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JADE WARRIOR

Psychedelic/Space Rock • United Kingdom


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Jade Warrior biography
The music of JADE WARRIOR is somewhat difficult to describe. Among the influences you'll hear in various aspects of JADE WARRIOR's music are rock, jazz, Latin, Japanese, African, ambient, and the kitchen sink (almost literally - there are spoons and an empty whiskey bottle in there somewhere!). It's often melodically simple, and rhythmically complex... or vice versa. This is the kind of music that everyone can hear different dimensions within and is conqueror of none.

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JADE WARRIOR discography


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JADE WARRIOR top albums (CD, LP, MC, SACD, DVD-A, Digital Media Download)

3.62 | 128 ratings
Jade Warrior
1971
3.65 | 121 ratings
Released
1971
3.71 | 147 ratings
Last Autumn's Dream
1972
3.69 | 126 ratings
Floating World
1974
3.63 | 109 ratings
Waves
1975
3.33 | 81 ratings
Kites
1976
3.70 | 101 ratings
Way Of The Sun
1978
2.84 | 35 ratings
Horizen
1984
2.12 | 28 ratings
At Peace
1989
3.30 | 35 ratings
Breathing The Storm
1992
3.71 | 29 ratings
Distant Echoes
1993
3.18 | 44 ratings
Eclipse
1998
3.42 | 34 ratings
Fifth Element
1998
3.71 | 33 ratings
Now
2008

JADE WARRIOR Live Albums (CD, LP, MC, SACD, DVD-A, Digital Media Download)

JADE WARRIOR Videos (DVD, Blu-ray, VHS etc)

JADE WARRIOR Boxset & Compilations (CD, LP, MC, SACD, DVD-A, Digital Media Download)

2.65 | 8 ratings
Reflections
1979
4.21 | 20 ratings
Elements: the Island Anthology
1995
4.00 | 2 ratings
Eclipse & Fifth Element: The 1973 Recordings
2023
3.95 | 2 ratings
Wind Borne - The Island Albums 1974-1978
2023

JADE WARRIOR Official Singles, EPs, Fan Club & Promo (CD, EP/LP, MC, Digital Media Download)

0.00 | 0 ratings
We Have Reason to Believe / Barazinbar
1971
0.00 | 0 ratings
A Winter's Tale / The Demon Trucker
1972

JADE WARRIOR Reviews


Showing last 10 reviews only
 Wind Borne - The Island Albums 1974-1978 by JADE WARRIOR album cover Boxset/Compilation, 2023
3.95 | 2 ratings

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Wind Borne - The Island Albums 1974-1978
Jade Warrior Psychedelic/Space Rock

Review by Warthur
Prog Reviewer

4 stars For a good long while, Jade Warrior's Island Records-era albums were badly served on CD, with the Elements anthology cramming them all onto two CDs (with, reportedly, edits for running time). Then Eclectic/Esoteric gave them individual releases, and now they have put out Wind Borne - an all-in-one go collection which gives you all four of the Island albums from the group in cardboard sleeves in an attractive clamshell box, along with the customary booklet providing song details and outlining the history of the era.

As is customary for the Cherry Red family of labels, the presentation is decent; the cardboard sleeves, in particular, feel a bit more substantial and less flimsy than the ones used in those "Original Album Classics" sets (fun and convenient though those are), and therefore less like an afterthought.

Though they had significant releases prior to and subsequent to this, I'd argue for the Island Records era being the true peak of Jade Warrior's career, and therefore having it easily available again in one convenient package is a wonderful thing. Esoteric are no slouches about the execution of their boxed sets, and this one is no exception to that.

 Eclipse & Fifth Element: The 1973 Recordings by JADE WARRIOR album cover Boxset/Compilation, 2023
4.00 | 2 ratings

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Eclipse & Fifth Element: The 1973 Recordings
Jade Warrior Psychedelic/Space Rock

Review by Warthur
Prog Reviewer

4 stars This compiles into a single release the two albums Jade Warrior recorded in 1973, only for Vertigo to shelve both of them, leading to the band's departure from the label and Glyn Havard's exit from the band, who would continue as a two piece on Island Records.

