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Quintessence: Spirits From Another Time 1969-71 – Released: May 27 2016

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Colin H on Quintessence

It had always surprised me that, with two instrumental live excerpts on 1970 LP ‘Quintessence’ and a live ‘Jesus, Buddha’ on the 1971 Island records sampler ‘Bumpers’, apparently no one in the music reissuing world had asked Universal (keepers of the Island archive) if the rest of that concert was available for license. Around 2007, at my suggestion, Brian O’Reilly, the singularly affable, laid-back and open-to-ideas MD of Hux Records, did so.

It transpired that, in addition to their three studio albums ‘In Blissful Company’, ‘Quintessence’ and ‘Dive Deep’, there had been at least three official concert recordings during Quintessence’s 1969-71 tenure at Island: St Pancras Town Hall in March 1970 (source of the three live fragments mentioned above); and two recorded in one day at Queen Elizabeth Hall in May 1971. Recent research shows that there was a fourth Island live recording made at the LSE in November 1970, but this was blighted by technical gremlins, referred to in press interviews at the time, and has not survived.

At that time, we had access to a Universal-supplied mix (seemingly a mix created in 1971) of the QE Hall concerts in full and 36 minutes of a rough 1970 monitor mix from St Pancras (seemingly all that survived). With Cormac O’Kane of Red Box Studios, Belfast, mastering/audio restoring, all of the available material, bar one QE Hall track with tuning issues, was released in 2007 across three packed CDs: the single CD ‘Cosmic Energy: Live at St Pancras 1970’ (including 40 minutes of exclusive bonus material from the QE Hall concerts) and the 2CD ‘Infinite Love: Live at QE Hall 1971’.

I had the great pleasure of writing a couple of vast sleeve-notes based on abundant period press interviews and the albums have proved deservedly popular. (The QE Hall set is currently sold out.) Late in the process I had the greater pleasure of connecting with former Quintessence members Phil ‘Shiva’ Jones (vocals) and Dave ‘Maha Dev’ Codling along with the masterly producer/arranger of two and a half of their three original Island albums John Barham. Several further Quintessence-related projects developed out of this friendship: ‘After Quintessence: The Complete Kala Recordings 1973’, a first-time reissue of Phil and Dave’s sole post-Quin album as Kala, with bonus material – both from the period plus two new vocal performances from Phil; ‘Only Love Can Save Us’, an anthology with exclusive new tracks from Phil’s early 2000s collaboration with Swiss musician Ralph ‘Rudra’ Beauvert, reimagining classic Quintessence material plus original compositions; and ‘Rebirth: Live At Glastonbury 2010’, a fabulous live/studio album based around a one-off live reunion between Phil (who flew in from his home in the US) and Dave, using Dave’s band at the time, produced and mixed by John Barham.

So much for the preamble… In 2009 Huxmeister Brian, again at my suggestion, asked to see Universal’s database of Quintessence studio holdings. It was clear from the document that there was probably enough unreleased material for an album. In 2015, with Phil Jones’ prior approval having been sought by Universal, and a licence fee agreed, the laborious process of identifying likely reels of tape and then having them digitised, essentially on spec, at Abbey Road Studios began.

Based on the scant information scribbled on the tape boxes (and now preserved in the database) – suggesting unknown titles or alternative takes – 30 reels were requested for digitisation, and that process paid for: 22 multi-track reels and nine ¼ inch mix-down reels, all of roughly 30-35 minutes duration. There was no knowing in advance whether each would contain a few minutes of music or a whole reel of the stuff.

From this total, one reel (a multi-track of unknown title ‘Witchseason’) was reported to be missing and a further six reels were not approved for licensing, for reasons unknown. A total of 23 reels would be approved and digitised under Universal’s supervision: 16 multi-tracks and seven ¼ inch mix-downs.

From this total, one ¼ inch purporting to be first-album outtakes turned out to be a mix of a Mott The Hoople song, while all but one of the other six ¼ inch reels revealed only released versions of songs or trial mixes of parts of songs (works-in-progress in John Barham’s tape-splicing approach to creating some of the original mixes of songs such as ‘Dive Deep’, ‘Only Love’ and ‘Dance For The One’). The one exception was a reel containing completed mixes of two takes of ‘Sea of Immortality’: the released version and one with a very different guitar solo.

With only one useable piece in the bag, we were now down to 15 multi-tracks. Would these be any more fruitful? Disregarding two of these reels (containing unflattering acoustic guitar demos of ‘Wonders of the Universe’ and an unknown song, with an unknown singer), the 13 remaining multis delivered four hitherto unknown songs, two hitherto unknown instrumentals, one hitherto missing song from the March 1970 St Pancras Town Hall concert (hurrah!), and a clutch of stunning live-in-the-studio alternative takes of known songs. In addition, we have had the luxury of mixing a handful of previously released takes of songs in their unabridged form.

