Quintessence - Quintessence 1970

While Quintessence's second album had a guileless sincerity to its spiritual striving that was uncommon in pop music, it's very much a relic of its hippie age. The good points? An uncalculated, genuine wish to both reflect the era's ideals and to use its music as a tool to achieve them, as well as a willingness to blend aspects of jazz, Indian music, and religious invocation into an overall psychedelic-progressive rock structure (complete with flute and some acid rock guitar). The bad points? An absence of conventional songwriting chops, exacerbated by the band's tendency to ramble on in formless jam-like passages, though actually none of the tracks here exceed six minutes. Certainly it's eclectic, with a commune-like vibe permeating the proceedings, though the recording's quite professional. "Jesus, Buddha, Moses, Gauranga" sounds rather akin to the We're Only in It for the Money-era Mothers of Invention, though minus any hint of satire or irony in the over-the-top beatific lyrics. Overall, though, it feels a little like listening to the house rock band of a pan-religious cult that doesn't have anything of particular value to sell. [The 2004 CD reissue on Repertoire adds a live version of "Jesus, Buddha, Moses, Gauranga" (originally released on the first pressing of the 1970 Island compilation Bumpers) as a bonus track.] AMG.

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Quintessence - Dive Deep 1971

In the early '70s, progressive rock was heading in several different directions. There was the ultra-classical influenced Emerson, Lake & Palmer which ultimately ended in overblown performances that became too complicated for the casual pop or rock fan to enjoy, there were the bands that became heavier and more song-orientated like Deep Purple, and then there were the bands that had religion at their heart, mainly Eastern religions, the Incredible String Band and Quintessence fell into this latter category with all its members devotees of the Hindu faith, unusual at the time for Westerners. Dive Deep, Quintessence's third album, was effectively more of what had come before, with long instrumental passages, sometimes with definable themes and sometimes sounding as if the band had instructions to jam and see what happened. Not afraid to stretch their songs to around the ten-minute mark, there were only six tracks -- of which "Epitaph for Tomorrow" had a guitar solo running through it and which could be described as the forerunner of Tubular Bells -- and the final track, "Sri Ram Chant," made liberal use of the sitar, Raja Ram's flute, Indian rhythms throughout, and a mantra mentioning Krishna at every opportunity. Much simpler was the title track, "Dive Deep," which opened the album and owed more to '60s folk than prog or religious rock. This led into the 11-minute track "Dance for the One" with a six-minute intro of meandering flute, never once managing a recognizable tune. Quintessence never made it into the big league, and this was not totally surprising based on the evidence of Dive Deep, which was their final album for Island before trying their luck on the newly founded Neon label (part of the RCA group and home to what RCA hoped what be their progressive equivalent of Harvest, Vertigo or Deram). Apart from one further week at number 50 in the charts with the album Self, Quintessence never really happened and the internal arguments that led the group to split increased. AMG

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Quintessence - In Blissful Company 1969

While it's easy to dismiss Quintessence's first album, In Blissful Company, as hippie-dippy nonsense, that would be throwing the baby out with the bath water. Granted, there are several moments when the mix of jazz-rock and Indian influence go well over the top, as on "Ganaga Mai," and no one is going to mistake these guys for, say, Shakti. But they were still far ahead of their time, if you consider this from more of a world music perspective. And there's pleasure to be had from "Notting Hill" (in both versions -- the CD appends the very different single version, plus the non-album B-side, "Move Into the Light"). There's no doubt they believed in what they were doing, and lead guitarist Alan Mostert does add some stirring lines into the mix under Raja Ram's vocals and flute. It's certainly pleasant, progressive in its own way, and while there's a certain sloppiness and muddiness to much of the playing (in best hippie fashion), that actually adds to its appeal in a perverse way. They did develop over the course of four more albums, but never became a major attraction, and in some regards this remains a high point. AMG.

