Present Tense

Gary Usher was a California-based musician who in the sixties wrote and produced numerous hits for various Surf Rock artists.  One of The Byrds’ best albums, Younger than Yesterday, was also produced by him.  Later in the decade he collaborated with local session musicians to create several semi-fictitious studio bands, one of which was Sagittarius, named after Usher’s star sign.  Their first album, Present Tense, was a commercial flop in 1968, but with the aid of a remastered reissue thirty years later, it has since grown a small cult following.

Many of the songs on the album are ethereal pop tunes layered with strings, flutes, and multipart harmonies.  Although the band hails from the states, they sound a lot like the psychedelic baroque pop bands so prevalent in Britain at that time: the Zombies, the Kinks, Kaleidoscope, Pink Floyd, etc.  Having said that, their closest comparison is with the American band, Millennium, whose album Begin is another lost classic of the sixties.  There are also strong echoes of The Beach Boys, especially on the brilliant, dreamy single, My World Fell Down, perhaps not surprising given that Usher had once co-written several songs with Brian Wilson.

Present Tense is an appropriately sunny, bucolic album to listen to now that spring is nearly upon us.  So by all means, click here for a download link.