Patto - Patto

Formed out of the ashes of Timebox, Patto brought the combinations between Jazz, Soul, Hard Rock, Blues, and Progressive Rock rolled into one in 1970. It’s a quite an amazing touch between some killer musicians. The late great Mike Patto just kills it on his lead vocals with his soulful arrangements. Then there’s Ollie Halsall who among supporters including XTC’s Andy Partridge, Cheap Trick’s Rick Nielsen, and Allan Holdsworth to name a few, is perhaps one of the most overlooked left-handed guitarist who never got the recognition he deserved. Not to mention drummer John Halsey and bassist Clive Griffiths into the foreplay in the rhythm section.

Their sole self-titled debut originally released on the Vertigo label in that same year, the band recorded the album with producer Muff Winwood at Island Studios in Basing Street in London, shows the power, the electricity, and the thunderous beats that Patto brings that is like volcano waiting to erupt at the right moment. You have the opening track, The Man which sounds like the could have been used in a sequence from the 1973 blaxploitation film, Black Caesar featuring Fred “The Hammer” Williamson walking towards the streets of New York as if he’s honored and shows his stamp of approval throughout the section of Harlem.

Money Bag begins with Clive’s bass leading into a winding groove followed by Halsey’s intensive grooves on his kit followed by Ollie’s off-the-wall guitar going up and down through his improvisation while Government Man which Andy Votel sampled on the 2005 Vertigo Mixed compilation, shows him more than just a guitarist, but playing the vibraphones near the end of the last 30 seconds of the piece to give a moody end as Clive’s melodic bass closes it out.

Red Glow sounds at first sounds almost like a session straight out of John Lennon’s Plastic Ono Band and Imagine-era, but the engine gets all revved up to go. It begins with a reverb effect by Ollie that channels both of those two albums through his riffs, rhythm, and lead sections. He can take it up a notch whenever he would know where the band was going. It’s not just a powerful composition, but damn, Halsall is like a lightning ready to strike at any moment for the thunder at the right moment.

The three bonus tracks which are a part of a reissue done by Esoteric Recordings contains a 14-minute wildly improvisation turned into a ‘70s hard rock voyage with riffs and leads and done in the style of a heavier version between Allan Holdsworth, Blood, Sweat and Tears and Atlantis featuring Inga Rumpf on Hanging Rope. Then, there’s two live recordings done on BBC Radio One’s Sound of the ‘70s Session they did on November 3, 1970 performing Love Me and Government Man.

The 16-page booklet contains liner notes done by Sid Smith about the history about the making of their debut album, a history of the band’s formation, and an interview with John Halsey. It also contains photographs and live ads of Patto. This is an incredible reissue that just took me by surprise. I first heard about them 12 years ago on the 3-CD set of Time Machine: A Vertigo Retrospective 1969-1973 and of course the sample mix dedicated to the swirling logo done by DJ Andy Votel with Vertigo Mixed.

If you love the gems from the Vertigo releases of the golden-era of the 1970s between Clear Blue Sky, Nucleus, Colosseum, Manfred Mann’s Chapter Three, and Cressida, then dig deeper into the drive of Blues-Soul-Hard Rock sound of Patto.