Warthur Of Pendragon's two studio albums from the 1980s, Kowtow often gets short shrift compared with The Jewel, and it's easy to see why; the first side consists of a series of poppy songs that really should be classed more as melodic rock than progressive or neo-prog, and it's easy to think that Pendragon are selling out and not being true to themselves.

That's particularly true of Saved By You, the album's opener - but I was surprised to discover (and discogs.com confirms) that this originally wasn't on the album, and indeed wasn't even recorded when the first vinyl version of Kowtow was released in 1988. As it transpires, Kowtow was actually originally a demo - an extremely well-crafted demo, but a demo nonetheless - recorded by the band in 1987 as their last serious bid to get a contract with EMI.

When that fell through, Pendragon decided to make their own indie label - much as IQ and Marillion would do in subsequent years - and Kowtow became one of their first releases on Toff Records, initially in a configuration omitting Saved By You but with that track added in later versions.

Personally, I think the first side of the album isn't well served by adding Saved By You; as well as hailing from different sessions from the rest of the album, it also has enough of a different mood that its inclusion makes the proceedings feel jarring. Trim it off, and the songs on the first side start tending more towards the slower, more emotional numbers like 2AM; the material won't scratch your prog itch, but if you are into competently executed and emotionally sincere melodic rock you could do a lot worse (though arguably also a lot better).

Overall, these songs represent a natural evolution of the poppier side of the band's music. At the end of the first side Total Recall introduces a string of songs in a more neo-prog style. The thing which initially threw me about this song and much of the second side is that, while they're mostly neo-prog compositions, they're not *Pendragon* compositions in style - they seem, in fact, to have been written in imitation of Marillion's output at the time. The Haunting sounds like an off-cut from the Clutching At Straws sessions, Solid Heart reminds me a *lot* of the rousing White Feather closer from Misplaced Childhood, and Kowtow is extremely reminiscent of Fugazi - it even has similarly Vietnam-tinged lyrics! (Speaking of the lyrics, incidentally, on these neo-prog compositions they seem to have been written in the style of Fish, and Nick tries to deliver them in a similar manner, which seems unnatural for him.)

Still, whilst Kowtow is not a classic Pendragon album, neither capturing their classic early style or the 1990s stylistic shift inaugurated on The World which would see them attain cult success, it's also an album which I don't think is all that much worse than their other early works and which I think is badly underrated, partially due to the ill-advised inclusion of bonus tracks.

Historically speaking it's an important album both to Pendragon and the neo-prog scene as a whole; after all, if a supposed demo album could sound this good, the question of "Do we need the major labels anyway?" becomes all the sharper, and as the release which established Toff Records as a viable publishing entity, a vital step in laying the groundwork for Pendragon's renaissance in the 1990s - and also an important model for other major players on the scene at the time. (Would IQ have set up Giant Electric Pea if Pendragon hadn't already made headway with Toff? Would Marillion have set up Racket or pioneered crowdfunding to the extent that they did, had Pendragon and IQ not already shown that independent labels with high levels of fan engagement via the Internet were a viable model?)

Musically speaking, the more prog-purist fans will likely find Kowtow to be weaker than both the Jewel it followed and the World that followed it, but I find that there's more here than an initial listen might make apparent - especially on the excellent recent remaster. If you've given Kowtow a try before, weren't sure about it, but are curious to give it another try, you might try experimenting with skipping Saved By You and starting your listening experience with The Mask, the original album opener. As fun and energetic as Saved By You is, it sets entirely the wrong mood for the rest of the album, which I'm fairly sure was a major stumbling block for me on previous listens. At the same time, if you feel that Pendragon just didn't get it together until they put out The World - and I have some respect for that view - Kowtow is unlikely to change your mind, steeped as it is in their 1980s attempts at pop.

siLLy puPPy While PENDRAGON’s debut album may have landed without crashing, it didn’t exactly land on two feet as it was a mix of AOR dross cross-pollinated with high class Marillion inspired 80s neo-prog. The sophomore effort which came out three years later in 1988 found the band completely wiping out altogether. Despite the band starting to gain some momentum with the neo-prog sounds that would emerge in the 90s on the debut, on KOWTOW the band made a complete retrograde and in the process dumped its weakest albums of its career much less the neo-prog universe in general. This was the first album to see the debut of keyboardist Clive Nolan who had only worked with a band called The Cast at this point and while Nolan has been one of the bigwigs in the world of symphonic prog ever since, on this debut one could hardly guess that fact in any way, shape or form.

Not only did Nolan replace keyboardist Rik Carter but Nigel Harris was also replaced by percussionist Fudge Smith who would also stick around for the next eighteen years up until 2006. Pretty much considered PENDRAGON’s absolute worst effort, KOWTOW went off the rails and created the ultimately bad AOR infused album with only a few progressive moments. While everyone knows neo-prog is in the pop oriented sector of the prog supermarket, KOWTOW takes things to the ultimate extreme and dishes out a bunch of sappy overweening tracks that fail to take into account that good AOR music requires two vital elements. Number one: catchy well crafted pop hooks which are woefully missing from every track included here and number two: a competent vocalist that can focus the attention on the lyrical content. Neither are present here and while Nick Barrett would improve his vocal talents, here he falls woefully flat.

While the album is primarily a batch of irritating crappy pop tracks that are rich in tinny keyboard sounds and lifeless drum programming, the album’s saving grace is the decent but yet unremarkable “The Haunting” which hints at the more sophisticated epic themes that would emerge on the next album “The World.” There are also the occasional jazzy touches (by session musicians) with on “I Walk The Rope” and “2 AM” that unfortunately remind me more of Kenny G than Miles Davis. Barrett’s vocals have a very strange quality of sounding like a mix between a less talented Geddy Lee mixed with the Clash’s Joe Strummer at times and at other times hint at achieving some sort of deliverable goods but doesn’t quite cut the mustard leaving behind an unfulfilled promise where all the proper fluffing was delivered but no climactic resolution.

There are only so many ways to express how bad an album is. While i can understand why neo-proggers would want to craft some commercial success after once great legendary prog bands like Yes and Genesis were tearing up the pop charts and supergroups like Asia were raking in the bucks off their popification of prog, someone forgot to explain to PENDRAGON at this point that the songs would have to be irresistibly infectious and in the case of KOWTOW it is exactly the opposite. This is a difficult listen and i’m a very tolerant music lover to be fair. While i try to find any redeeming value in any given album i experience, KOWTOW is truly one of those absolute worst of the worst and a true burden to sit through for this review. Soulless and as plastic as Barbie’s bosom, KOWTOW is as bottom of the barrel as any album with the prog tag could possibly sink. To be avoided at all cost and a useful torture device for your enemies. Their heads will explode like the aliens on the movie “Mars Attacks!”