In the case of three tracks, Phil and Dave (in Woodstock, NY and Leeds, UK respectively) have added new parts to ‘complete’ them: new lead guitar on the sole existing take of unreleased song ‘Tree of Life’; new vocals on an instrumental take of ‘Twilight Zones’; and new vocals and additional electric guitar on an instrumental take of ‘Move Into The Light’. The results are stunning. It’s a real thrill have both involved in the project, both contributing purely for the love of it. Indeed, Phil selected the cover art himself, from the incredible works of the man they call Pencilsqueezer. We owe a dept to both Pencil and the owners of the piece (also, I think, Afterworders) for permission to use it. Thank you!

The resulting album – released on May 27 2016 – is Hux Records’ 150th release, and also the labels most ambitious project by far. It is a testament to Huxmeister Brian O’Reilly’s nerve, and a good example of what can be done with a good team of sympathetic professionals and a bit of goodwill: studio wizard Cormac O’Kane; designer Mark Case; sleeve artist Peter Billington; moral supporters, moral permitters and near-50-years-after audio repair men Phil Jones and Dave Codling; original producer John Barham; myself, principally oiling the wheels and convincing Cormac O’Kane that all those extra miles on the studio desk will deliver some decent karma somewhere along the line; and not least Brian O’Reilly, funding the project to a degree which probably makes no real sense but which will surely benefit posterity and the public good.

It’s perhaps not all that different from Chris Blackwell, fighting off rival labels and signing Quintessence at a Notting Hill Gate chip shop at two in the morning back in 1969 – you think something will be great, you take a punt and you hope for the best. And with Quintessence, when the planets aligned, for a moment long ago, they were the best.

Tracklist
Note: EVERYTHING bar disc 2 track 1 is a totally new 2016 mix. Quintessence were a six piece but some of the tracks feature four- or five-piece incarnations.

Disc 1:

Notting Hill Gate (5.39) – unabridged version of previously released take

Brahman (5.35) – take 4, Led Zep-esque four-piece Quintessence with incendiary ‘Stairway’-like guitar solo from Allan Mostert. Coincidentally, Zeppelin were recording parts of LZ IV upstairs at Island’s Basing Street studios at the time Quin were downstairs recording parts of third LP ‘Dive Deep’.

Sea of Immortality (5.39) – unabridged version of previously released take

Epitaph For Tomorrow (11.38) – extraordinary epic early take with a sublime Grateful Dead-esque instrumental jam with both guitars (Allan and Dave) and Phil’s often overlooked Hammond organ playing melding telepathically

Only Love (7.09) – take 3, flute-less live-in-studio take with stunning interaction between all five musicians involved and some of Phil’s most breath-taking, perfectly-pitched baritone-to-falsetto vocals

Spirits From Another Time (1.20) – totally unreleased song

Untitled Guitar (2.30) – moody Allan Mostert composition from the same reel as ‘Spirits…’

Hari Om (3.14) – previously only known from a 40 second excerpt faded in and out on the post-Island RCA LP ‘Self’, this is a very unusual Quin track: multiple backwards percussion parts, multiple interlocking funk guitar parts, mesmeric ‘Hari Om’ chanting from Phil

Body (5.41) – one of the missing tracks from the March 1970 St Pancras concert, and the only one found thus far on multi-track. This is Phil’s favourite from the album – HUGE energy, crowd interaction, and blistering guitar from Allan

DISC 2:

Sea of Immortality (1970 alt) (5.28) – the only track sourced from a period mix-down, this is the 1970 alternate take that must have been in the running for release at the time: a wildly different but equally fabulous guitar solo from Allan

Tree of Life (6.31) – the sole take of a totally unknown song, recorded by a four piece Quin (bass, drums, guitar, vocal), mid-tempo, similar in feel to ‘Pearl & Bird’, boosted by a wholly in keeping new 2016 lead guitar part from Dave

You Never Stay The Same (6.30) – new mix of the version released on the 1972 RCA LP ‘Self’, with rare lead vocal from Dave, featuring a wealth of wonderful hitherto unheard parts, including fabulous late-period Beatle-esque backing vocal arrangements from unidentified girl singers plus Phil

Only Love (Take 2) (7.52) – possibly the source of the first minute and a half of the released version of ‘Only Love’ (which was created in 1970 by John Barham using tape splicing, and excising any guitar soloing), this features the full six-piece and runs almost out of control at the end, dissolving in laughter. The five-piece ‘Take 3’ on Disc 1 should arguably have been released at the time, but this version has wonderful warmth and richness through the additional presence of Raja Ram’s flute. Both versions deserve to be on this outtakes set.

