Orang-Utan - Orang-Utan 1971 (1998) CD Rip

The saga of Orang-Utan is one of classic 60s-style music-biz skulduggery, contrived by dodgy late impresario Adrian Millar who, according to Jeremy Cargill’s sleevenotes, had the group name and King Kong-style sleeve design. All he needed was some gullible rockers to provide the music.

Enter North London’s Hunter, stalwarts of Freddie Mac’s soul revue, armed with a clutch of songs by drummer Jeff Seopardi, which became proto-metal juggernauts in the hands of lung-busting singer Terry ‘Nobby’ Clark, bassist Paul Roberts and dueling axemen Mick Clarke and Sid Fairman. The group knew it was doomed from the moment Seopardi signed Millar’s contract in a Soho alley, later discovering the album had been released by Bell in the US. 45 years later, Orang-Utan is being released in the UK for the first time, complete with that sleeve, which now stands as a tacky classic of the time.

Devotees of the kind of riff-heavy blues-rock ground out back then by the likes of Free and Cactus will relish the monolithic but dynamic bombast of outings such as Love Queen and Chocolate Piano. Proto-prog rears its head in the episodic arrangement of Magic Playground.