S.O.S technically was not a band; we were three guys rehearsing, in wait of a fourth, trying to brainstorm so we could become a band. And yet the music produced was, in my opinion, good enough in its own right to merit some kind of a name which covered only the work from these sessions. We weren't Cold Sky anymore; we weren't Dog Neutral yet. (No such name existed.) When the music was turned into songs, once Dog Neutral was actually formed, these tapes went into a drawer and faded from the players' memories. And so, a few years later when I rediscovered them and was amazed at how well they stood up on their own, I decided to organize the best moments and call the project S.O.S., after the last initials of the three members.
It was the same lineup as a traditional jazz organ trio: keyboards, drums and guitar. I'd always liked that sound and suggested to the other guys that we forget about finding a bassist, we could do fine as we were. I thought the lack of a bass player allowed each instrument a lot more definition, and since all three of us could play in the bass register (I use an octave divider and can sound like either an 8-string bass or a fuzz bass), it seemed to me we could cover it. Neither of the other guys were comfortable with that so we continued to look for a bass player, and in a short time found our man. But before then, we'd set the groundwork for Dog Neutral.
Not only do I feel these tapes are a resounding success in their own right, but there are times when I listen to them that I feel that in some ways they are superior to both Cold Sky and Dog Neutral.
One thing about this that was a blast (one of many)- we did a version of "Politician" by Cream, vocals and all. I'd already done a cover of it myself, but this one has a really tough live energy, while my solo version sounds like a definite studio production. Not being bound by any kind of convention where this recording was concerned, I overdubbed a second vocal track to fill it out (the original was somewhat buried, and this upgraded the sound and feel immensely).
In all there are probably about 2 CDs of usable material, possibly 3. As I've said elsewhere- hope to have it for you soon!
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