THE PENTANGLE

If you're looking for simply a compilation I'd recommend Light flight, a great collection of some of their best material. But if you're alreadya serious fan like me this box set is mandatory. It walks the thin line between the greatest hits and rarer stuff, like live recordings and music from the screen. Now, I'm not sure about devoting one entire disc to one single concert. I'd rather have seen more live stuff from their entire career but there you go. Is that any reason to complain? No, not really. The box is easily worth 4,5 stars. Besides, the box is visually stunning and really gives me goose bumps just looking at it. Wondrous stuff!

After the momentum of songwriters folk music of the mid sixties the second halve of the sixties would facilitate a wave of traditional and rock influenced folk groups in England. The Pentangle is one of those groups, reinventing and rewriting folk classics and writing new songs with intelligent arrangements.

The Pentangle uses mainly string-instruments, but sometimes we can hear the pleasant glockenspiel. The band focusses on English traditional folk, but the use sitar and other eastern string-instruments sometimes evokes the feel of world music. Some tracks have a pastoral feel, are more like up-tempo folk tracks. All tracks dwell in a layer of reverbs, as if the album was recorded in a church.

Female vocalist Jacqui Mc Shee has a voice reminding us of Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span, but she sings a bit more 'noble' - the reason for which my brother gave me this record; "folk should be folky and for the people". And indeed, it's all very serious. The male vocals on some tracks sound a bit Canterbury like, reminding me of Caravan.

On this particular record of The Pentangle the arrangements very well developed, evoking that intelligent progressive feel. It also makes the record quite intensive to listen to and not as accessible as other folk rock albums. The multiple layers of guitar lines and bass sound a bit like how Gentle Giant would later arrange its folk parts.

Conclusion. Great folk rock album that's recommended to those interested in the more traditional sounding acoustic folk rock. Let's not forget that this is a very early effort and it's quite far ahead for it's time. Four stars.

What I don't like about CRUEL SISTER is how the jazz and rock framework from the previous album gets marginalised here. Other than Denny Thompson's basslines, we're mostly in the folk business here. And I understand that Jacqui McShee is a good folk singer, but the acapella piece ''When I Was in My Prime'' is unnecessary.

There's a lot to like about CRUEL SISTER, like the cold and haunting title track whose bassline is rather chilling. ''A Maid That's Deep in Love'' and ''Lord Franklin'' are good enough folk songs for what they're worth. But a lot of the weight of this record is on the sidelong epic ''Jack Orion'', an epic that more than delivers on its length. The pacing of the piece is near perfect, seamlessly flowing from one idea to the next yet giving the audience ample time to digest each theme properly. There's no going overboard with this piece; it's better than advertised.

I still find CRUEL SISTER to be a slight letdown from its predecessor immediate, but that doesn't stop it from being a fantastic folk album in its own right.

Out of the five albums that the re-united Pentangle produced since their return to the music business in 1984, Think Of Tomorrow is the least interesting to my ears. The opening track sets the mood, which is slow, lazy, and lacking in energy. I miss the rockier side they showcased on the other albums from this period. What they did in the 80's and 90's is generally electrified and a much rockier affair with a broader instrumental palette than anything they did in the 60's and 70's. I might be quite alone in my opinion, but I definitely prefer the more recent incarnation(s) of Pentangle over the early incarnation. Put the present album is rather weak in comparison with 1984's Open The Door and 1993's One More Road, for example.

Those who enjoy Folk Rock in general, and likes bands such as Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span, will be well advised to check out Pentangle's 80's and 90's output, but make sure you don't start with the present album.

There are of course rock touches here and there, such as the instrumental workouts and occasional eccentric touch that spices up the sidelong epic Jack Orion, and a little electric guitar creeping in here and there to add a little accent, but by and large this is just good meaty folk music performed well. You can keep your Basket of Light; this sinister folk Sister is much more to my tastes.

While Mac dipped into material from solo projects and castaways from prior studio sessions for songs, the Pentangle leaned heavily on traditional folk tunes along with a contemporary cover of the Cyril Tawney song "Sally Free and Easy" for more than half the album's material. All are decent renditions, and the band were certainly not strangers to either traditional or cover material, having recorded more than a dozen each in prior years. But in most of those cases the stellar musicianship and creative arrangements of Renbourn, Jansch, Cox and McShee took these offerings to new places. Not so much here, particularly with the traditional songs which are mostly delivered verbatim with not much more than hints at the band's interpretive potential.

There are exceptions to be sure, my favorite being "High Germany" with its liberal use of percussion, Jansch's dulcimer and Renbourn's recorder. Jacqui McShee's voice is as angelic and folkishly perfect per usual. And the rather mainstream-sounding original tune "People on the Highway" hints at a direction the band might have pursued had they managed to hang on into the mid-seventies.

But not much else stands out, at least not for me. "Willy O'Winsbury" lacks conviction or panache, and the last two tracks ("Jump Baby, Jump" and "Lady of Carlisle") seem perfunctory at best. In all this is a fairly weak end, especially considering the immense talent possessed by the five members of the band.

