“Another very good year”: Ring The Bells And Sing – Progressive Sounds Of 1975 box set

There’s always high quality control on this series of year-by-year compilations, wherein a tasteful (and sizable) time capsule of the period’s progressive rock highlights is presented. Yet one might worry that, with the likes of Yes and Genesis between albums, 1975 wasn’t a vintage year.

History tends to point to the decade’s midriff as something of a slump, as emblemised by Whistle Test at its weakest. Opening with the most underpowered song of the usually alert Caravan ’s career, The Show Of Our Lives from Cunning Stunts , feeds such doubt.

Yet as Bill Nelson ’s irresistible guitar flash on Be-Bop Deluxe ’s thrilling Maid In Heaven surges in, the mood is revived. Wind-tunnel gales from Hawkwind and impish intelligence from Gentle Giant then insist that the listener stops fretting and enjoys these various, unpredictable rides, whirlwinds and squirrelly wig-outs.

Worthy names abound, from Camel and Barclay James Harvest to Al Stewart and Renaissance . Stewart’s Modern Times finds Alan Parsons and the singer trying hard to fuse his folk essence with the producer’s big-screen ambitions. They don’t quite find the magic formula here that they nailed on the subsequent Year Of The Cat , but the attempt is absorbing.

Alan Hull ’s Squire demonstrates how his songs could sometimes be so low-key yet affecting, while Chris Squire ’s Lucky Seven makes one want to dive into Fish Out Of Water again. Strong showings from PFM , Fruupp, Stackridge and Greenslade have the desired effect of prompting deeper digs into their catalogues.

Steves Hackett and Hillage offer contrasting approaches on their lengthy contributions. The former’s Shadow Of The Hierophant makes a virtue of mantra-like repetition; the latter’s Solar Musick Suite never sits still for a second.

And if Soft Machine , around that year’s Bundles album, were being criticised for diluted intensity, nobody told Allan Holdsworth ’s guitar on the high-as-a-kite, sparkling-with-life Hazard Profile . Another very good year.

Ring The Bells And Sing – Progressive Sounds Of 1975 is on sale now via Esoteric.