Welcome to Hippyland
Click to Chat
Search Hippy.com

Search the Web
Main Menu
· Home
· Login
· Register
· Chat
· Event Calendar
· Reviews
· Photo Galleries
· Hip Journals/Blogs
· Check Your Email
· HipMarket.com
· HipForums.com
· HipPlanet.com
· Hip Travel Guides
· Web Links
· Privacy Policy
Sections
· A Trip Thru the '60s
· Archives
· Ask The Old Hippy
· Columns
· Famous Hippy Quotes
· Hip Profiles
· Hippie Glossary
· Hippie Havens
· Hippies From A to Z
· Hippyland Tour
· Interviews
· Letters to Hippyland
· Links
· News
· Reviews
· Skip's Corner
Topics
· Activism
· Drugs
· Freedom
· Health
· Hippiedom
· Love
· Mind Expansion
· Mother Earth
· Music
· Peace
· Politics
· Spirituality
· The Arts
· The Sixties
· Vegetarianism
New Articles
· A Real Solution to the Economic Crisis
· Creating a new culture based on tribal values
· Weather Underground Fifth Communication (1970)
· Weather Underground Frees Timothy Leary! (1970)
· Marxism and Nonviolence (1966)
· The Weathermen (1969)
· Bill Ayers: Domestic Terrorist or American Hero?
· Free John Sinclair! (1970)
· Bill Ayers and the Children's Community (1968)
· Rediscovering the Past

Julian's Treatment: A Time Before This (1970)  
Reviewer: Ben Miler | See all reviews by Ben Miler
Section: Reviews | Category: Music | Area: UK | Topic: Music  
Printer Friendly Page Print this review  Send this Story to a Friend Email this review

Julian's Treatment is yet another forgotten and obscure gem of progressive and psychedelic rock. Not very often does a sci-fi author involve himself with music. Michael Moorcock's involvement with Hawkwind is one of the best examples. And Julian Jay Savarin is another author who involved himself in music, with this band Julian's Treatment. Savarin played the organ and he had an Australian named Cathy Pruden to handle the vocals, with some other guys to handle the guitar, bass, drums, and flute (no liner notes were included, unfortunately).

A Time Before This, released in 1970, was the one and only album by this band (Savarin released an album under his own name called Waiters on the Dance, which varying sources say was released in 1969, 1971, or 1973). Unsurprising, the album is a sci-fi concept album, a bit difficult for me to follow when a lyric sheet wasn't even included, but it seems to involve the destuction of the Earth in which a Terran ends up on a planet inhabited by strange, blue-skinned people, and an evil megalomaniac. Musically, it's late '60s sounding psychedelic with progressive rock with great spacy organ and a cosmic feel to the whole album. Great female vocals as well with the occasional spoken dialog. Highlights include "Phantom City", "The Black Tower", "Altarra, Princess of the Blue Women", "Twin Suns of Centauri", "Alkon, Planet of Centauri", "The Terran", "Fourth From the Sun", and "Strange Things".

All the music sounds like it should belong on some campy sci-fi film from the late 1960s, but that should not come as any surprise. One band that Julian's Treatment gets compared to is The United States of America, the American band that released an self-entitled album in 1968 that featured Joe Byrd and Dorothy Moskowitz. Also comparisons to such prog rock bands lead by female vocalists like Analogy, Sandrose, and Holland's Earth & Fire are pretty common as well. Which is safe to say, if you're a fan of any of these groups, chances are you'll like Julian's Treatment, a great lost gem that sure to grow on you. It's been reissued on CD twice, first by See For Miles which included bonus tracks from Julian Jay Savarin's album Waiters on the Dance, and by Akarma, with no bonus tracks, but excellent, miniaturized LP-style packaging. The original LP (released in Britain by Young Blood and in the U.S. on Decca) isn't exactly easy to come by, but regardless, this album is another excellent obscure gem to add to your collection.

   [ Back to Reviews Index | Post Comment ]

Visitor Comments about Julian's Treatment: A Time Before This (1970)
Posted by Simon Bromley on 2004-08-13 12:56:30
My Score:

Comment: Really Great

400+ Free Speech Forums!
Related Links
 · Our Music Store!
 · Our Poster Store
 · Our Music Forum
 · Events & Festivals
 · Music with a Message
More Music Reviews by Ben Miler
· Warm Dust: And It Came to Pass (1970)
· Chicago: Chicago III (1971)
· Pulsar, French progressive rock band
· Manfred Mann's Earth Band: Solar Fire (1973)
· Organisation: Tone Float (1970)
· Jean Michel Jarre: Oxygene (1976)
· Harmonium: Si On Avait Besoin D'une Cinquième Saison (1975)
· FM: Head Room - Direct to Disc (1978)
· Brainticket: Celestial Ocean (1973)
· Quarteto 1111: Cantamos Pessoas Vivas (1975)
· Julian Jay Savarin: Waiters on the Dance (1971)
· Mad Curry: Mad Curry (1970)
· Klaus Schulze: Irrlicht (1972)
· Peter Hammill: In Camera (1974)
· Czeslaw Niemen: Niemen Vol. 2 (1972)
· Strawbs: Just a Collection of Antiques and Curios (1970)
· Peter Hammill: The Silent Corner and the Empty Stage (1974)
· Jerry Goodman & Jan Hammer: Like Children (1974)
· Canarios: Ciclos (1975)
· Machiavel: Jester (1977)
· The Pentangle: Sweet Child (1968)
· Samurai: Samurai (1971)
· Radio Massacre International: Emissaries (2005)
· Skin Alley: Skin Alley (1969)
· Nik Turner's Sphynx: Xitintoday (1978)
See all reviews
by Ben Miler
New Reviews
· Pearls Before Swine -Tom Rapp
· The Gothic Bram Stoker
· Leonard Cohen at the Master’s feet
· Tudor Lodge
· Elias Hulk
· Merrell Fankhauser & the H.M.S. Bounty
· Sharon Tandy - Five Day Rain
· T2 - England's foremost powerpack from the seventies

All content & images © 1997-2008 by Hip Inc. May not be reproduced or published in any form without permission.