Marwa (3.06) – an extraordinary John Barham composition, based on a six-note Indian raga. Never released at the time, it’s a fully completed, full 16-track slice of bliss with Phil on spectacular form and multiple harps, tablas, piano, flute, etc. Barham revisited the raga for a piano solo on his 1973 Elektra duo album with fellow George Harrison collaborator Ashish Khan.

Wonders of the Universe (3.35) – new mix of the version released on 1972 RAC LP ‘Self’, featuring future Chumbawamba musician Simon Lanzon on exquisite piano

Maha Mantra (6.00) – a session glimpsed in the BBC TV documentary ‘New Horizons’, only a minute and a half was used on the band’s second LP, but the full, richly atmospheric chantathon led by Phil and featuring band guru Swami-Ji plus the band’s spiritual camp followers is featured here. It begins spontaneously out of nowhere, preceded by wonderful (retained) chaotic studio chatter between producer John Barham, Phil, Raja Ram and Swami-Ji wondering if the tapes are on and what sections are going to be included in the chant

Untitled Harpsichord (1.58) – possibly Simon Lanzon again, a mystery neo-baroque harpsichord piece recorded at the ‘Spirits From Another time’ session, a marginal inclusion but like the lost theme music to a vintage Hammer horror, with harpsichord lid creepily slammed shut at the end

Sunlit Kitchens (3.24) – a unique recording of charismatic band manager/poet Stanley Barr intoning his stoned poetry over ‘Hari Om’, for possible inclusion on a band LP. Definitely of its time, but hugely evocative of it. Phil asked for both this and the unadorned (and differently mixed) ‘Hari Om’ to be included.

Twilight Zones (5.58) – a brilliant Hendrix Experience-like three-piece early instrumental take of Quintessence second-album classic ‘Twilight Zones’ (presumably recorded with a Phil Jones guide vocal that has not survived). Phil Jones has recorded a brilliant new 2016 double vocal (unison and harmonies) for it. His falsetto, amazingly, is unchanged in tone and power from 1970.

Move Into The Light (3.55) – take 13 of many takes (over two reels, of which we had only the first) of this never-played-onstage Quintessence 1969 B-side, featuring Simon Lanzon guesting on piano. As with ‘Twilight Zones’, there must have been a Phil Jones guide vocal that has not survived, but this take was regarded as the best thus far by producer John Barham, heard chatting from the control room afterwards. Again, Phil added a wonderful new 2016 double vocal. This time, age dictated that we digitally lower the track by one semi-tone to allow it, but it’s a beautiful performance of an underappreciated song, and the lyrics really stand here as never before.

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Comments

  2. Brilliant Colin – this will deffo be a pre-order from me.

    If I buy directly from the Hux website (it’s not on there yet!), do Hux make more from the sale than if I buy from the dodgers or Spin? I’d rather make sure Hux get the most, obv!

    • I very much suspect they do! It’s not manufactured yet – the design was signed off for printing only a day or two back (they’re very pernickity, these printers and designers… but rightly so!) and as far as I know the audio was signed off yesterday. Certainly, I’ve burned CDRs for reference from the final CD manufacturing files and it all sounds fabulous. So I guess there’s no hurry in pre-ordering from anywhere – I only posted today because I may have been guilty of teasing AWers on the cover art, so it seemed only fair to at least post it here given that a couple of retailers posted it today. (Actually, the version you see on the OP isn’t quite the finished version – the ‘1969-71’ part of the text was enlarged to the size of the album title in the finished version.)

      • Will wait for it to appear.

        *puts Post-It note on monitor: “Remember to buy that Quintessence extravaganza from Hux that Colin blogged about and Peter did that fab cover for”.

  3. Completely bowled over, landed and extremely proud to have been granted the privilege to contribute to the on going history and legacy of one of my favourite bands.
    I can’t wait to hear it.

      • That’s most kind of you Ruff. Colin was kind enough to send me pdf’s of all the design aspects involved in the package. It’s quality from top to bottom. Beautiful graphics and a fabulous booklet.
        A real labour of love.

      • It’s not beyond the bounds of possibility that Hux will negotiate a vinyl release for a best-of the 2CD set (110 mins of music roughly) – but this is, I stress, purely speculation at this stage. I wouldn’t wait around for it. That said, if sales are good, I’ll be doing my best to encourage a slab of 180gram vinyl of the best 40 mins that works together across two sides. Brian the Huxmeister is as much a fan of vinyl as I am, although Hux has not yet entered into the high-end vinyl market.

