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"...Letters To
Infinity..."
Time wounds all heals. Time
will tell. It's time to stop talking about time.
In tandem with free
festivals, coloured bread and promiscuous sex - in the late 60ts and early 70ts
Notting Hill Gate's Quintessence were at the forefront of the Indian Eastern-Mysticism
craze that was sweeping the UK and everywhere else for that matter. Suddenly we
were all idealistic hippies - obsessing over joss sticks, fat scented candles,
tie-dye shirts, bellbottom pants, beads, bangles, peace-symbols and travels to
Goa with a stick of gum in your jeans, a begging bowl in your hand, a flower in
your hair and a seriously dopey smile on your face (shoes and bras optional).
I suppose it is way too easy
to slag off those doe-eyed days of mushroom madness (I was a fan myself and
have the embarrassing tassel-shirt photos to prove it) - but in the blunt and
brutal light of 2017 - musically not everything that emerged from marijuana
clouds in Notting Hill Gate has weathered the decades that well. Having said
that and despite as I say the absolutely dated nature of some of these recordings
– if you crave lavish artwork, counter-culture ideas, meandering Sitars and
Tablas and Tamboura notes all mixed up into a flute-driven ganga-soaked
Shiva-Rock – then there is much to love and cherish on offer here. Hell there’s
even a bit of Hawkwind drone madness in the guitar passages of album number
two...
On top of that this surely
has to be the most sumptuous and best-sounding 2CD anthology of the
Quintessence legacy to date - brought to us with Hindu Love Oneness by those
blissed-out but talented folks over at Cherry Red's Esoteric Recordings (stop
smoking those chubby roll-your-owns boys). Time to sort out your Raja Rams from
your Hare Hares. Here are the Swami details...
UK released 28 April 2017 (5
May 2017 in the USA) - "Move Into The Light: The Complete Island
Recordings 1969-1971" by QUINTESSENCE on Esoteric Recordings ECLEC 22584 (Barcode
5013929468443) is a 2CD anthology of Remasters that plays out as follows:
Disc 1 (65:49 minutes):
1. Giants [Side 1]
2. Manco Capac
3. Body
4. Gange Mai
5. Chant [Side 2]
6. Pearl And Bird
7. Notting Hill Gate
8. Midnight Mode
Tracks 1 to 8 are their
debut album "In Blissful Company" - released November 1969 in the UK
on Island ILPS 9110 Q (No US release). Produced by JOHN BARHAM - it didn't
chart. The UK album was released in a gatefold 12-page-booklet sleeve (said to
have been one of the most expensive made at the time) - all of which is
reproduced in the CD booklet.
9. Move Into The Light
10. Notting Hill Gate
Tracks 10 and 9 are the
non-album A&B-sides of a UK 7" single released October 1969 on Island
WIP 6075
11. Jesus, Buddah, Moses,
Guaranga
12. Sea Of Immortality
13. High On Mt. Kailash
(Excerpt from Opera)
14. Burning Bush (Live)
15. Shiva's Chant
Tracks 11 to 15 are Side 1
of their second studio album "Quintessence" - released June 1970 in
the UK on Island Records ILPS 9128 (no US Release). Produced by JOHN BARHAM -
it peaked at No. 22 on the UK LP charts.
Disc 2 (69:23 minutes):
1. Prisms
2. Twilight Zones
3. Maha Mantra
4. Only Love
5. St. Pancras (Live)
6. Infinitum
Tracks 1 to 6 are Side 2 of
their second studio album "Quintessence" - released June 1970 in the
UK on Island Records ILPS 9128 (no US Release). Produced by JOHN BARHAM - it
peaked at No. 22 on the UK LP charts.
7. Jesus, Buddah, Moses,
Guaranga (Live)
Track 7 exclusive to the UK
Island Records label sampler double-album "Bumpers" - released
October 1970 on Island IDP 1.
8. Dive Deep [Side 1]
9. Dance For The One
10. Brahman
11. The Seer [Side 2]
12. Epitaph For Tomorrow
13. Sri Ram Chant
Tracks 8 to 13 are their 3rd
studio album "Dive Deep" - released March 1971 in the UK on Island
Records ILPS 9143. Produced by QUINTESSENCE except for "Brahman" by
JOHN BARHAM - it peaked at No. 34.
