Of Queues and Cures is one of the last and finest examples of the instrumental Canterbury sound on record during the 1970s. This somewhat sweeping claim for National Health's second album is made not only because of the complexity and quirkiness heard throughout, but because of the presence -- quite rare in the years to follow -- of fuzz organ, here played by Dave Stewart prior to his departure from the group and the return of the arguably jazzier and less fuzz-inclined Alan Gowen as sole keyboardist. Aficionados know that the fuzz organ, as played by Stewart in this band and his preceding Hatfield and the North, Caravan's Dave Sinclair, and of course Soft Machine's Mike Ratledge, was central to the Canterbury sound, and although Ratledge was the groundbreaker, Stewart really pushed the envelope on this one. Phil Miller's "Dreams Wide Awake" calms down in its midsection, but it begins with one of the most crazed organ solos put to wax by anybody, Canterbury or not. "Phil made the mistake of asking me to go a bit mad on the organ solo at the beginning of the number," Stewart commented with characteristic Brit understatement in the liners. And "a bit mad" it is indeed, as Stewart begins his solo -- over a rocking vamp from guitarist Miller, bassist John Greaves, and drummer Pip Pyle -- with the burning tone typical of the style but escalates the mayhem and transforms the organ into a roaring, screaming beast, upping the ante on Keith Emerson during his organ-stabbing days with the Nice.

1		The Bryden 2-Step (For Amphibians) [Part 1]
2		The Collapso
3		Squarer for Maud
4		Dreams Wide Awake
5		Binoculars
6		Phlakaton
7		The Bryden 2-Step (For Amphibians) [Part 2]

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