  4. Interesting that you mention George Harrison in the context of the track ‘Marwa’, becos (as you are no doubt aware) the Quiet One recorded a gorgeous instrumental for his last album entitled ‘Marwa Blues’

    • Indeed so, and that album (like All Things Must Pass and Living In The Material World) was arranged by John Barham, who produced two and half of the mighty Quin’s three Island LPs.

      The booklet to ‘Spirits…’ features a new interview with John, although a discography of his arranging and production work that I’d prepared had to be dropped for space reasons (it’s still a 24 page text-heavy booklet, with four pages of visuals – photo montage and period live ads montage).

      So speaking of which, let’s publish that discography here. Most of the things that George Harrison produced for Apple also featured John as arranger – the pair of them were introduced by Ravi Shankar, being his two English pupils of the time. John has also recently been interviewed, in detail, by Mark Lewisohn…

      John Barham Discography (arranger, musician or producer) 1966-77:

      Albums:
      Yehudi Menuhin & Ravi Shankar ‎– West Meets East (HMV, 1966)
      Ravi Shankar ‎– Raga Khamaj / Raga Lalit (HMV, 1967)
      George Harrison ‎– Wonderwall Music (Apple, 1968)
      The Iveys ‎– Maybe Tomorrow (Apple, 1969)
      Jackie Lomax ‎– Is This What You Want? (Apple, 1969)
      Billy Preston ‎– That’s The Way God Planned It (Apple, 1969)
      Bismillah Khan ‎– Sarang / Dadra / Chandra Kauns / Kajaree (HMV, 1969)
      Quintessence – In Blissful Company (Island, 1969)
      George Harrison ‎– All Things Must Pass (Apple, 1970)
      Ravi Shankar ‎– Ravi Shankar (HMV, 1970)
      Jonathan Kelly ‎– Jonathan Kelly (Parlophone, 1970)
      The New Seekers ‎– The New Seekers (Philips, 1970)
      Quintessence – Quintessence (Island, 1970)
      Alexandro Jodorowsky ‎– El Topo (Original Motion Picture Score) (Apple, 1971)
      The Radha Krishna Temple ‎– The Radha Krishna Temple (Apple, 1971)
      John Lennon ‎– Imagine (Apple, 1971)
      Gary Wright ‎– Footprint (A&M, 1971)
      Quintessence – Dive Deep (1971)
      Kala – Kala (Barclay’s, 1973)
      George Harrison ‎– Living In The Material World (Apple, 1973)
      John Barham & Ashish Khan ‎– Jugalbandi (Elektra, 1973)
      Jonathan Kelly ‎– Wait Till They Change The Backdrop (RCA, 1973)
      The Kiki Dee Band ‎– I’ve Got The Music In Me (Rocket, 1974)
      Nicol & Marsh – Easy Street (Epic, 1974)
      Roger Daltrey ‎– Ride A Rock Horse (MCA, 1975)
      Gene Pitney ‎– Pitney ‘75 (Bronze, 1975)
      Lanzon & Husband ‎– Nostalgia (Bradley’s, 1975)
      Lennie Macdonald ‎– Hard Road (Arista, 1975)
      Dave Lewis – From Time To Time (Polydor, 1976)

      Singles:
      Paradox – Goodbye Mary / Ever Since I Can Remember (Mercury, 1969)
      Marc Brierley – Stay A Little Longer Merry Ann / Flaxen Hair (CBS, 1969)
      Jonathan Kelly – Denver / Son Jon (Parlophone, 1969)
      Brute Force – The King of Fuh / Nobody Knows (Apple, 1969)
      Quintessence – Notting Hill Gate / Move Into The Light (Island, 1970)
      Ronnie Spector ‎– Try Some, Buy Some / Tandoori Chicken (Apple, 1971)
      Jimmy Cassidy – Here’s To The Next Time / Can I Believe In You (Decca, 1971)
      John Simson – God Bless The Lord / Go West (Perception, 1971)
      Julian Brook – Hayfever / So I Have Been Told (Polydor, 1972)
      Julian Brook- Feet off The Ground / Louisa (Polydor, 1972)
      Asha Puthli ‎– One Night Affair / Sally Go Round The Roses (CBS, 1974)
      Les Payne – I Can’t Help To Feel The Love / Very Well (RCA, 1974)
      Les Payne – Don’t Say Goodbye / Why Can’t I See Over You? (RCA, 1974)
      Albert West – Drown Me / Waves (Epic, 1974)
      Moon Williams – She’s Gone / sentimental Fool (DJM, 1974)
      Nicol & Marsh – I’ve Been Praying / Then You Put Me Down (Epic, 1974)
      Nicol & Marsh – Sinking Down / Day By Day (Epic, 1974)
      Landscape ‎– Touch The Wind / California On My Mind (Gull, 1974)
      Willy Zango ‎– The Voice of Melody / Hot Rod (DJM, 1974)
      Tiger Tim ‎– Merry Christmas, Mr. Christmas / Moving On (President, 1975)
      Dave Freeman – California Freeway / Jane (DJM, 1975)
      Galeforce – Transatlantic Westbound Jet / Dreamy Day (Polydor, 175)
      Tony Anthony – Automobile Song / Easy Money (MAM, 1976)
      P.C. Lyons – Electric Money / Mad About The Movies (DJM, 1977)

