Ragnarok "Ragnarok" 1975

If somebody wrote a book on the history of progressive rock in New Zealand, it would be a very slim volume indeed. One group instantly springs to mind when you throw both New Zealand and progressive rock into a witch’s cauldron: Ragnarok.
Formed in 1974, the group’s short story consists of two marvellous albums – their self-titled debut Ragnarok (1975) and follow-up Nooks (1976) – together with a lot of touring and pub residencies. They were gone by 1978, having barely scratched the public consciousness...
...It wasn’t that we never fell under the spell of the genre. In the early 1970s, albums by progressive rock titans like Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Yes sold like hotcakes, and Jethro Tull performed here to wide acclaim. Classical music critic William Dart could even be found extolling the virtues of the 1972 Yes album Close To The Edge in the pages of The NZ Listener, promoting it as a brave new music that finally legitimised rock as something for serious contemplation.
No, we loved the impossible time signatures, 20 minute epics, sword and sorcery lyrics and massed banks of squealing synthesisers as much as any nation on earth, and remember, that’s heaps: in 1971, Jethro Tull was the second most popular touring act in America, trounced only by The Rolling Stones, and for a brief period in 1973, EL&P were judged the most popular rock band on earth.
It’s just that homegrown examples were almost as rare as hens’ teeth. And it wasn’t that we had the good taste to avoid the more extravagant pomp and excess of progressive rock, it just came down to sheer economics. Running a progressive rock ensemble was seriously expensive, with the necessity to purchase and maintain cutting edge technology (banks of synthesisers) and tour with massive PA systems. That was never going to work in NZ, and there was the small but prescient fact that electronic gear would be taxed heavily at customs...to be continued... - Gary Steel and AudioCulture
trax:
01 Fenris 02 Butterfly Sky 03 Fire In The Sky 04 Rainbow Bridge 05 Raga 06 Caviar Queen 07 Dream 08 Dawning Horn
…served by Gaius…