Starting out as a typical U.K. club soul band, and then turning toward psychedelia and prog rock in the latter half of the '60s, it wasn't until
Pesky Gee! changed their name in 1970 to
Black Widow, transformed, and released the satanic Sacrifice that they reached the public eye. If not singular in any particular way, the prog-edged
Pesky Gee! album, released on Pye in 1969, has enough cool Hammond organ flourishes and late psych-intoned vocals (male and female) to cause interest. Much is aimless, relies too much on the blues-rock boom, or is downright bad ("Born to Be Wild"), but when they got the mix right they were superb, as on their original psych/soul/prog numbers: on "A Place of Heartbreak" there is a superb male/female vocal, a soulful beat, and some haunting changes; while "Where Is My Mind" (both songs were released as a 45) has a driving rhythm, a unique use of horns, and sees the beginning of the band's fascination with sinister subject matter and horror vocalization. The covers get a bit much, although the
Julie Driscoll-intoned reading of
Donovan's "Season of the Witch" has some fine moments. Not a solid affair but representative of the change in the British music scene of the late '60s. ~ Jon "Mojo" Mills