Eclipse is perhaps the more cohesive and polished of the two, having been essentially finished and a test pressing made before Vertigo pulled the plug. By comparison, Fifth Element is a more chaotic assembly of tracks, consisting of off-cuts from Eclipse, early sketches for the Island Records era, and commercially-leaning art rock numbers, all thrown together in a hurry in a bid to convince Vertigo to change their minds; it somehow works despite this, but is perhaps better regarded as a diverse collection of songs than a fully-formed album. The Esoteric rerelease offers them in a single package with a nicely detailed booklet digging into the chaotic end of the band's Vertigo era.

 Fifth Element by JADE WARRIOR album cover Studio Album, 1998
3.42 | 34 ratings

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Fifth Element
Jade Warrior Psychedelic/Space Rock

Review by Warthur
Prog Reviewer

4 stars Jade Warrior had a rough time of it in 1973. A tour of the United States ended up a shambolic mess, due to botched paperwork forcing them to cancel early dates until they got their work permits sorted out, and this led to a worsening of relations within the band, as the divergent musical approaches espoused by Glyn Havard on the one hand and Jon Field and Tony Duhig on the other began to pull the group apart.

Duhig and Field would eventually be responsible for the group's magnificent Island-era albums, and their preferred style involved the relaxing world music-ish, New Age-y, mellow-but-experimental sound which gave the early Jade Warrior albums a unique spin. Havard, for his part, had somewhat more conventional ideas about their musical direction, and was responsible for the more heavy psych and proto-prog influenced sounds in their early material.

Returning from America, they'd recorded one album - Eclipse - and had gone on a tour of Holland which proved to be just as discouraging as their US jaunt when they received shocking news - Vertigo were shelving the album and releasing them from their contract. The band were shocked; Eclipse had come very, very close to release, to the point where test pressings had been made and a couple of tracks had appeared on Vertigo samplers, and what's more the band's contract with Vertigo had them down for no less than six albums.

Their objections ultimately came to nothing; Vertigo made it clear to the band that they simply were not interested in putting out any more Jade Warrior music, and that the group were welcome to go their own way and regard the contractual commitments on both sides as moot. Eventually, the band did exactly that - but before they did, they rushed back from Holland to their studio in London, grabbed some of the off-cuts which didn't make it onto Eclipse, and quickly recorded enough additional music to make it a full album, thinking that by delivering Vertigo with two albums instead of one they could try and pressure them into making good on the original contract.

It was all for nothing, of course - but we did at least get Fifth Element out of the process, eventually getting an official release in 1998 alongside Eclipse. (More recently, Esoteric have put out a two-CD set of the albums, allowing listeners to get the full Jade Warrior output of 1973 in one convenient package.)

Whilst Eclipse was undoubtedly a finished Jade Warrior album - indeed, it has a sound which is more cohesive than any of their first three albums, but at the same time distinctly different from the approach they would take on their Island albums - you should mentally stick an asterisk next to Fifth Element due to the circumstances of its creation. Sure, it's Jade Warrior playing the music on here, but is this really an album Jade Warrior would have made under ordinary circumstances, or an absolute oddity, the product of them mashing together some material in a hurry in a desperate bid to save their Vertigo contract?

In my opinion, it's clearly the latter, but that's kind of what makes it interesting; it's Jade Warrior making a whole bunch of risky musical choices in the hope of producing something which would give Vertigo second thoughts about dropping them. Jon Field has admitted in later years that he and Tony Duhig were rather taking a backseat during this time, with the challenging circumstances the band were facing leaving them discouraged, prompting Glyn Havard to step up, and that dynamic is certainly in play here, which already sets up an instant contrast with the first three Vertigo albums - but the balance isn't quite the same as on Eclipse either.

Duhig and Field, indeed, aren't completely checked out; the album opens with On the Mountain of Fruit, an early version of what would become The Mountain of Fruit and Flowers on the first Island album, Floating World, so you can see their minds were already heading in that direction. However, as the album progresses (and, presumably, we get deeper into the material rattled off in a rush) Havard's psych-prog material becomes more prominent, and then strangely ends up moving into its own direction, where the harsher edges are brushed aside and we end up in a sort of art rock realm. (Jon Field has compared Havard's performance on Have You Ever, the album closer, to David Bowie, and the song does sound a bit like a Jade Warrior spin on Bowie's sound circa Hunky Dory.)

As an album, it's all over the place - but as a collection of offbeat songs with progressive sentiments, it's rather interesting.

