London, 1967. Dozens of bands play psychedelic gigs all over the city: Pink Floyd, Soft Machine, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Traffic and... Tomorrow. This band, nowadays mostly remembered because Steve Howe went on to join Yes and become one of the greatest guitarists of the 70's, was one of the leaders of the London scene.
Their only album, released in 1968 (thought it contains singles from 1967: My White Bicycle and Revolution), has all the elements from british psychedelia: baroque production with great use of stereo, whispering, backward and weird sounds, lyrics that might pass as nonsense, but have layers of meanings.
Revolution is one of the best singles of 1967, with crazy guitar and naive lyrics expressing the zeitgeist of the year (Lennon's Revolution, composed a year later, mocked the naivety of the whole revolution idea, and it was possibly, but not necessarily, an answer to this song).
Real Life Permanent Dream, despite its lush instrumentation including sitar, is an anti-psychedelia song, claiming a lifelong psychedelic trip would be unbearable, Now Your Time Has Come has Steve Howe moving from Syd Barret-like riffs to a long solo where his guitar sounds like a sitar, Three Jolly Little Dwarfs (a song for baby hippies, a BBC presenter said) may be too childlike to some, but don't miss the point, just listen to the album, from beginning to end, and you'll join the trip of Londoners from the 60's. "It's just a phase to people go through", Keith West sings, and he's right. But what a phase!
- Steve Howe / guitars
- John "Twink" Adler / drums
- Keith West / lead vocals
- Mark P. Wirtz / keyboards, percussion
- John Wood / bass
It can be downloaded here
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