Album review: PAVLOV’S DOG – Essential Recordings 1974-2018 (5-CD box set)

October 10th, 2025 by GRTR! HQ

Ruf Records [Release date 27.09.24]

What are we to make of a fairly basic box set from a band that have been described as “legendary” but who – this side of the pond – have largely gone unnoticed?

‘Essential Recordings’ is certainly a great introduction with key releases in facsimilie sleeves but sadly lacking an informative booklet or lyric sheet (so a star docked for that). For completists, the inclusion of the 2010 album ‘Echo & Boo’ would have been useful too.

The sole survivor of the band is mainman/ co-founder David Surkamp. And here I think lies the conundrum. Surkamp is evidently a talented musician but his vocals are an acquired taste and sadly – for these ears – taint and dominate everything. Think a more extreme version of the UK Mr.Big’s Dicken. In places he sounds like Geddy Lee on steroids or Roger Chapman on a bad night.

Musically Pavlov’s Dog are on the money and with a different vocalist their debut Pampered Menial would indeed be a pop prog classic. With mellotron orchestration (courtesy of co-founder Douglas Rayburn) very much of its time but in a good way.

The band blended hard rock figures, classical and folk influences aligning them in equal measures with bands like Kansas and Styx with a pop sensibility that evidently attracted big labels like ABC Dunhill and then Columbia.

The debut was produced by Sandy Pearlman (who worked with Blue Oyster Cult) and early demos (not included in this box set) came out in 2011 as ‘The Pekin Tapes’.

But they never actually achieved great success in their homeland and therefore probably remained as something of an acquired taste. And now, a cult phenomena.

The debut and the band’s follow-up At The Sound Of The Bell (1976) had poor sales and so Columbia shelved third album Has Anyone Here Seen Sigfried? (A reference to their original violinist). This now appears with 9 bonus (mainly live) tracks although this edition previously released in 2007 (and before that heavily bootlegged). By the way, that second album had a stellar line-up of guest artists including Bill Bruford, Michael Brecker and Elliot Randall.

The band imploded in 1977 and it wasn’t until 1990 they returned with a one-off effort Lost In America. This disc has eight unreleased live tracks recorded between 1990 and 2006 but this set again previously issued in 2007. Perhaps a minor point but the source of the live recordings does not agree with information on the earlier release.

Lost In America is the best of the five CDs here with Surkamp’s vocal a tad more bearable and with a late-1980s synth-driven feel. The excellent ‘A Hardly Innocent Mind’ is one of several with Michelle Isam’s contribution on sax (and also backing vocals on ‘Don’t Rain On Me’). Best filed with early 1990s “neo-prog” and stylistically some distance from the earlier output.

That album title is quite appropriate because the band didn’t re-emerge until June 2004 for a 30th anniversary gig.

This box set is rounded out with 2018′s Prodigal Dreamer. This reintroduced a violinist to the main line-up. By this time Surkamp was the only surviving original member and is joined by his partner Sara and with another husband/wife duo Abbie Steiling (violin) and Rick Steiling (bass). All remain in the current line-up who released a new album ‘Wonderlust’ in October 2025.

If you can get past that vibrato vocal, worth a punt. ***

Review by David Randall

Album review (Wonderlust, 2025)

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