 Eclipse by JADE WARRIOR album cover Studio Album, 1998
3.18 | 44 ratings

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Eclipse
Jade Warrior Psychedelic/Space Rock

Review by Warthur
Prog Reviewer

4 stars The 1970s career of Jade Warrior can be divided into two phases - the Vertigo era, when the band were built around the core trio of Tony Duhig, Jon Field, and Glyn Havard, and the Island Records period, when Havard had departed and Duhig and Field took the band in a different direction. For a good long while, however, the last chapter of the Vertigo period had gone unheard, save for a few stray tracks on Vertigo Records promotional compilations. In 1973, Jade Warrior were on the back foot, with relations between Havard on the one hand and Duhig and Field on the other becoming strained.

From the start, both parties had rather distinct musical visions - Duhig and Field being more for the new agey side of the band's sound which would (naturally) come to predominate the Island era, whilst Havard was keen on somewhat more conventional psych/prog material (which, naturally, tended to feature his lead vocals more). If one thing defines the Vertigo era of the band, it's the tension between these styles, and when it worked best, as on the debut, the blend was rather unique; conversely, my feeling that the weakest album of the period was Released stems in part from the way the balance between mellow experimentalism and more straight-ahead rocky nuimbers felt off.

By 1973, the balance was well and truly off. In particular, in late 1972 the band undertook a tour of America (off the back of Barazinbar, the proggiest piece on Released which had ended up becoming an unexpected radio hit over there) which turned into a bit of a farce. Their management had failed to get them the correct work permits and they were forced to cool their heels and delay the start of the tour until the paperwork got sorted out; as the band sat there in a foul mood, existing divisions began to fester.

As Esoteric were preparing their 2023 two-CD reissue of Eclipse and Fifth Element, the two albums Jade Warrior recorded in 1973, Field and Havard were able to touch base and compare notes with the benefit of hindsight, and come to the same conclusion: on these two albums, Glyn was stepping into the breach and filling a gap left when both Tony and Jon were simply too discouraged to contribute as much to the writing as they previously had.

The result is a snapshot of a path not taken, particularly on Eclipse, which the band had recorded after they got home from the US safe and sound. Fifth Element is a more questionable matter, since it was finished off in a hurry after the band went on a brief, abortive tour of Holland and got the news about Vertigo cancelling their contract; one could certainly question whether it really represents Jade Warrior at all, or whether it consists of a mashup of Glyn Havard solo pieces and rough sketches for the Island albums.

Eclipse, though - that's another matter. The band had completed the album to their satisfaction before they left for Holland (setting aside some off-cuts which would later make it onto Fifth Element), a test pressing was made (perhaps representing the ultimate in Jade Warrior rarities), and as mentioned, a few choice songs (Mwenga Sketch and Holy Roller) had even made it onto Vertigo's Suck It And See sampler records. As far as the band were concerned, this was definitely the next Jade Warrior album, and Vertigo agreed... right up to the point when they didn't. Abruptly, behind the scenes machinations at Vertigo saw the release of the album abruptly cancelled, leaving it on a shelf for some 25 years until it saw the light of day in 1998.

This is definitely a Havard-heavy Jade Warrior, with the blend of heavy psych and early prog (I think Glyn must have been listening to a lot of King Crimson's Islands or In the Wake of Poseidon and a good amount of Jethro Tull) which characterised his contributions to the band dialled up. At the same time, Duhig and Field are not absent as such, and flourishes of their New Agey style can be found here and there. Indeed, perhaps because he was more confident taking the lead at this point, Havard's psych numbers aren't quite as strident and brash as they are on Released, leading to a blend which seems to be surprisingly cohesive despite the shift in the internal chemistry of the band.

What would have happened had Eclipse been released on schedule? It's entirely possible we'd have never got the Island albums - or it might have fallen down a commercial hole and the future of the band would have remained exactly the same, it's hard to say. Nonetheless, it's a good thing that it finally saw the light of day. Esoteric's recent 2CD release of this and Fifth Element is perhaps the best one-stop way of getting the full picture of what Jade Warrior were doing in 1973.

