Lodgic - Nomadic Sands - 1985 gdmonline.info

Lodgic appeared out of Los Angeles during the late 70’s. Playing a style of prog which wasn’t that popular at the time, the band stuck to their guns and played many of the usual haunts in L.A.

Written by: gdmonline

ARTIST: Lodgic
ALBUM: Nomadic Sands
LABEL: A&M
SERIAL: A&M 5094
CD REISSUE: Discogs Reissue List
YEAR: 1985
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA

LINEUP: Mike Sherwood – vocals, keyboards * Billy Sherwood – vocals, bass * Guy Allison (Steiner) – keyboards, vocals * Jimmy Haun – guitars, vocals * Gary Starnes – drums

TRACK LISTING: 01 Romance * 02 Step Back * 03 Lonely Man * 04 Red Light * 05 Rise And Fall * 06 Push So Hard * 07 In The Cards * 08 Nomadic Sands * 09 Linda Sue * 10 Bringing Me Back

Table of Contents

Lodgic Background

Lodgic appeared out of Los Angeles during the late 70’s. Playing a style of prog which wasn’t that popular at the time. The band stuck to their guns and played many of the usual haunts in L.A.

At the time, Lodgic had a large contingent of players. Eight at one stage including a singer, bassist, two guitarists, two drummers and two keyboardists. However by 1985, the band were trimmed to five, and included within it’s membership the brothers Mike and Billy Sherwood.

The production values of this album are super melodic. The band’s obvious prog tendencies crosses paths with the production team of David Pack, Steve Porcaro and Tom Knox.

This trio has a knack for swimming their music in bucketloads of melody. It ensures Lodgic don’t over-extend or get too self-indulgent as prog bands are want to do. The immediate comparison here are the bands Saga and Yes.

Saga, who during their mid 80’s phase played extremely tight commercial crossover prog-AOR. Meanwhile Yes were buoyed by the success of their mega selling ‘90125’ album. Probably half the reason why A&M signed Lodgic in the first place looking for similar success.

The Songs

When you listen to these tracks, it sounds like an album played by musicians for musicians. Opener ‘Romance’ is quite sparse sounding on the verses but undeniably melodic throughout.

Without doubt, Saga is the reference point of ‘Step Back’ while ‘Lonely Man’ is laid back and restrained by comparison. Still vocally lush but played with pop tendencies. Go West would be a faint similarity.

‘Red Light’ is a fantastic hybrid of those two aforementioned bands Saga and Yes. Pick the eyes out of this one! Jimmy Haun gets to let loose on ‘Rise And Fall’. The solos are fast, and there is abundant use of analog delay effects which make this track an engaging listen.

An interesting use of keys features on ‘Push So Hard’. However the vocal emphasis on the chorus is understandable given the title. ‘In The Cards’ throws a deuce or two at The Cars circa their popular early 80’s era.

I wasn’t that convinced listening to the title track (track 7), but the last two tracks are essential listening. ‘Linda Sue’ is more AOR than prog, with a nod towards the likes of Bystander, Surgin and their kind.

However, the album ends with the sensational ‘Bringing Me Back’, complete with a combination of storming guitars and thrilling keyboards!

In Summary

Of course, part of this line-up would go on to form World Trade. This was another excellent crossover prog-AOR outfit who released three albums between 1989 and 2017.

Guy Allison would also go on to play with Unruly Child and Air Supply. Of most interest to current day followers of Billy Sherwood is his work with Yes.

Billy has also appeared with many other bands too. These include Conspiracy the band Circa, which features himself, Jimmy Haun and fellow Yes members.

More recently Billy is a member of the prog supergroup Arc Of Life, which currently has two albums out on Frontiers (2021-2022).

This album finally saw a CD reissue in 2011 courtesy of German label Yesterrock, though this is probably long out of print now.

On a sad note, singer Mike Sherwood passed away in 2019. R.I.P.