The Civil Surface

The Civil Surface
Studio album by Egg
Released 1974
Recorded August 1974 (Saturn Studios, Worthing)
Genre Progressive rock, Canterbury scene
Length 40:36
Label Caroline Records
Producer Egg
Egg chronology

The Polite Force
(1971)		 The Civil Surface
(1974)		 Seven Is A Jolly Good Time
(1985)
Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic [1]
DPRP [2]

The Civil Surface is Egg’s third and final studio album, originally released in 1974 on Caroline Records. The band had broken up in 1972, leaving some of their favourite stage pieces unrecorded. At organist Dave Stewart's suggestion, the trio re-united in order to record these compositions. Among the guest musicians on the album are Steve Hillage (guitar), Lindsay Cooper (oboe & bassoon) and vocalists Amanda Parsons, Ann Rosenthal and Barbara Gaskin.

Listeners have complained that the drums are mixed too loud on the album's organ trio pieces. In an article written for the UK fanzine Ptolemaic Terrascope in 1990 (quoted in Mark Powell's liner notes of the Esoteric Recordings CD re-release), Dave Stewart explains that it was the unbending wish of drummer Clive Brooks that his drums be featured prominently in the mix, and that the other members were unable to persuade him otherwise.

Track listing

  1. "Germ Patrol" – 8:31
  2. "Wind Quartet I" – 2:20
  3. "Enneagram" – 9:07
  4. "Prelude" – 4:17
  5. "Wring Out The Ground (Loosely Now)" – 8:11
  6. "Nearch" – 3:22
  7. "Wind Quartet II" – 4:48

Personnel

Guests

Wind Quartets performed by

References

  1. ↑ Allmusic review
  2. ↑ DPRP review

External links