Traffic 1970

Galliard were in on the ground floor of the British progressive rock movement, releasing their debut album, Strange Pleasure, in 1969 and mixing jazz, rock, folk, and psychedelic influences. The following year, New Dawn pretty much picked up where its predecessor left off, with one key exception. The band had initially featured two wind players, Dave Caswell and John Smith; though Smith was absent from New Dawn, a whole brace of additional horn players had been brought in to augment the sound. This was during the period when the likes of Chicago and Blood, Sweat & Tears (and their British equivalents) were starting out, and brass-rock was all the rage. That's not to suggest that Galliard were trying to ride the brass-rock gravy train – their work is too skilled and varied for that – but simply that they were right in time for the Zeitgeist.

Blood, Sweat & Tears had a hard act to follow in recording their third album. Nevertheless, BS&T constructed a convincing, if not quite as impressive, companion to their previous hit. David Clayton-Thomas remained an enthusiastic blues shouter, and the band still managed to put together lively arrangements, especially on the Top 40 hits "Hi-De-Ho" and "Lucretia Mac Evil." Elsewhere, they re-created the previous album's jazzing up of Laura Nyro ("He's a Runner") and Traffic ("40,000 Headmen"), although their pretentiousness, on the extended "Symphony/Sympathy for the Devil," and their tendency to borrow other artists' better-known material (James Taylor's "Fire and Rain") rather than generating more of their own, were warning signs for the future. In the meantime, BS&T 3 was another chart-topping gold hit.

Alice is one of the first generation of groups to have done progressive rock in France, even if their sound often came close to the blues rock, they mixed in some heavy psychedelic ideas and threw in a couple pinches of prog purée in their music and achieved a very interesting album, recorded in London and released in early 70. Clearly the leader was multi-instrumentalist and singer JP Auffredo and his style on flute was reminiscent of Jethro Tull, Traffic but sometimes the Yardbirds as well.
This re-mastered version of Alice’s auspicious BYG debut provides an opportunity to reassess a band that deserves wider recognition.

This is another great, but completely underrated album from obscure UK progressive rock band. Released in November 1970 on Beacon Records, the Whichwhat's First (and last, unfortunately) album contained an eclectic mix of styles - from bluesy prog, through jazz-rock to folk ballad. That varied and (sometimes) simply stunning album will certainly appeal to the fans of early Jethro Tull, Family and Traffic - with plenty of sax and flute, nice guitar leads and very busy and inventive drumming. It's worth noting that the drummer Steve Harris played before in Woody Kern - another very underrated UK progressive band. In addition to the original LP listing, the four singles tracks has been included as a bonus. This CD has been carefully remastered from the original source and sounds better than ever!

Dave Mason's first solo album was one of several recordings to come out of the Leon Russell/Delaney & Bonnie axis in 1970. (Other notables included Eric Clapton's solo debut and Joe Cocker's Mad Dogs & Englishmen.) Alone Together contains an excellent batch of melodically pleasing songs, built on a fat bed of strumming acoustic guitars with tasteful electric guitar accents and leads. Mason's vocals are embellished with harmonies from Rita Coolidge, Claudia Lennear, and Delaney & Bonnie. Besides the well-known semi-hit "Only You Know and I Know," and which was also a number 20 hit for Delaney & Bonnie, highlights include the bouncy gospel-inflected "Waitin' on You" and the banjo-bejeweled "Just a Song."

A tremendous congestion hit the Roma highway ring. The biggest traffic jam ever seen endures for more than 36 hours. People blocked in their cars react at the beginning normally. But the more the time advance the more we are witness of personal dramas, hysteric reactions and more. All the episodes are linked like one only plot. Cars and their hosts are a microcosm of stories part of a major universe: the congestion.