 Way Of The Sun by JADE WARRIOR album cover Studio Album, 1978
3.70 | 101 ratings

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Way Of The Sun
Jade Warrior Psychedelic/Space Rock

Review by Warthur
Prog Reviewer

4 stars Jade Warrior rounded out their Island Records incarnation and went into hiatus with this album, which added Mesoamerican themes to the blend of New Age, world music, and jazz fusion which was the hallmark of this era of the group. This time around things are just a touch more lively than the placid Waves or Kites, but not so much to make Way of the Sun feel like an outright outlier. As with all their Island albums, there's plenty of texture and layers to the music, so whilst it'd certainly fit in that "New Age" category, it's a far cry from the sort of simplistic territory that label sometimes brings to mind.

Again, comparisons to Mike Oldfield can be made, and given that Jon Field offered flute on Tubular Bells that speaks to a certain musical compatibility. Meanwhile, the title track manages to build a bridge between, on one hand, the sound of Santana's more fusion-oriented works and, on the other hand, the early Ozric Tentacles sound. Carnival, on the other hand - by far the liveliest moment on the album (clue's in the name!) relies on Santana much more directly, to a point where I feel I have to dock the album's mark just a little because it feels like Jade Warrior may have been running a bit low on ideas to resort to that sort of thing. Still, it ranks alongside Floating World as among the best of the Island era of the band, and the Island Records period might have been Jade Warrior's most fruitful time.

 Kites by JADE WARRIOR album cover Studio Album, 1976
3.33 | 81 ratings

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Kites
Jade Warrior Psychedelic/Space Rock

Review by Warthur
Prog Reviewer

4 stars How much do you need your progressive rock to, y'know, rock? That's the key to whether you'll enjoy Jade Warrior's Kites. Since their debut, there'd always been this softer, more mellow side to the band's sound - and for my money, it's what they do best - and by Kites they had refined that to a fine art, with their Island Records albums all largely focusing on that aspect of their music. Once again, we're in a realm blending New Age music, Asian textures, and the more mellow end of jazz fusion. It's all quite atmospheric, but it's not going to hit the spot if you are after something more lively from your listening.
 Waves by JADE WARRIOR album cover Studio Album, 1975
3.63 | 109 ratings

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Waves
Jade Warrior Psychedelic/Space Rock

Review by Warthur
Prog Reviewer

4 stars Waves is the second Jade Warrior to benefit from the new instrumental-focused approach that debuted on Floating World. Just as on that album, we hear a shift away from the sometimes muddled mixture of psych and prog that featured on their early albums and towards a more unambigiously prog-oriented approach. It offers a blend of New Age and jazz fusion sounds arranged across two side-long tracks - like if Mike Oldfield had listened to way more Mahavishnu Orchestra - which is perhaps not surprising when you consider that Jon Field, one half of the band, had contributed flute to Tubular Bells.

The end result sits in the same sort of borderland between ambient new age, and the more fusion end of Canterbury that Robert Wyatt and Brian Eno's work in the era would occupy, and showed that the band's new approach had staying power. As with Floating World, the sound ends up substantially more cohesive than on the band's earliest albums, where the more straight-ahead psychedelic rock compositions always sat a little uneasily next to the more peaceful tunes; as a result, if you're into what they are doing here, you'll be into the entire album, but if you miss some of their old psychedelic crunch you may feel stranded.

 Last Autumn's Dream by JADE WARRIOR album cover Studio Album, 1972
3.71 | 147 ratings

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Last Autumn's Dream
Jade Warrior Psychedelic/Space Rock

Review by mickcoxinha

4 stars It is difficult to give a good summary of the first Jade Warrior albums because the band explores many directions, but at least with Last Autumn's Dream, just judging by the cover, you can at least see glimpses of the direction they were going to take with the series of albums with similar covers and largely mellow instrumentals.

To start with the least interesting, early Jade Warrior had the tendency of having hard rock songs that they fortunately ditched later because they were not good on that. In this album, you have Snake and Joanne as good examples of what could have been left off the album and probably no one would miss. Snake even has some interesting touches in the intro and the outro, but both seem to be recorded in a lousy manner.

It is completely different story with A Winter's Tale, May Queen, Demon Trucker. They are also on the more commercial side, but they are well-crafted songs. One of the strenghts of early Jade Warrior, in my opinion, was their use of electric guitar as complementary instrument to their sound, and this feature is present in these alongs, along with the usual flute and percussion combo. They are all enjoyable.

