CARAVAN

Dave Sinclair, Pye Hastings, Richard Coughlin, and Richard Sinclair are wonderful progenitors of the Canterbury scene and have produced masterpiece albums. This debut is no masterpiece but features some of the indelible sound that became their trademark. Hammond organ that shimmers and quivers, distant reflective vocals, strong time sigs, and melodic phrases with extended jamming.

A Place of My Own encapsulates the late 60s where people were seeking respite from the crazy world. There was a harmless theme of searching for peace that permeates and it is refreshing to hear.

Ride has a great rhythm and some psych musicianship, with strong Eastern melodies and lyrics; "here I am alone in your sky, with my mind passing by the thoughts in your mind, if I were you and you were me could you feel how unreal your world seems to be." The phrases are in perfect melody and rhythm to the music and work as very psychedelic sounds capturing the spirit of the dreamscape of hallucigenic acid and hash that must have been fuel for the inspiration.

Love Song With flute is dreamy escapist lush and once again is just a hippies reflection on wanting to escape though "my mind draws a blind" and "look into my eyes tell me what you see". There are shades of psychedelia throughout of course but it is accessible and nowhere near as freaky as what was coming out of the scene. The flute solo is chillingly beautiful, rising and soaring on waves of organ phrases.

Magic Man spaces out with slow grinding organ and some acoustic flourishes. The slow pace reflects the lazy adolescent doing nothing but lying in the flowers and dreaming of a better world of freedom and love; the flower power scene is unmistakeable with tracks like this.

Where But For Caravan Would I? reminds me of the type of music the band would create in subsequent albums. A lengthy dreamy piece with an extended instrumental break. It builds gradually to the strong Hammond crunching break. This is Caravan at their best typifying the greatness to come on such masterpieces as "In The Land Of Grey And Pink".

The album is more of a monument to the time it was created but it is an archival source of great worth thanks to some delightful melodic tracks and lashings of trippy lyrical whimsy and staccato 60s organ hammering. A great start to a brilliant band.