With a loose science fiction concept, Victor Periano dominates ‘No Man’s Land’ with an arsenal of keyboards and electronic wizardry.
Written by: Eric
ARTIST: Victor Peraino’s Kingdom Come
ALBUM: No Mans Land
LABEL: Self Released
YEAR: 1975
CD REISSUE: Discogs Reissue List
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA
LINEUP: Victor Peraino – lead vocals, mellotron, organ, moog, keyboards * Paul Rogerson – vocals, bass * Herman Daldin – bass * David Christian, Robert Mich – guitar * David Wild, Edward Howlehan – drums * Jon Marc Laflotte – flute, steel guitar, vocals
TRACK LISTING: 01 Sun Sets Sail * 02 Demon Of Love * 03 Empires Of Steel * 04 Tru * 05 Lady Of The Morning * 06 Garden Of Death * 07 Run Through Your Life * 08 At Last A Crew
WEBLINKS: FB Page
Background
Victor Peraino was the American keyboard player for Arthur Brown’s Kingdom Come, a band often overlooked in the pantheon of UK progressives. Following the group’s final (and best) album ‘Journey’, Victor Peraino returned to the U.S, Texas I believe and somehow retained the rights to the group name.
Details are sketchy, but according to legend only 100 copies of ‘No Man’s Land’ were pressed making this a major rarity selling for four figures more often than not. A follow-up EP ‘We’re Next’ was recorded and released in 1981 which is almost just as rare. Both releases were put together on CD in the ’90s which itself is becoming increasingly hard to find although the enterprising Italian hard rock/prog label Black Widow have a reissue lined up for later this year.
The Songs
With a loose science fiction concept, Victor Periano dominates ‘No Man’s Land’ with an arsenal of keyboards and electronic wizardry. Dripping with Mellotron, ‘Sun Sets Sail’ blasts off to the heart of the universe very much in the style of the Canadian FM and their ‘Black Noise’ opus. Borrowing from the Deep Purple academy of space truckin’ riffola ‘Demon Of Love’ is less interesting, although ‘Empires Of Steel’ is a far better proposition, mixing hard rock with orchestral synths bringing to mind spacey Krautrocker’s SFF.
More Mellotron on the mellow psych of ‘Tru’ and flute on ‘Lady Of The Morning’ swirling like a post-psych daymare although from here the sequence goes from bad to worse. ‘Garden Of Death’ is painfully weird as ‘Run Through Your Life’ unfolds like stale Hawkwind in need of Lemmy while ‘At Last A Crew’ just sort of drifts buy like Mars bound space junk as the album fizzles out into a self-created black hole.
In Summary
Despite a handful of good tracks, I’ve never been enamored with ‘No Man’s Land’ and the CD sounds terrible as it’s doubtful it was taken from the masters and is possibly a boot. Hopefully, the next reissue will be done properly. As far as the EP ‘We’re Next’ is concerned, don’t bother looking for it. A remake of ‘Demon Of Love’ is needlessly included with Peraino’s cover of Arthur Brown’s classic ‘Fire’ adding nothing to the original. Victor Peraino’s group toured in the early 80’s even making their way to L.A’s Troubadour club dressed in crazy sci-fi outfits which looked as ridiculous as the music they were promoting.
Video
Entire Album (Select Tracks)
