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The Pentangle - Light Flight CD (album) cover

LIGHT FLIGHT

The Pentangle

Prog Folk


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Matti
PROG REVIEWER
4 stars [The] Pentangle were perhaps the very finest British folk rock group in the late 60's. The London-based group was formed in 1967 by guitarists Bert Jansch and John Renbourn who already had made albums on their own. In addition of having fantastic musicians -- bassist Danny Thompson and drummer Terry Cox were also brilliant on their instruments -- they had a wonderful female vocalist Jacqui McShee, whose bright, slightly Annie Haslam reminding voice flowed sovereignly like honey over the jazzy acoustic music. The group's best era contains their first three albums; it's the third one Basket of Light (1969) that has become the most beloved classic, and by far the most popular one among our prog community.

This single contains two tracks from that album. 'Light Flight' was a theme song of the television drama series Take Three Girls, about three young women sharing a flat in Swinging London. It was actually the first colour series of BBC1, broadcast between 1969 and 1971. I hadn't heard of the series; probably it was never shown in Finland, but it sounds interesting. Now to the song. It's a perfect example of the fluent and organic nature of Pentangle's music. It is equally folk and jazz, a superb amalgamation of the two genres. McShee's multi-layered vocals sound as marvelous as the acoustic guitars, bass and drums. Everything is virtuotic and yet so warm, elegant and harmonic.

'Cold Mountain' is a little 2-minute song, also in an upbeat tempo like 'Light Flight'. This time the female lead vocals are backed by Jansch and Renbourn. The vocal parts repeat the same country-ish, happy melody, but there are some vocal-free moments to hint that the piece could have worked decently as an instrumental too. A bit too repetitive for the vocals.

For 'Light Flight' alone I would gladly give a full rating. A pity there's just a less impressive album track on the B side.

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Posted Wednesday, February 17, 2021 | Review Permalink

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