Saturday, January 22, 2011

Fyre - Pyromancy (1977)

Fyre's story begins in Hays, KS in 1968, upon the dissolution of midwestern beat group The Blue Things. The Blue Things, who had experienced a lineup change, re-dubbed themselves as Fyre and moved to the west coast in the hopes of gaining massive exposure. The band managed to land a contract with Dot Records and embarked on a national tour with Them, but by early 1970 the band had dissolved with some members staying in California and others relocating back to Kansas. Several years later in Emphoria, KS Fyre were resurrected with a mostly revamped lineup and were packing clubs all over Kansas as well as select venues in Hollywood. By mid-'77, the band were holed up in Leon Russell's home studio tracking their debut LP, "Pyromancy". Upon its release, Billboard magazine were singing the band's praises and expectations were high. However, limited distribution in some markets kept the album from breaking big nationwide and as the 80's were approaching, not much was heard from Fyre. It is presumed the band split sometime early in the new decade. Since then, Fyre embarked on a reunion tour in 2007 and even had their own website at one point before vanishing again shortly thereafter. The activities of the members are currently unknown.

Musically, Pyromancy is one schizophrenic affair. The band dabble in AOR, country, boogie, funk and to a lesser extent, hard rock. As would be expected, this kitchen sink approach does not make for a consistent listen whatsoever, but there are a handful of gems worth noting. "L.A. Lady" is a solid AOR styled track, "Musicband" tastefully lifts from the west coast flavorings of bands like Firefall or Pablo Cruise and "6th Avenue" has great energy and tasteful harmonies. Overall though, Pyromancy lacks the strong identity of the heavy hitters of their era making Fyre a minor curiosity for obscurity hounds.

Dig this satisfactory vinyl rip and enjoy the subtle charms of Kansas' Fyre...

2 comments:

RODAS said...

Hi Great blog my friend, you really got some rare albums. I like this one they had talent too bad they never made it big.. Thanks for sharing this gems...:O)

kurganwins said...

Thanks for originally uploading, could you please re-upload. I really appreciate it.