Before they conjured demons as Black Widow, before Sacrifice would scandalize and entrance the rock world, there was Pesky Gee! and their singular statement of transformation. Released on Pye Records in 1969, Exclamation Mark captures the precise moment when British club soul dissolved into something far stranger and more wonderful. This is the sound of metamorphosis itself: a typical U.K. soul band discovering the outer limits of consciousness, letting psychedelia and progressive impulses infiltrate their groove. The Hammond organ doesn't just play notes here; it breathes cosmic vapor through jazz-blues structures that were already beginning to melt and reform. Male and female voices intertwine in acid-folk harmonies that suggest ancient rituals performed in Soho basements, where the sacred and profane dance together until dawn.

Exclamation Mark stands as a crucial turning point in the British jazz-blues scene, documenting that liminal space where soul music met the occult, where rhythm and blues discovered lysergic visions. The album pulses with the energy of transformation, every track a chrysalis from which something darker and more mysterious would soon emerge.

Here is the missing link between the dancefloor and the séance, between Stax Records and sacrificial rites. The cool Hammond organ vibes flow like mercury through songs that refuse to stay in one dimension, while those fascinating vocal harmonies hint at the theatrical darkness that would soon consume them entirely when they emerged reborn as Black Widow.

More than mythological, this is mythology in the making, captured at the exact moment of its birth.