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Rainbow Theatre's groundbreaking debut album, The Armada was originally released in 1975, Reissued here officially for the first time (there have been dubious pirated copies floating around the worldwide collector market in recent years) - this is the real deal, in digitally remastered splendour and with a bonus track to boot! With composer, arranger, guitarist and mellotron player Julian Browning at the helm, Rainbow Theatre set about creating the unique music Browning had formulated in his mind, His classical influences began to emerge and in the meantime he'd also fallen in thrall of adventurous guitarists like King Crimson's Robert Fripp and John McLaughlin, The King Crimson influence was certainly a key factor in the band's development because, as well as the complex arrangements that Browning was forging, the other aspect that stood RainbowTheatre apart from the pack was the extensive use of the mellotron, Very few other Australian bands of the day even possessed, let alone knew how to incorporate the mellotron into their sound, As displayed on The Armada the music oscillates between nimble jazz rock ('The Darkness Overture'), classical and operatic themes ('Petworth House', 'The Armada') and several points beyond, It's one of the most idiosyncratic albums of the period, closer in spirit to King Crimson circa In the Court of the Crimson King/In the Wake of Poseidon/Lizard than anything
else, and very accessible besides, Digitally remastered from the original tapes, with a bonus symphonic excerpt by Julian Browning (Performed by the Melbourne Grammar Symphony Orchestra conducted by Martin Rutherford).