Then, there is the great songs, starting with Dark River, which is a long instrumental with mostly percussion and flute, then Obedience, which is another great instrumental with excellent guitar work (lots of different guitar tracks providing different effects) over the percussion.

Then there are the two great songs with vocals. Morning Hymn is very mellow with excellent flute and vocal melodies, and points toward what Jade Warrior would do as a duo. Then Lady of The Lake, which could be lumped in the "more commercial" songs of the album, but it is extremely well crafted.

Finally, to close the album, a great choice. Borne On The Solar Wind is another instrumental that points towards what Jade Warrior would do later, mixing oriental influences in the fold, mainly through the electric guitar motif that is doubled by flutes and strings, freeing the guitar to make a countermelody. A short song, but a real gem.

The first impression is that this album is not so good as other consistent prog albums, but on the strength of the best songs, it is more remarkable than many albums with sound great but have nothing really special.

 Floating World by JADE WARRIOR album cover Studio Album, 1974
3.69 | 126 ratings

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Floating World
Jade Warrior Psychedelic/Space Rock

Review by friso
Prog Reviewer

4 stars On 'Floating World' Jade Warrior continues its musical travels through the Orient with their first fully instrumental record. The band had changed labels, from Vertigo to Island Records. Had the band been an oddity of a progressive heavy psych band with lots of Asian world music influences, they would now fully focus on creating a new genre of world music and jazz infused art rock. You'll hear standing bass, triple flutes, Asian percussion, classical guitar, organ, some choral sections and the sometimes doubled melodic fuzz guitar of Tony Duhig. There's one heavy guitar piece on the album, and I myself don't bother that the band would leave that all together on their next records. I do really like the strange tribal/choral piece with the heavy fuzz guitar on side two. Besides these two outburst of heavy psychedelic energy, the moods are ethereal, melancholic, majestic, tribal and optimistic. The record has its individual tracks, but it all flows rather naturally from one moment to another. The mixing has that nice wide sound-stage that really allows for loosing oneself in its majestic soundscapes. The quality recording sounds rather timeless as well. Jade Warrior has its own way of musical story telling and because they aren't much like any other progressive rock group they aren't even considered to be a major group of the genre. It's even rather bizarre how the band doesn't fit in any category because of their heavy psych roots. Moreover, their type of (Asian) folk influences aren't anything like the other English groups. For me personally Jade Warrior has become one of my favorite eclectic prog groups and their's a lot to discover in both their 1970-1972 Vertigo period and their instrumental run on Island Records (1974-1978). Four stars for this gem for sure.
 Eclipse by JADE WARRIOR album cover Studio Album, 1998
3.18 | 44 ratings

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Eclipse
Jade Warrior Psychedelic/Space Rock

Review by Beautiful Scarlet

3 stars

This album wasn't released till much later but it was recorded in 1973, thus it recalls the CLASSIC Jade Warrior sound because it is.

Track 1 is a nice stripped down ballad like Yellow Eyes and Travelling, though mediocre in comparison.

Track 2 is a vigorous world music workout with great percussion work as always.

Track 3 is an anti war harder song. I've never enjoyed Jade Warriors rockin' moments, it's why I can't give them a five stars. Anyways this one is not as offensive as the second track of side b from Released.

Track 4 is kind of like track 3 and 2 put together. Mostly instrumental but with pieces of not so good vocals (the melody is bad when they are singing it isn't that Glyn Harvard is a bad singer)

Track 5 opens with spacey space stuff then it breaks into a furious percussion driving workout with screaming guitar. For the first time on this album the music feels inspired and heads in the right direction. After about 1-2 minutes a muted guitar playing chords introduces a pleasant woodwind section. Before the song can drag bass drags the song to new pastures. The song then ends following a short percussion solo introducing the finishing move, a full band closer.

Track 6 is rock n roll complete with the voice and lyrics including baby. This song is rather dated and I dislike it.

Track 7 starts with calm percussion and is joined by great vocals harkening back to Dragonfly Day. The song heads to an intense sound with powerful guitar lead and aggressive drumming. The song then concludes on a fade out and the album is done.

Overall this albums short songs range from bad to okay, thus the lower review then their earlier albums which had some great short songs and great longer songs. Instead, Eclipse best moments are solely vested in the longest songs while the short throwaway tracks are all of them.

Thanks to ProgLucky for the artist addition. and to easy livin for the last updates

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