Alkatraz - Doing A Moonlight (1976 uk classic rock with great guitars - vinyl rip -Flac)

Meanwhile, after his stint in The Neutrons, Will Youatt joined up with his ex-Quicksand partner James Davies to found Alkatraz, a fabulous and all too short-lived band who we'd hoped would carry the welsh rock flag into the eighties. Their one release, Doing A Moonlight, is a really superb example of intelligent and well-executed guitar based rock.
Another in a long line of good UK rock LP's released just in time to be summarily ignored with the rise of punk rock. Alkatraz were based in Wales and slapped together by Will Youatt formerly of Man and Neutrons who put out an excellent album in 1975 - 'Tales from the Blue Cocoons' which also featured drummer Steve Halliday and guitarist Jimmy Davies who could previously be heard in the prog band Quicksand. Not sure about bassist Jeff Singer but lasting for just one record, Alkatraz split up while recording the follow-up for reasons unknown but my guess is changing attitudes towards all things young and punky at ye old record company might have been partially to blame.
With a heavy looking logo on the back sleeve record buyers were probably inclined to believe the music matched the image but this wasn't the case with Alkatraz. The reality was this was a nice rock album with touches of San Francisco west coast similar in many ways to Man and the later Quicksilver Messenger Service albums with plenty of jamming and a side of pop. The first two tracks are excellent in particular 'Red Lights' which sounds like early Doobie Brothers jamming with Sea Level while 'Nito Bandito' has a fantastic Steely Dan element to it. Elsewhere 'Maybe Monday' combines soft rock with an almost Starcastle-like arrangement and ultimately 'Doing A Moonlight' while not totally original is a pleasant listen and it'd be interesting to hear the tapes from that doomed second album as Alkatraz were definitely a band with potential.