Interestingly, skipping the first track for a moment, a number of initial chords on several tracks remind me instantly of better known artists, Van Morrison being one for sure. The Beatles being another. I guess influences were easy to slip behind. Not sure I’ve ever been so instantly reminded of other artists as a result of the first chord.
Get past the first track (I’ve said that a few times when reviewing) which is not typical of the music on show here. It’s a ‘Focus’ type lead vocal, in my view, but not as good. But then the LP opens up to an interesting variety of folk induced pleasure. Certainly the take out track of ‘Road to the sun’ credited to Krysia Kocjan fits the bill tightly.
Sadly Krysia died in 2007 in the States. Tom and Robin both went on to play with Magna Carta but the band clearly did not fulfil their full potential with this incarnation, for whatever reasons. They appeared at huge festivals, alongside the likes of Rod Stewart, T. Rex and Rory Gallagher and were lauded as the band ‘most likely to’ as they moved down to London from their natïve Scotland in the early 70’s. 2 LP’s later they were no more.
This is more than a folk LP. Encircled by Krysia’s vocals, there is a lot going on across each track. Take a listen to the finger picking guitar style on ‘First boy’ and you will be blown away. And even the track titles suggest more than an element of influence: ‘Echoes’; ‘Money’; ‘Moontime writer’ smack of titles from elsewhere.
It’s an LP with appeal and interesting enough to be tempted. Certainly they were talented. It begs the question why didn’t they have a longer shelf life?
