Caught between the fading colors of psychedelia and the creeping tendrils of prog rock while being battered by the twin devils of bubblegum and jazz rock, it was tough being a band in the late '60s to early '70s. Blackpool-based Complex came together during that confusing time and made a noble attempt to weave those disparate elements together into something special. Their efforts failed to get them a record deal, but their legend grew enough so that in 2022 Grapefruit Records issued Live for the Minute: The Complex Anthology. It features the group's two demo albums, subsequent demo sessions, their one single, and other unreleased songs.
The main draw is cleaned-up versions of their two albums. 1971's Complex has the combo running through a weird selection of tracks that range from happy ska ("Josie"), doomy psych ("Witch's Spell"), lite psych balladry ("Images Blue"), and hard rock ("Live for the Moment") to the bubbly sunshine pop of "Message from the Year 2000." It's clear the band weren't exactly sure who they were, but apart from "Josie" the album holds together well and they even could have had a hit with the bubblegum-fresh "Funny Feeling." Perhaps if they had folded the bubblegum and prog together in that song as well as they do on the rest of the album, they might have found a record label willing to take a chance on them. Their second album, 1972's The Way We Feel, is even more scattered, swerving from the wigged-out jazz-psych of "We Don't Exist" to the majestic, Procol Harum-esque "Moving Moor," and from the AM pop-rocker "Hey Girl You've Got Style" to the gentle electric piano-led lament "Am I," with an impressive pit stop at unfiltered bubblegum with "Every Time I Hear That Song" and the title track. Complex spike their bubblegum with some toughness and soul, sounding like cousins to the Equals.
It all makes for fun listening, though, as does the third disc in the set, which gathers up all the demos recorded in the '70s. A session in 1972 resulted in the group's most prog-leaning tracks, but also faithful covers of "Theme from Shaft" and "By the Time I Get to Phoenix." The rest of the decade saw them taking cracks at glam rock, soft rock, disco (as on the one single they actually released, 1976's "Who Got the Love"), and even punk. It's bittersweet fun listening to their valiant efforts to strike gold, and while some of their stylistic shifts work better than others, the results are never less than listenable. The whole collection could be described the same way with the caveat that when the band got it right -- as they did on "Funny Feeling" and "Every Time I Hear That Song'' -- they really came close to really getting it right. Too bad Complex were never able to break through during their own time; now that their music is finally readily available, any fan of music from this confusing era should definitely check out this worthwhile collection.
© Tim Sendra /TiVo