Audiophile Re-Issue Suggestion: Refugee

In the late '60s there was this cool band called "The Nice". The rhythm section was way ahead of the times in terms of execution and they had a showy and eccentric organ player who would stab his instrument with knives and coax gut wrenching sonics from his Hammond B-3. That keyboardist is Keith Emerson who jumped ship to form a band with King Crimson bassist/crooner Greg Lake and Atomic Rooster drummer Carl Palmer, called "Emerson, Lake & Palmer" or more commonly ELP. Well, we all know how THAT aggregation fared. But what of the ex-Nice band mates drummer Brian Davidson and bassist/vocalist Lee Jackson? They weren't giving up and had secured a one album deal with The Famous Charisma Label by 1972. the story has it Brian and Lee called Keith with the exciting news, Keith was very excited for the boys and said, "Don't know if you guys are aware I'm in this little band called Emerson, Lake & Palmer and we're quite busy at the moment. There is a guy I can recommend in Switzerland named Patrick Moraz who has his own studio and I think you'll get along nicely". On Keith's reference Brian and Lee secured Patrick's services for the album deal and a self-titled album was released in 1974 with little promotion. It appeared on the shelves with no hype and vanished quickly giving those "in the know" scant seconds to acquire. Produced by Jack Burns and the group, the music was written by Moraz, lyrics by Jackson and arrangements by the band. The opening cut, an instrumental called "Papillon" burst out of my speakers and shouted, "We're here!". This is an amazing workout requiring tight unison ensemble playing, and Moraz erupts with uber piano technique in the melody section all at a blistering tempo ELP could never match (the closest they came for me is the instrumental acoustic trio workout in "Karn Evil 9 2nd Impression" from Brain Salad Surgery, and I'm saying a distant close!). This album is a progressive rock classic. The music is intelligent, melodic, requiring virtuosic abilities and confidently executed. For me, the only other body of work from this era that equaled Refugee is "Relayer" by Yes. Replacing Rick Wakeman...Patrick Moraz! Moraz injected an energy to the precedings that put everyone on notice and the efforts of drummer Alan White and bassist Chris Squire on Moraz's "Sound Chaser" are undeniable. I still have my original Refugee LP. I've cleaned it up with my VPI 16.5 record cleaner. The sound is respectable for the surface age, I've dubbed a CD that's been imported to iTunes at 320kbsVBR/48Kz which barely suffices sonically. Someone (4 Men With Beards, Sundazed, MoFi, you know who you are!) PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE give this wonderful music the attention it deserves with a 180gram vinyl re-issue so more folks can enjoy what these 3 guys accomplished. If you're a fan of progressive rock and haven't heard this, you should check it out. You won't regret it!