Big Hogg -
Pageant Of Beasts


(CD 2021, 42:04, Bad Elephant)

The tracks:
  1- Golden Beasts(0:30)
  2- Here Come The Moles(4:55)
  3- Man Overboard(3:46)
  4- Smoking Again(3:51)
  5- Willow's Song(3:33)
  6- Red Rum(3:03)
  7- All Alone Stone(5:24)
  8- Magistellus(4:17)
  9- Wyverns(4:31)
10- Bouffant Tail(1:12)
11- Cat Fool(3:20)
12- Too Much Belly Not Enough Paw(0:45)

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Listening to Big Hogg's Pageant Of Beast made me think of a concert by Robert Wyatt at the BBC in 2006, where he was accompanied by a band with some great horns in it. In Prog you hardly ever have bands with a horn section, well this one has and I love it.

But not only does the music of Big Hogg remind me of Robert Wyatt, I also hear Hatfield And The North, Kevin Ayers, Henri Cow, Caravan and loads of other influences of the Canterbury scene. As a big fan of that scene, it's a delight. This is jazz but not jazz. It's electronics but not electronics. This is music based on where Prog started, different, new, exiting, no limits, experimental and yes, progressive. Most of nowadays Prog isn't progressive at all. Prog has become a label, not a meaning of something new and daring anymore.
Big Hogg comes from Glasgow, far away from Canterbury. They adapted the atmosphere of that music scene but made it their very own. A trumpet intro and outro and 10 really great songs make this album a pleasure to listen to. It is a large band but I have to name one person especially: bass player Martin Beer. He is brilliant.

Bad Elephants label boss David Elliot helped with the mix and mastering and he did a great job. The sound is totally as it should be for this kind of music.

**** Arne van Os van den Abeelen (edited by Tracy van Os van den Abeelen)

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