There are points at various junctions in our lives, where we accept it’s time to let go and move on. That dawning realisation that the dream you may well have worked hard towards, wasn’t going to work out. Whilst it’s sometimes a hard lesson, it’s not necessarily a negative. You can look back with regret or relief, as your life took a different course.
In the case of Keith Noble, despite playing a role in a 60s legend, that lead towards the formation of Pink Floyd, he wasn’t to be one of the headliners of that particular tale. Earlier in the decade, Noble, alongside Nick Mason, Roger Waters, and Richard Wright, morphed from Meggadeaths, Sigma 6, The Abdabs and then The Screaming Abdabs. Eventually the band settled and grew around a certain Syd Barrett.
All this loosely converging around Regent Street Polytechnic’s Department of Architecture and blurring perfectly into swinging London’s newly emerging psychedelic scene. The move towards more experimental sounds may have sat at odds with Noble’s singer songwriter angle, and new opportunities arose. Whilst recording deals evaded, studio sessions with Chad and Jeremy led to co-writing credits on their UK and US hit – A Summer Song. Royalties came in, nods of approval continued, Noble casually kept playing live, whilst developing a parallel career as a now fully trained architect.
Mr Compromise was recorded in early 1970 – Noble (vocals and continuo guitar) with the help of fellow early Floyd luminaire Rado Klose (lead guitar), Graham McKenney (bass guitar and trumpet), Chris Reynolds (electric and bass guitar), Dave Bell (drums and bongos), Clive Goodenough (electric violin), Tom James (bongos), and Sheilagh Noble (additional vocals). The sessions seemed rudimentary, presumably more to showcase the work Noble had gleaned in the previous years. 300 copies were made, but rather than any aggressive self-promotion, they were handed out to friends and family. Noble then took a step back from the microphone and enjoyed a long and successful career as an architect. He sadly passed away in 2014.
It would be easy to assume, given the background, the resultant album gives off an almost apologetic air. A release no more than a vaguely interesting reference point in a story latterly dominated by Syd Barrett, David Gilmour, Piper at the Gates of Dawn, A Saucerfull of Secrets and Ummagumma. Whilst we lost interest after Barrett’s influence faded, Pink Floyd’s subsequent trajectory to the top tier of rock music is undeniable.
However, Mr Compromise is far more amazing that it might be reasonable to expect. 10 tracks that stylistically jump everywhere from folky fingerpicking to grooving rock, unified by exploratory ideas and lyrics, all wrapped up in a completely unique, subtle, yet engrossing oddness.
The title track Mr Compromise twists around a lilting jolliness that belies the protest song at its heart. Narcissus is a curve ball, a chugging Byrd’s styled groover that skips and whirls through rippling psychedelic episodes. Secretary Jane is a strange looping bossa nova tune in a genre of its own, and Red-Current Tide is a clipped, upright, folky stomp.
However, the atmosphere changes in the breathtaking moodiness of Up And Down Way (Of It All). A Sandy Bull guitar line, pinging echoes, twisting around a melody and double tracked vocals that is an achingly beautiful form of melancholy.
Only When I Laugh is another perfect jangling miniature rocker, whilst Dandelions Have Their Day is a mournful low-key anthem.
It’s in the 7 minutes of Weather, the most far-reaching track on the album that everything really confirms Noble’s variety of moods as remarkable. Unhurried, gathering guitar and violin, falling into passages of raga and transcendence. The blissed vocals and hanging loaded ambience, as the sound slowly enlarges and blossoms into a dense whirling gorgeousness.
King Of The Iceman and Ashes And Silver round off the album with two more gently rippling, labyrinthine folk ballads.
From the first listen, and several since, the album has a strange overall effect.
It’s impossible to not imagine this with a bigger budget, maybe better produced and more fully realised. In some parallel world, this album found its place much more visibly in the record buying community of the time. Perhaps the desire was always just to get these ideas down on tape – to show Noble was no one trick pony. It’s clear he had much to say in folk, prog and rock. Davey Graham, The Incredible String Band, Nick Garrie, Bill Fay, Fairport Convention and many more all feel present here, an awareness and understanding of his contemporaries seeps out every twist and turn whilst still utterly unique.
But like the raw immediacy of a sketch rather than some overworked, committee approved investment, Mr Compromise somehow quickly feels unshackled and unpolluted. The product of a brimming but organised mind, simply giving his ideas a space to be realised. A document of the songs, the structures, the moods and dreams of someone that was ready to neatly pack away this part of their life. Whilst it may sound like a sad story, it was really just one about someone that has several talents and options…
Mr Compromise is a newly accessible branch in a bigger story that we already know. But it’s not a skewed glimpse into what Pink Floyd might have been, rather another example of how saturated and idea packed these times were. Another single release discography to add to your list of folk that could have, if the butterfly had flapped its wings a millisecond later, enjoyed a very different story. The word compromise in the title feels too loaded to not be deliberate, an artist deciding he needed actual security rather than just a mirage of artistic freedom.
Whilst the whole project has an air of ifs and buts, and an unwieldy setting and story, the fact is clear – it’s a sumptuous 41-minute gem, with the ability to stand on its own two feet. Yet again, an album that makes you question how much else this good is it reasonable to expect to still be out there?
Another secret unlocked from the past, and a very welcome if unexpected treat.
Mr Compromise is out now on Guerssen Records, available on vinyl, CD and digitally
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