Traffic 1970

Abstract Truth - Totum (1970) {Uptight–Shadoks Music ‎111 rel 2009}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 275 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 114 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (png) -> 16 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1970, 2009 Uptight / Shadoks Music ‎| 111
Rock / Prog Rock / Psychedelic Rock

Durban, South Africa might not exactly be synonymous with psychedelic folk-rock, but, perhaps crucially, it is a port town (Liverpool, anyone?) where all manner of influences could have come drifting into the air, in the form of records imported from America and England. It's likely that this was the way Abstract Truth developed their sensibilities as heard on their 1970 debut album, Totum. Until its 2009 reissue, this was the kind of record that would make hardcore collectors salivate freely and empty their bank accounts, but at last the rest of us can come to know its subtle pleasures. Totum is made up almost entirely of cover tunes, but the band's distinctive if understated style is clearly stamped on each one.

The eponymous Walrus set was originally released in 1970, on the Decca offshoot Deram.Walrus the band formed a year earlier in London, the brainchild of main songwriter and bassist Steve Hawthorn, who’d been inspired by the commercial growth of American rock-meets- jazz counterparts Chicago and Blood, Sweat & Tears.Debut single Who Can I Trust, featuring original drummer Roger Harrison, kicks the album off: a heavy, Atomic Rooster/Edgar Broughton-like number showcasing the raspy vocals of Noel Greenaway and the understated lead guitar work of John Scates.Adding replacement drummer Nick Gabb and keyboardist Barry Parfitt, this was followed by a segued, three-pronged attack led by an old blues gem, Rags & Old Iron, while the equally impressive Blind Man and Roadside fit in nicely.Check out the interplay of Don Richards (trumpet), Bill Hoad (flute) and Roy Voce (tenor sax): an awesome start.With prog on the ascendancy and this band’s masterful reworking of Traffic’s Coloured Rain, Walrus can safely be labelled as nearlymen.The appropriately-titled Tomorrow Never Comes ended the original LP with 60s-like panache, while the obligatory bonus CD closer, Never Let My Body Touch The Ground (a subsequent flop 45) rounded off a very ’umble, very ’eavy album (by Martin C Strong from Record Collector Magazine).

Bruce Palmer - The Cycle Is Complete (1970) {Collectors' Choice Music CCM-375-2 rel 2003}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 208 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 82 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (png) -> 123 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1970, 2003 Verve Forecast / Collectors' Choice Music | CCM-375-2
Rock / Acid Folk / Psychedelic Rock / Folk

Bruce Palmer (acoustic/electric guitars/Fender bass) is best known for his association with the earliest incarnation of the Buffalo Springfield. It was he and Neil Young who trekked from their native Canada in the latter's hearse (named Mort) to Los Angeles in search of Stephen Stills with the hopes of forming a rocking teen combo. His tenure was cut short by deportation which stemmed from two separate marijuana-related convictions in 1967 and 1968, respectively. The Cycle Is Complete (1971) – Palmer's only solo effort – is an eclectic masterwork with stream of consciousness jams that combine folk, jazz, and rock onto a quartet of primarily instrumental sides.

Excellent addition to any prog rock music collection.
Formed in 1969, If had already seen a change of line up (on the drum stool) by the time they came to record their début album released in 1970.