FRAGMENTS (LIVE '74)

"Fragments" is one of the three 1974 Agitation free live albums, along with the famous "Last" and the less famous "At the cliffs of river Rhine". Here I review the "Garden of delights" CD version which features one more piece than the former release and full pieces versions. Moreover, sound has been much improved, compared to old CD versions.

Here the band plays in a psyche jam style with excellent guitar, as usual. Like in "At the cliffs of river Rhine", the music can be described as a cross of Pink Floyd and Grateful dead for the acid guitar sound. But there's also a more jazzy direction in "Fragments", thanks to keyboards. Fragments has been also compared to Santana, mainly because of percussions.

The summit is reached with the piece "We are men" which begins with excellent drum and aerial keyboard layers, contributing to this floating, almost jazz rock feel, but the psychedelic guitar parts and the space rock developments reminds that it's top psyche prog jam style. The bonus track "Blues" is a nice pure blues, but with a space sound.

"Fragments" is an excellent album, under rated like all Agitation Free albums.