I suppose another Fleetwood Mac comparison fits here as well. Both bands were in a sense on the verge of musical obsolescence given changing tastes and trends. For the Mac the days of MTV and later grunge would overshadow their slick West-Coast shtick for most of the rest of that decade. And for the Pentangle the folk revival was playing out both in Europe and on the American continent, being supplanted quickly by trite pop, disco and even the fledgling whispers of punk circa garage rock. And since both bands were essentially being positioned by their respective management as popular music acts these changes spelled doom without some sort of drastic shift in style, so perhaps the collapse in both cases was for the best. Jansch would leave after the supporting tour fizzled shortly after this release, and the Pentangle would cease to exist for a decade. Again like the Mac, Pentangle would reform a few times with various lineups including at times the original members, but never again wielded the same sort of magic they held in their heyday. All things indeed must pass.

peace

While Fairport's name recognition has survived the years somewhat better than the Pentangle's, this first album shows the members to be all accomplished musicians and their sound to be quite original and innovative for its time, perhaps even more so than the early Fairport records. Indeed, while Fairport seemed to be much more influenced by their counterparts across the ocean on the U.S. east coast (Dylan, Cohen, Fariña, Joni Mitchell), the Pentangle crafted a folk-rock sound that was both more elaborate and creative, and decidedly more English. The tracks on this album are a mix of original compositions and reworks of traditional English folk tunes, with the exception of "Hear my Call" which was a cover of the Chicago-based R&B icons the Staple Singers, a song which interestingly enough the Staple Singers had never even released as a single.

The band sets the tone for their uniquely modern 'baroque folk' sound with a mildly trippy version of "Let No Man Steal Your Thyme" (aka 'Maiden's Lament'), a 17th century British folk tune that has also been covered by Ms. Denny as well as any number of other British and even American folk singers over the years. This version introduces the clear and dulcet timbre of Ms. McShee's voice amid a great example of early acid folk guitar picking/strumming with just a touch of sitar for Eastern flavor. I suppose today that sound has become somewhat dated, but at the time this blend of folksy, alternately-tuned guitars along with sitar and gentle female vocals was quite novel and surely alienated some of the more staid folk traditionalists of that day. Not quite as drastic as Dylan going electric, but certainly not one of your grandmother's folk ditties either.

"Bells" along with "Waltz" are two original instrumentals that showcase the musical and compositional talents of the quartet with both songs offering extended examples of the sort of alternative guitar playing that bridged the gap between conventional folk and rock and characterized so much of contemporary British and American folk of that period (John Fahey, Robbie Basho, Davey Graham and even Fairport's Richard Thompson all built their careers on broadly similar styles). The 'bells' on the former are actually courtesy of a glockenspiel, and I'm pretty sure the stereo mix (most noticeable with Cox's drumming) was added on a later reissue, but I can't say for sure since I've never seen or heard the original Reprise vinyl version.

And speaking of "Hear my Call", this one is an early example of the slightly jazzy sound the band would employ more prominently on later albums. The bassline is fat and funky, while Renbourn and Jansch play off each other with a picking lead guitar style accented by strumming rhythm that provide a subtle yet complex backdrop to McShee's vocals. There are several reissued versions of this album with various bonus tracks, and one of my favorite is the live version of this song that appears on the 2001 CD. McShee's voice radiates there, and the bass is much more subdued which serves to put focus to the guitar interplay and vocals, and the warm applause at the end shows the band's fans appreciated the strength of their live delivery.

Aside from the epic "Jack Orion" off their 'Cruel Sister' album "Pentangling" is one of the longest tracks the band ever recorded, clocking in at more than seven minutes. Much of its length is clearly the result of improvisational jamming between the various musicians after a brief intro that lulls the listener into thinking this is just another nondescript mellow folk- rock tune. Jansch, Renbourn and Thompson get their groove on for nearly five minutes in the middle of the track before the band settles back into a more bucolic English folksy stanza to close the energetic number. I can imagine the band received enthusiastic responses whenever this song made it onto their live setlist.

The only original tune credited to a single member is the brief, poetic ditty "Mirage" which was written and arranged by Bert Jansch. It's a catchy little tune but I can't really discern what the band thought it added to the album beyond acting as a brief interlude.

"Way Behind the Sun" on the other hand is a surprisingly strong blues number from a band much better known for their folk music. This traditional number was also recorded by the Byrds (reportedly after hearing Pentangle's version) and appears as a bonus track on that band's reissue of 'Ballad of Easy Rider' as "Way Beyond the Sun". While the Byrds version is steeped in the American country sound Gram Parsons brought to the band, this one is all R&B with fat guitar and bass riffs, although Cox's drumming comes off more like lounge jazz than blues.

Finally "Bruton Town" is yet another traditional British tune and as with many old English folk tunes is a cautionary tale, this one about courting young maidens who are out of your social league, especially if they happen to have brothers. As with "Pentangling" Jansch and Renbourn indulge in some fine picking and strumming throughout, and McShee's vocals are solid. The storyline is as old as the hills, and can be heard in such varied incarnations as West Side Story and even the Decemberists tune "O Valencia!". Sandy Denny also covered this song, as has much of the modern folk community, and the CD reissue includes an alternate version with extended instrumental passages.

I was never a Pentangle fan back in the day, mostly because I was barely a toddler when this album released and also because British folk-rock was quite difficult to obtain in the late sixties and early seventies in the Midwestern United States. Thankfully today the album is quite easy to find, and while the novelty of rock-infused British folk has waned in recent decades this record still has its charms and is well revered by serious progressive folk fans. For those reasons as well as for the crisp musicianship I have to say it easily rates three out of five stars today and probably deserved a lot more back when it was released. Well recommended, especially to folk music fans.

peace