  5. I’m excited about this release. I’ve never really heard much by Quintessence, but I have an emotional stake in this, which is the beautiful painting by Pencilsqueezer called ‘The Garden of Silver Pools’ which hangs on a wall at the top of our stairs. Even the absolutely fantastic job done on the album artwork doesn’t quite convey the vibrancy of the colours and the pools around the edge of the image, which are silver and, for some reason, do not appear silver on any photograph. I hope this album does well, everything about it is a labour of love.

  6. A heads up: delivery of finished Quintessence discs are expected by the label today, with release date 27th May. Vulpes asked if it was possible to order direct from Hux, which was a generous and noble thought, and indeed it now is:

    http://www.huxrecords.com/news.htm

    Who knows, you might get a copy before the 27th this way…

        • Interesting comparison – I hadn’t thought of Tim B, but you’re right. I believe Phil Jones was one of THE best rock vocalists of his time, and I don’t think that’s been fully appreciated, perhaps because Quintessence’s existence was brief (1969-72, leaving out the 4-piece/non-Phil final album in 1973) and because none of the members went on to have really visible careers in music after Quintessence (barring Raja Ram’s 90s/00s revival as a trance DJ/Schpongle member). They’re locked in time, as a ‘genre band’, and the individual attributes of the musicians involved have not, it seems to me, been widely appreciated on their own merits.

          Working on the m,ixing of ‘Spirits…’, those attributes – from EVERY player – were abundantly clear. And the ensemble playing is often amazing. Listen to the way ‘Only Love (Take 3)’ ebbs downward in the middle and the way Phil then builds it up again, in a different tempo, and how the other players all follow him. Fantastic!

  11. Half-page writeup in the most recent “Uncut”.
    Awarded 7/10 in the Archive section of Reviews.
    A positive reaction from reviewer Tom Pinnock.

    “What’s most striking is the restrained, almost ambient manner of their sound, presumably aimed straight at enlightenment rather than hedonism. If Quintessence’s music is at times too time-stamped, and lyrics like “celestial wine filling you with divinity” too gauche for the cynical decades that came after, perhaps now, with the continuing resurgence of new age music and renewed appreciation for the likes of the Grateful Dead, is the right time again to appreciate these overlooked cosmic adventurers.”

    • Fantastic – thanks Mike! There’s also a half-page interview with Phil ‘Shiva’ by Trevor Hodgett in the new R2/Rock’n’Reel (out a couple of days back), and a three or four page feature, with interview content, by, er, me in the new Shindig!

      Our Aussie brethren will be able to read another interview with Shiv, by Trevor ‘Legsyboy’ Leeden, in the next issue of ‘Rhythms’. And look out for a Mojo review by Jim Irvin.

      • Only 5.5 column inches from Jim Irvin in Mojo, but he did give it 4 stars, which was half a column inch more than Charles Waring gave Charles Mingus (also 4 stars) for “The Complete 1960 Nat Hentoff Sessions” further over on the same page.
        Both on my to-buy list.

  12. Incidentally, if anyone wants to review the album on the AW, let me know… It’s released at the end of next week. I’ll have a copy sent to the name-out-of-the-hat (if more than one person is interested) before then…

  17. We have a winner…

    To avoid ANY bias or hand-wringing, I simply gave the names to Brian ‘The Huxmeister’ O’Reilly, the music mogul behind the release. Here’s his judgement in full:

    “For some reason, I’ve always thought Johnny to be a pretty cool name. So let’s go with the Concheroo.”

    So, the Concheroovygroovymeister it is! @Johnny Concheroo – PM me your address and Brian will post ASAP. Thanks to Steve, Retro and HP – sorry lads…

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