Captain Beyond Remastered

Over a hundred reviews and still a five star average makes me happy to see that I'm not the only one to be enjoying this little-heard jewel of rock and roll. I apologize in advance, but I keep hitting upon the words "riff" and "jam" when I try describe the wonder that is Captain Beyond's first album.The thirteen tracks listed are somewhat misleading. "Captain Beyond" is more like five songs. I don't know whether or not they intended the tracks that flow together to be considered separate songs, but to me it sounds like there are three nine-minute songs broken down into several tracks, and two songs of more standard radio-length, about 3:45 each.The first "song" is broken up into three parts - "Dancing Madly Backwards (On A Sea Of Air)", which has Bobby Caldwell kicking things off with an eight second intro before the heaviness kicks in. "Armworth" bridges to the next track with a short hippie sounding jam complete with anti-war lyrics, which leads right into the psychedelic opening of "Myopic Void" which goes on repetitively, but not boringly, for the next two minutes, before the final minute where they break down to my favorite jam of the album to finish out the track."Mesmerization Eclipse" & "Raging River of Fear" - two stand alone songs that are fine just as they are. I especially love Lee Dorman's bass fills on "Raging River" which remind me of Scott Reeder's work in later Kyuss. In fact, there are many parts of this album that sound to me like they've influenced what's been called "desert-rock" (Kyuss, older Fu Manchu, Dozer, Fatso Jetson, etc.)The next "song" is again broken into three parts. "Thousand Days of Yesterdays (Intro)" starts it off with a Moody Blues vibe, leading into the hard rocking "Frozen Over" with its proto-metal stomping riff, which is faded into the Latin-tinged opening of "Thousand Days of Yesterdays (Time Since Come And Gone)" with some of the album's best drumming, and then goes off on its own.The final "song" is divided into five tracks - "I Can't Feel Nothin' (Part I)" comes across with yet more heavy riffage, which leads into the trippy opening of "As The Moon Speaks (To The Waves Of The Sea)". But after 1:25 of this the track unexpectedly goes off onto one of the faster parts of the album, and leads into "Astral Lady", which is only a fifteen second bridge between the two halves of "As The Moon Speaks", and seems like it could've just been tacked on at the end of the first half, IMHO. "As The Moon Speaks (Return)" fades out with about 30 seconds left in the track before it goes off into a sweet little bass & drum jam before "I Can't Feel Nothin' Part II" slams you in the face with Rod Evans's, "Ah, here it comes!" as the album finishes out with on a heavy vibe.EVERYTHING on this album sounds perfect. I like my rock a little bass heavy, and here the bass is fat and prominent without being too overbearing, the guitar is loud enough so that the subtle flourishes aren't missed, the drums sound like they're right next to you in a small insulated room, and Rod Evans's voice, both in his singing and his spoken word parts, tie it all together. There are a few touches of echo in just the right places. There are a few quick changes in tempo but not to the extremes of Opeth or Dream Theater and the music is kept in the pocket the whole way (not to slag on those two bands at all, they're two of my favorites, I'm just using them as a comparison). The cutoff points between a couple of the tracks sound off by a second or two, but I could barely care less. I read a review below that's complaining about how the album sounds "muffled". If the original sounds even better than this...I just don't see how that's possible, but count me in on buying any new version if it sounds better!I've been looking for other bands from this era and from this style of music to match the high quality of this album - Atomic Rooster, Leaf Hound, Blue Cheer, Pentagram, etc. and while they're OK, they don't come close to the perfection of this album. (I'll eventually try some Cactus and High Tide.) I don't know how they fit so many heavy riffs and mini-jams into a 35-minute album. How can this music be even categorized? Classic psychedelic paleo-hard-rock? Jazzy progressive hippie-metal? Blech. Scr-w it, it's rock and roll, man! Not as proggy as Yes, not as trippy as Hawkwind, not as jazzy as Steely Dan, not as flashy as Hendrix - but yet has enough of everything (and more) to be on its own pedestal in the museum of rock. Bobby Caldwell deserves his own wing just for his drumming.I'm happy to have discovered this gem, and it now stands as one of my favorite albums by any band of any genre. And it's only ten bucks? What are you waiting for?!?!

Glad to have a copy on vinyl!

