Ebb released quite an epic three single, The Management of Consequences,  back at the start of 2024 (still feels like we’re at the start of the year around here, has it properly started yet?). We’ve got it on repeat in here right now and there goes a classic bit on punting or something kind of rather Garden Party flavoured.  The new release kind of started off in a more than healthy space rock Ozric Tentacles time zone before really taking off with those meatly keyboards and that big guitar. Guess the time has come for us to say somthing about the positively evolving forward moving early 80’s flavoured prog as flip thing that is Ebb.

Ebb are a band who clearly understand the ritual of a gatefold cover and a lyric shheet, getting that album home for the first time, they’re a six-piece, a self-declared Art/Rock/Progressive band, they’re been popping up rather a lot over the last couple of years, mostly on the prog festival circuit, they’re “comprised of five women and one guy, writing and playing in their own style, telling their own stories and wrestling with their own concepts”.  They’re from Scotland, or they’re based in their commune in Scoltand, their debut EP, Death & The Maiden was released on Boudicca Records back in 2019, their debut full-length studio album Mad & Killing Time was released in November 2022 on the same label. That debut album didn’t quite grab us at the time, it had us curious, it had us sitting on the fence and kind of hoping to need to jump down and shou a little abou them at some point. Guess the time has come to shout just a little…

This just released three track single, The Management of Consequences, feels like a few steps up the ladder, feel like time for us to jump down off the fence and say something. It is very much that classic early 80s Marquee Choral Society sound of things like Marillion’s best days, there goes a touch of Cinderella searching right there along with a hint or two of Pallas and maybe a feeling chased back to source (adopting a different kind of course). And there goes a classic Genesis Trick of The Tail period keyboard flavour ot two somewhere in the middle of second track Cost And Consequence (a classic Genesis riff, as far as we’re concerned, is a very good thing, these are t obe considred compliments). And yes, these are refrence points, strong refrence points, healthy flavours, they bring their own musical personality (and rather a lot more) to the sound, something good being cooked up here, especially opening piece Silent Saviour

Third of three tracks Nieu starts off like it has serious Deep Purple thing going on or maybe a glance towards the July Mornings of Uriah Heep (once again no bad thing) before heading off is a direction all of Ebb’s own choosing (or kissing). Mostly they sound like a rather strong, rather positive female-voiced 80s sounding proper prog band. It really is that New Wave of early 80s Prog thing, bands like Marillion, Tamarisk, Quasar and such, that and a touch of space rock and just a hint or two of 70s folk flavouring (especially at the end of the eight and a half minute opener Silent Saviour)

Ebb clearly have the Hawkwind seal of approval, there’s some uplifting footage of them rehearsing back stage with a rather happy looking Dave Brock before playing Hawkfest a couple of years ago, and yes it is the more tradition areas of prog that bb operate in rather than something really progressive in the real sense of the term, nothing worng wit that when it is done with this heart, there’s something here that looks and feels very positive, a proper spirit of the age as it were…    

They say this new EP is “in some ways, a companion piece to the album Mad & Killing Time, in that it deals with and resolves many of the issues raised in that album. If Mad & Killing Time was a comment on the human condition, The Management of Consequences is a more personal examination of the same. Having only three tracks, although the first track is split into 3 movements, it is a more compact expression”.

The EP is apparently dedicated to Sagittarius A*, “the supermassive black hole at the centre of our galaxy which is referenced to throughout the work. The gist being: that the human condition and indeed, any condition, all find terminal irrelevance on a cosmic scale” – be that as it may, they just went up in terms of relevance around here in our supernotquitesomassive black pit, Here they are, if they haven’t crossed your path yet and you like that 80s prog thing (and no not that damn neo prog crap that came later) then go do what we’re just starting to do with Ebb and properly explore..

Bandcamp / Website

And here’s a sometimes tongue in cheek documentary (a rockumentary if you will) that tells you lots, they posted it a few days ago..

And here they are with the Brave Baron Brock rehearsing a Hawkwind song

While at Hawkfest 2021, EBB were joined on stage by Dave Brock of Hawkwind to perform their version of Hawkwind’s 1972 song ‘Demented Man’. Erin also joined Hawkwind on stage to perform the song. This is a fun clip of car park practicing, EBB & Dave during Erin joining Hawkwind