National Health

National Health were one of those rare English progressive bands whose classic mid-'70s output still sounds fresh today. Their sound prospered on imaginative linear musicality, often in a jazzy format that emphasized extended instrumental solos. Arising during a challenging time when progressive rock was being overtaken by a tidal wave of punk, National Health featured members of other Canterbury and post-Canterbury bands <a href="spotify:artist:3nYGhK3zYoTm2Yz1KduuUM">Hatfield and the North</a> (a band considered a Canterbury supergroup in itself), <a href="spotify:artist:4Qbu3Rdnc5fWvgbP3DKuNx">Gilgamesh</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:6P3Zlv61YNe6DHVZhFj8oL">Henry Cow</a>. After the release of 1977's debut album National Health and 1978's sophomore Of Queues and Cures, the group issued 1982's D.S. Al Coda -- an homage to keyboardist <a href="spotify:artist:4MgV7TItyaupmtZVT6uipA">Alan Gowen</a>, who died of leukemia in May 1981 -- and then fell silent as its members pursued other ventures. The overview Complete appeared in 1990; Missing Pieces, a collection of recordings from the earliest incarnations of the group that never saw the light of day during the band's existence, followed in 1996. In 2000, <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Cuneiform%22">Cuneiform</a> issued a live album, Playtime, which was recorded at two different shows in 1979 and sequenced and mastered in 2000 by <a href="spotify:artist:7z6eQBjA3jPzU4Nth34VqH">Phil Miller</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:48muH2l2K2LzM0iObG1iIw">Pip Pyle</a> as a tribute to <a href="spotify:artist:4MgV7TItyaupmtZVT6uipA">Gowen</a>. ~ Myles Boisen & Dave Lynch, Rovi

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