McGoohan's last acting role in a Columbo (he directed and wrote the following episode) stole Steinmetz's look, Oscar Finch's accent, and...may be the least over-the-top aspect of Ashes To Ashes. This is like Columbo The Old Timer's Game version - there's so many hams crowded on one screen it's difficult not to be entertained, on some base level.
"Light Flight" has long been a personal favorite of mine - a twisting, winding blast of traditional past that really had some substance to it, unlike Jethro Tull's "Living In The Past", which was more of a whimsical wink and a nod to their ancestors. It also hit all of the correct notes in a contemporary sense, becoming the Pentangle's only hit (at least in the UK). The rest of the album is not as easy to take, unless you are deep into the British folk scene of the 60's. The band has the atmosphere down pat, though, which should carry one through a good part of the record.
"Are you sure you know where it's really at?" Just a line from this curious record from the hippie era which sprung from a folk duo out of Boston. One thing led to another, the duo became a group and moved to New York, and somehow hooked up with Felix Pappalardi - the same Felix of Cream and Mountain fame. He produces, fills in all of the instrumental gaps, and by all accounts whatever band their was had fallen under Felix's loose grip, because if you've ever wondered what a purely psychedelic pop album under his aegis would sound like, this is a pretty fair approximation. The odd name fits. They generally come off like a very spaced-out version of The Lovin' Spoonful, liberally taking splashes of California pop and harmonies, but never getting very heavy other than the random distorted guitar strum here and there. At points, it's eerily piercing, despite the relaxed feel ("Think Twice", "If I Came To You"), but often it is simply lackadaisical ("Brooklyn", "Ragtimely Love"). For lovers of psychedelia but beyond that interest may be mixed.
