Reviewed by Andy Long

Out Of Darkness were The, no I mean THE Christian band in the early 70s. At a time when serious Christian music was unheard of and most sandal-toting Jesus hippies were content to bash out a three chord Psalm 23 on a nylon-strung acoustic from Woolworths. Wray Powell and OOD stood out like a shining beacon in a fog of mediocrity. Their sound was unmistakably Hendrixy, Wray tweaked his fuzzy Strat with a Crybaby and cranked up his Marshall mercilessly. This six-song set was recorded in one afternoon on a four-track portable studio 'live' in an empty club. Nigel Palmer has given it some 1993 post-production work which does improve the quality. Songs of discipleship and drug abstention were rare in those times. The two outstanding tracks are "Worldpool", a creation hymn of varying moods, with a beautiful lyric expounding the harmony of creation and "Child Of The Universe", which closes the album in 13 minutes of wonderful improvisational soloing, including several time-signature changes. Okay, maybe the lead breaks are not perfect, and maybe Wray's pitching is a bit dodgy, but these elements don't even matter, the historical value of the album makes it one of this year's most exciting releases, and there are only 1,000 of them so you'd better hurry up!

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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