There are many superlative reviews for this relatively unknown band, almost to the point that it makes you wonder is this 1972 album, their debut, really that good?It is. Recently I put this album on in my car driving home from a gig, and I wound up playing it 3 times in a row. The music is highly energetic and demanding - not a casual listen, but it is a reminder of how powerful, bold and even cosmic rock music once was. These guys were clearly not concerned with trying to get a hit single. But in a day and age when every note of a recording is digitally scripted, cleaned, tuned and corrected, what you hear on Captain Beyond is the refreshing and revitalizing sound of a band playing incredible music incredibly well. They must have rehearsed this music for weeks or months before they recorded it.You've heard a million times over people claiming how much better rock music was in the late '60s/early '70s, and many of you might write that off to "nostalgia", but how do explain discovering an album like this, not a well known work, which easily surpasses most of what you hear now, not only in terms of musicianship, but in creativity and originality as well. Hard rocking and progressive, but neither ponderous or pretentious. Fearlessly uncommercial, yet listenable and inspiring. And when was the last time you heard an album which is basically one long continuous piece of music and which at no time has a boring or pointless moment, but keeps you totally enthralled from start to finish. This is such a record.I discovered this band several years ago, mostly because of lead singer Rod Evans (the first lead singer of Deep Purple). The rest of the band is comprised of guitarist Larry "Rhino" Reinhardt and bassist Lee Dorman, both of whom were members of Iron Butterfly, and the utterly staggering drummer Bobby Caldwell. If you need any proof of his virtuosity as a drummer, check out the video of this lineup on YouTube, an in studio live performance from 1972. If its possible, they might have been even better live then on the recording.

Note for note, song for song, and second to second from the begining of this album to the end; this is probably the best rock and roll I ever heard, (and being 50 years old I've heard a lot). This one album from the time you put it on till it ends will completely take you to musical nirvana (altered or not). You will never drift, your focus is on the ever changing patterns of music from frentic to transcendental; incredible musicianship from all, extremely good sound and mixing that will swirl around your room (or from place to place in your head with headphones; highly reccomended). I owned this album when it first came out in the 70's, then moved on to varying musical tastes and rediscovered it a few months ago on CD and was blown away again. It is still as good and in retrospect once again I call it the best single rock album ever. I played this for an open minded teenager (16) in my family who is naturally into current styles of music such as Rap, Techno and such and she was so blown away by it she had to borrow it to play for her friends, most of whom were astounded at how good it is. If you owned it way back then and forgot about it go get it again, if your musical tastes like Led Zep, Black Sabbath, The Who, Savoy Brown and such and you never had this album go get it, if you would like to introduce some younger folk to some real music go get it. Its that good.

Great album. Unfortunately I wasn't able to play it for a long time. Glad amazon had it in a cd format

At first sight this would appear to be a hippy-dippy band, what with the cover artwork and the title of the tracks, such as "Dancing Madly Backwards (on a Sea of Air)", "Myopic Void", "As the Moon Speaks (to the Waves of the Sea)" and "Astral Lady". However, don’t be fooled, as this is actually a rock album with elements of prog and psychedelic rock. It was fronted by Rod Evans, the original singer with Deep Purple with a couple of musicians from Iron Butterfly and one from Johnny Winter. So the pedigree was very good and they did in fact turn out a good rock album. I don’t think they did themselves any favours by how it was presented, which is perhaps why it is not better known than it is. After this record and the follow up, Sufficiently Breathless, Rod Evans not only left the band but the music business altogether. Give it a go, it is better than it looks.

Captain Beyond were one of those rock super groups. Musical Geniuses who came together from their own awesome bands to make an album of their collective ideas. I've been listening to this album for 40 years and I can still put it on and listen right thro. From "Dancing madly backwards" down "The raging river of fear" till "I can't feel nothin' (part II)" it is one huge, non stop (there's no breaks between the tracks) rollercoaster of rock heaven. They made a second album, but the magic moment had gone and Captain Beyond was no more.

I love Deep Purple and what Rod Evans did with the MK1. And I like Iron Butterfly. This record sounds great remastered.

I have to agree with the other previous reviews. This album is a great example of early 70s rock. It has some good riffs and excellent musicianship. The production is also very good and sympathetic - this has helped it to weather the intervening years surprisingly well compared to some of its contemporaries. It manages to come across as a band who were working in the same direction and is not pompous or overblown. I have not heard their other albums so cannot comment if they are as good but this one is definitely worth checking out

Great prog from some talented guys (and I knew Rod Evans better that the others as I'm big Deep Purple fan.) Though I liked it on first listen, it improved on the next few plays and might might take some a few listens. Incredibly 'tight' band and one I will return to playing many times over th coming years. Highly recommended. And this Capricorn remaster sounds the business too.