The 24-page booklet is a
feast for the eyes. Fans will know that as much as their sound - the sheer
visual opulence of the Quintessence albums on Island were enough to get you
interested. Esoteric have smartly repro'd the 12-page booklet of black and white
photos that centred the inner gatefold sleeve of "In Blissful
Company" - said at the time to be the most expensive sleeve ever made -
certainly at the independent Island Records. The colour gatefold inner of
"Quintessence" is here (candles, mirrors and long white gowns ahoy)
as are superb new liner notes from noted writer MALCOLM DOME that include
interviews with the key players - Shiva Shankar (Australian vocalist and
flutist Phil Jones) and Maha Dev (Dave Codling on Guitar) with reminiscences
from Jeremy 'Jake' Milton - formerly the drummer with Junior's Eyes.
But the big news is new 2017
Remasters from original tapes by PASCHAL BYRNE - a name that's been on a huge
number of quality reissues - East Of Eden, Fairport Convention, Gordon Giltrap,
John Kongos, Man, John Martyn, John Mayall, Mike Oldfield, Spooky Tooth, Taste,
T. Rex and many more. There is huge presence on those live guitar-tracks like
"Burning Bush" on the second LP and power on those droning sitar
songs like "Midnight Mode" on the debut. The soft and quieter
passages on the near eleven-minute "Dance For The One" from the third
album are beautifully clear too. A nice job done overall...
Things don't have the most
promising of starts with "Giants" - Shiva's voice as deadpan as it
can get. But things improve with "Manco Capac" - a Bass and Flute
opening clear as a bell as the singer goes on about spaces and spirits. The
pace steps up into really interesting on "Body" - a trippy floating
song that trashes about with guitars and flutes - shadows of "Nursery
Cryme" Genesis in those strums. But I must admit my heart lies in Side 2's
"Notting Hill Gate" - a catchy little sucker and a dead-ringer for a
single (it turned up on the "Strangely Strange But Oddly Normal" 3CD
Box Set from 2005 covering Island Records more eclectic years) - and the
fabulous nine minutes of "Midnight Mode" where halfway through the
song – it just goes into four minutes of Sitar-droning - the most brill trippy
sound that you’ve ever heard - filling your living room like a Mobile Fidelity
Sound Lab recording of a Buddhist monastery at lunchtime.
The songwriting seem to take
a leap forward with the excellent "Quintessence" album of June 1970 -
their first platter to chart in Blighty. "Sea Of Immortality" sounds
huge but even better is the crickets/chant song that is "High On Mt.
Kailash (Excerpt from Opera) - a swirling drone of Sitars and echoed voices
singing in Indian - all of it sounding sexily mystical. The short but pretty
"Shiva's Chant" is another winner - itself quickly followed by the
echoed flutes of "Prisms" - a stunner for all those sampler fiends
out there. "Twilight Zones" speaks of echoes and reflections in the
cosmos while "Maha Mantra" is exactly what it sounds like – a live
recorded of ‘Hare Hare Krishna’ chanting by devotees banging their Tablas and
shaking their bells as they shuffle past the suits going into Oxford Street’s
HMV to buy Britney Spears. Another highlight is the almost Gong guitars of
"St. Pancras" recorded at the same March 1970 gig that gave up the
live version of "Jesus, Buddah, Moses, Guaranga" on the
"Bumpers" double-album label sampler. "Infinitum" ends the
LP on layered voices giving it some serious '2001: A Space Odyssey' outtakes.
After the head-first dip
into Eastern sounds on "Quintessence" - the acoustic "Dive
Deep" takes you by surprise - a love so sweet - it will make us all high.
Way better is what I think is their masterpiece - the complicated, layered and
beautiful in parts "Dance For The One" - a song that captures all the
best parts of the band. And the Remaster rocks. "Brahman" offers more
audio delight - guitars strumming as the singer informs us of fathomless
fountains and worlds within our reach. "Epitaph For Tomorrow" opens
well but soon descends into eight-minutes of hippy-enlightenment that feels
more Association pop than Quintessence insights. The eight minutes of "Sri
Ram Chant" is fantastic - great sound - rich soundscapes - that unique
swirl they got as the Vena and Tabla combined with voices singing Indian chants
- calls for Universal love.
For sure Quintessence will
not be for everyone and there are those who will snigger and poo-poo both them
and the times they reflected. But as I said before - there is so much to love
here and Esoteric Recordings are to be praised for having the Third Eye balls
to put it out there - and in such style too.
Move into the light. I think
I’ll move into my man cave with my good buddy - Shiva-Rock...
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