Quintessence: Quintessence - 1970
The band's seeming desire to bring Indian music to the forefront of our collective consciousness and merge it with psychedelic freakouts and prog rock was to be admired. After all, their heart was in the right place, but it also was done without any hint of irony and therefore it all sounds like a period piece, something from a hippy museum, gathering dust.
The potential that a track like Notting Hill Gate had shown was, to a certain extent, thrown away on parts of this album. I have to say that I much prefer the group's debut to this one. I feel that they had something there but by this one they had probably taken too many drugs....
The band's second album kicks off with the ludicrously-pompous and über-haughty Jesus, Buddha, Moses, Guaranga. In many way this is mock-classical early seventies prog rock at its worst but it is saved by its psychedelic chutzpah and excellent percussion sound.
The proggy vibes were a lot more apparent on this album than they had been on its predecessor and this certainly true of Sea Of Immortality, but, once more, something saves it, this time the magnificent guitar work. High On Mt. Kailash features Indian sitar vibes prominently and it also has some fine tabla percussion. It definitely has bagfuls of atmosphere but accusations of pretentiousness would never be far away, I feel. There is an Indian authenticity to it, though, I have to admit. All that Hare Krishna stuff really was popular in 1968-72 wasn't it? You think George Harrison cornered the market in Indian-influenced material? Think again. You ain't heard nothing yet.
Burning Bush is a live guitar freakout that blows any Maharishi cobwebs away as it rocks furiously. Side one ends with Shiva's Chant. You can guess what it sounds like, can't you? Massed voices chant as if they are about to walk off down Oxford Street.
The Pink Floyd-ish-titled Prisms is an ambient instrumental that doesn't really get anywhere. It reminds me of some of the material on Santana's Caravanserai and Borboletta albums. A lovely deep bass and a winsome, laid-back rhythm underpins Twilight Zones. Instrumentally, I really like it, but the vocals are a bit off-putting, as they so often were in prog-ish bands. It's still a good track, though, possibly the album's best.
More Hare Krishna chanting arrives on the short Maha Mantra - give it a rest, eh, lads? Get back to rocking. Or at least give us something ambient. We get the latter on the comparatively beautiful Only Love. Once more the bassline is warmly appealing, but the singing leaves a lot to be desired. So much music from this time was just so pretentious, though, wasn't it? As I said, all done with earnest intentions.
St. Pancras was another live cut that sort of reminds me of some of the stuff on Ten Year After's Undead live album (I think) or else something else from around the same period. They just get into a guitar groove and keep going. The problem with this - and all the material on this album - is that it is rambling and directionless, jamming for the sake of it, with no hooks to grab you as with much other music. That was quite a common thing for the time. The one thing in its favour is that these guys could play. I just feel I want to get somewhere though.
Perhaps appropriately, the albums ends with some deep vocals that sound like cows lowing, together with some higher-pitched wailing. A bit of a disappointment, this album after a debut that I enjoyed. With that, maybe my exploration of Quintessence should come to an end....
