What a great album! After listening two weeks a digital copy of the album I got my own CD copy today and am going to get a vinyl one too these days. I have talked to Bill Moon (played bass) via email and he was very kind telling me about those times when making this album. As i got the CD today and read Mark Ellerbee's (drummer of the band) foreword to the album, i noticed there is something Bill Moon told me that Mark Ellerbee does not mention on the sleeve. I think that explains why the music on the record sounds so "cohesive and tight" as Roger Magilio says on his own forewords yet the whole thing was canned in three days..
Bill Moon:
When we recorded this album not the normal way you do it. We sat up in the middle of the studio as if we were on stage. That way the recording would be exactly as we would sound live The record company wasn't happy with our first performance, so we came back and tightened up on the music for 6 months and returned and recorded what you hear now. There is some 30,000 thousand albums some where!!! I guess most of them were destroyed., the company distributed them all over America for a sampling of how people would react to this sound. So they didn't get a good response and they cancelled pressing anymore.
As we can read they did not record it the first attempt but practiced their material for six moths more, then went back to the studio and made it in a couple of days. I think this is the main reason why it sounds so enjoyably smooth and tight at the same time.
Maybe it was not just a coincidence i posted Colosseums Valentyne Suite beside this. Maybe my subconscious did it for me. They both are from the same year and as i now see have some relationship. Both After All and Valentyne Suite are on my top ten list when talking about a certain kind jazz-blues (and psych) tinged rock from late 60s and early 70s.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vKO-MVgm28
"The Oaks Band", Mark Ellerbee's band after "After All"
