanting, and occult-tinged lyrics can bring to mind a more psychedelic Black Sabbath (or even a more psychedelic Spinal Tap). On occasion they went into a more avowedly poppy vibe, as on the cover of the Move's "(Here We Go Round) The Lemon Tree" and the imaginative reworking of "You Really Got a Hold on Me," built around freaky organ lines. The sound quality of the acetates, as you'd expect, is lower than the singles, but very listenable, and the package comes with usefully detailed historical liner notes.

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