listen here

Quintessence - Dive Deep 1971

In the early '70s, progressive rock was heading in several different directions. There was the ultra-classical influenced Emerson, Lake & Palmer which ultimately ended in overblown performances that became too complicated for the casual pop or rock fan to enjoy, there were the bands that became heavier and more song-orientated like Deep Purple, and then there were the bands that had religion at their heart, mainly Eastern religions, the Incredible String Band and Quintessence fell into this latter category with all its members devotees of the Hindu faith, unusual at the time for Westerners. Dive Deep,Quintessence's third album, was effectively more of what had come before, with long instrumental passages, sometimes with definable themes and sometimes sounding as if the band had instructions to jam and see what happened. Not afraid to stretch their songs to around the ten-minute mark, there were only six tracks -- of which "Epitaph for Tomorrow" had a guitar solo running through it and which could be described as the forerunner of Tubular Bells -- and the final track, "Sri Ram Chant," made liberal use of the sitar, Raja Ram's flute, Indian rhythms throughout, and a mantra mentioning Krishna at every opportunity. Much simpler was the title track, "Dive Deep," which opened the album and owed more to '60s folk than prog or religious rock. This led into the 11-minute track "Dance for the One" with a six-minute intro of meandering flute, never once managing a recognizable tune. Quintessence never made it into the big league, and this was not totally surprising based on the evidence of Dive Deep, which was their final album for Island before trying their luck on the newly founded Neon label (part of the RCA group and home to what RCA hoped what be their progressive equivalent of Harvest, Vertigo or Deram). Apart from one further week at number 50 in the charts with the album Self, Quintessence never really happened and the internal arguments that led the group to split increased. AMG.

listen here

Buy @ Amazon: USA - FR - UK

Quintessence - Quintessence 1970

While Quintessence's second album had a guileless sincerity to its spiritual striving that was uncommon in pop music, it's very much a relic of its hippie age. The good points? An uncalculated, genuine wish to both reflect the era's ideals and to use its music as a tool to achieve them, as well as a willingness to blend aspects of jazz, Indian music, and religious invocation into an overall psychedelic-progressive rock structure (complete with flute and some acid rock guitar). The bad points? An absence of conventional songwriting chops, exacerbated by the band's tendency to ramble on in formless jam-like passages, though actually none of the tracks here exceed six minutes. Certainly it's eclectic, with a commune-like vibe permeating the proceedings, though the recording's quite professional. "Jesus, Buddha, Moses, Gauranga" sounds rather akin to the We're Only in It for the Money-era Mothers of Invention, though minus any hint of satire or irony in the over-the-top beatific lyrics. Overall, though, it feels a little like listening to the house rock band of a pan-religious cult that doesn't have anything of particular value to sell. [The 2004 CD reissue on Repertoire adds a live version of "Jesus, Buddha, Moses, Gauranga" (originally released on the first pressing of the 1970 Island compilation Bumpers) as a bonus track.] AMG. 

listen here

Buy @ Amazon: USA - FR - UK

Quintessence - In Blissful Company 1969

While it's easy to dismiss Quintessence's first album, In Blissful Company, as hippie-dippy nonsense, that would be throwing the baby out with the bath water. Granted, there are several moments when the mix of jazz-rock and Indian influence go well over the top, as on "Ganaga Mai," and no one is going to mistake these guys for, say, Shakti. But they were still far ahead of their time, if you consider this from more of a world music perspective. And there's pleasure to be had from "Notting Hill" (in both versions -- the CD appends the very different single version, plus the non-album B-side, "Move Into the Light"). There's no doubt they believed in what they were doing, and lead guitarist Alan Mostert does add some stirring lines into the mix under Raja Ram's vocals and flute. It's certainly pleasant, progressive in its own way, and while there's a certain sloppiness and muddiness to much of the playing (in best hippie fashion), that actually adds to its appeal in a perverse way. They did develop over the course of four more albums, but never became a major attraction, and in some regards this remains a high point. AMG.

listen here

Buy @ Amazon: USA - FR - UK