"When Quintessence were recorded at the St Pancras Town Hall in London on March 3, 1970, the idea had been for the material to supply one side of their second album. As it turned out, that second album, Quintessence, used just a couple instrumental sections of the recording. Cosmic Energy: Live at St Pancras 1970, which has about 37 minutes of music Quintessence laid down in concert that night in good fidelity, is thus a real find for fans of the band. Those who find the group to be rather meandering psychedelic/early progressive rock improvisers won't have their minds changed by this performance which, if anything, gives them a looser and longer leash than the albums they issued at the time. In particular, "Giants" -- which lasted a relatively mere four-and-a-half-minutes on their debut album -- here becomes a 20-minute, multi-part epic suite. Otherwise, the set presents live versions of three songs from Quintessence: "Twilight Zones," "Sea of Immortality," and "Jesus, Buddha, Moses, Gauranga," the last of which appeared on the Island double-LP sampler Bumpers. As the liner notes point out, it may be that the original plan to use more of the St Pancras concert recordings on their second album was scrapped as there's some distortion on the flute and vocals, though in fact this is slight and not a serious impediment to listening pleasure. That ain't all, however: the CD also adds, as bonus material and in yet better sound, 38 minutes of an enormous "Giants Suite" from a show at Queen Elizabeth Hall on May 30, 1971. Additional material from the two concerts they recorded at that venue on that date appears on Hux's companion set to this disc, the two-CD Infinite Love: Live at Queen Elizabeth Hall 1971. Plus, there are simply mammoth liner notes from Colin Harper that comprise the lengthiest history of the band likely to be written, though you'll have to get both Cosmic Energy and Infinite Love to read them in full." - Allmusic
$9.00
