(ProgRock) Wigwam - Dark Album (1977) Finland - 1977, FLAC (tracks)

EAC extraction logfile from 5. June 2006, 17:49 for CD
Wigwam / Dark album

Used drive : TSSTcorpCD/DVDW TS-H542A Adapter: 1 ID: 0
Read mode : Secure with NO C2, accurate stream, disable cache
Read offset correction : 116
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No

Used output format : Internal WAV Routines
44.100 Hz; 16 Bit; Stereo

Other options :
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Installed external ASPI interface

Track 1
Filename F:\Seeds\Wigwam - Dark Album (1977) [FLAC]\01 - Oh Marlene!.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:02.00

Peak level 100.0 %
Track quality 99.9 %
Test CRC 404F0175
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Track 2
Filename F:\Seeds\Wigwam - Dark Album (1977) [FLAC]\02 - Cheap Evening Return.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:01.77

Peak level 97.7 %
Track quality 100.0 %
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Track 3
Filename F:\Seeds\Wigwam - Dark Album (1977) [FLAC]\03 - The Item Is The Totem.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:02.10

Peak level 85.2 %
Track quality 100.0 %
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Track 4
Filename F:\Seeds\Wigwam - Dark Album (1977) [FLAC]\04 - The Silver Jubilee.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:03.90

Peak level 93.5 %
Track quality 100.0 %
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Track 5
Filename F:\Seeds\Wigwam - Dark Album (1977) [FLAC]\05 - Horace's Aborted Rip-Off Scheme.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:01.53

Peak level 82.1 %
Track quality 99.9 %
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Track 6
Filename F:\Seeds\Wigwam - Dark Album (1977) [FLAC]\06 - The Big Farewell.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:02.40

Peak level 94.7 %
Track quality 100.0 %
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Track 7
Filename F:\Seeds\Wigwam - Dark Album (1977) [FLAC]\07 - The Vegetable Rumble.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:01.10

Peak level 93.2 %
Track quality 100.0 %
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Track 8
Filename F:\Seeds\Wigwam - Dark Album (1977) [FLAC]\08 - Helsinki Nights.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:04.00

Peak level 97.0 %
Track quality 100.0 %
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Track 9
Filename F:\Seeds\Wigwam - Dark Album (1977) [FLAC]\09 - Grass For Blades.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:02.02

Peak level 99.0 %
Track quality 100.0 %
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Track 10
Filename F:\Seeds\Wigwam - Dark Album (1977) [FLAC]\10 - Daemon Duncetan's Request.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:02.53

Peak level 99.6 %
Track quality 100.0 %
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No errors occured

End of status report

The final album that Wigwam recorded at the end of their long association with Love Records was to be the Dark Album, an album that was involved in a series of upheavals for the band ending in their ultimate demise. The original title for the album as meant to be Daemon Duncans' Request, yet executives at Virgin Records on hearing the finished product refused to release it on the grounds that it was too "low-key and non-commercial". One must realise that the period of 1977 was when punk music was at its zenith and most major labels, including Virgin, were more willing to back a punk band rather than a classic/progressive rock band. Thus Wigwam were sent back to the studio and the album, re-titled as Dark Album, was released in late 1977. By this time the band had already split up for a second time. Surprisingly, considering the circumstances, the album is a strong one and definitely more cohesive than their previous outing, Lucky Golden Stripes and Starpose.

From the opening track, Oh Marlene!, one can immediately sense that the album would feature less of the complex arrangements that the band would normally have included in their repertoire and instead what one does get on the album is more of a watered down Wigwam. The pressure of Virgin Records on the band to come up with more commercial material seems to have had an effect on the band's creative output, something which is also visible when one looks at the songwriting credits where Jim Pembroke, the band's more commercial songwriter has a hand in all bar one of the album tracks.

Notwithstanding the pressure, the band still managed to come up with a piece of work that in my opinion surpasses Lucky Golden Stripes And Starpose in terms of quality. Cheap Evening Return has an incredibly moving chorus and is considered as one of the album's masterpieces though the most popular number was The Silver Jubilee which saw the return of Jukka Gustavson, albeit as a guest musician, to the Wigwam fold.

Once again the guitar work of Pekka Rechardt stands out on various tracks. The almost hard rock riff of The Item Is The Totem is a sure sign that the times in the musical world were changing, a factor that also appears on The Vegetable Rumble that features a riff comparable to Thin Lizzy. While tracks such as Horace's Aborted Rip-Off Scheme showed that Pembroke had lost none of his English humour that he translated so ably into music, somehow though, the band must have felt that the end was nigh for Wigwam. On no other album is there such a large number of slow heavy paced tracks. The Big Farewell, sounds as if the band were singing their own demise while the album closer Helsinki Nights, another uncharacteristic Wigwam track, has the band bidding a definite farewell to their faithful. On the whole the Wigwam on Dark Album are a very different band that appeared on any of their previous albums. Something had changed within the members, especially Pembroke and Rechardt, that affected their musical approach. The end of progressive rock as a popular format seems to have hit the band hard without allowing them chance to recover. That coupled with the rejection by Virgin Records and the bankruptcy of Love Records laid the ground for the band splitting up. The CD version of the album also includes two bonus tracks one of which, Grass For Blades originally was on Jim Pembroke's Wicked Ivory album,and the original title track Daemon Duncetan's Request.