LPCDreissues: Looking forward to the past

Rat Roads presents material recorded by Out Of Focus in 1972 during the sessions that produced their ambitious double album Four Letter Monday Afternoon. The tracks were left unreleased at the time because there was not enough room for them on the original double LP, but the surviving master tapes finally allowed the complete programme to appear three decades later.

With the core group expanded by additional keyboards, percussion and brass instruments, the music combines progressive jazz-rock with psychedelic improvisation, energetic rhythms and unusually spacious ensemble arrangements. The extended “Table Talk” and “Climax” provide the broadest settings for instrumental interplay, while shorter pieces such as “Rat Roads,” “Straight Ahead” and “Fallen Apples” reveal a more compact but equally adventurous side of the band.

1. I’d Like to Be Free – 7:15
2. Table Talk – 12:03
3. Rat Roads – 5:16
4. Fallen Apples – 2:18
5. Straight Ahead – 4:39
6. Tell Me What I’m Thinking Of – 3:58
7. Climax – 12:47
8. Kitchen Blues – 0:31
9. Good-Bye Honey – 0:59

Edition: First official release of previously unissued recordings, with 32-page colour booklet

Recorded: 1972, during the Four Letter Monday Afternoon sessions