MOJO3_JohnLeeHookerWhere I dig into something I’ve not heard before, from the reviews section of old Mojo Magazines, on an irregular basis.

#003 – Pentangle – Basket Of Light

My love affair with folk music lasted only a couple of years and leaned very American. The stars of the English folk scene I know but don’t really know. I smidgen of John Martyn. Nick Drake of course. The music of Pentangle and Bert Jansch has always alluded me.

I have friends (hello Tom) who love Jansch. Every so often you meet a devotee. Many of my musical favourites loved him too – especially the American folkies and guitar heroes. For me, he seems to have made 80 albums and one of those people whose catalogues were impenetrable.

Pentangle was his band and this record, Basket Of Light, is their most famous and commercially successful. It’s a record that makes a lot of lists. I liked the album cover (it reminded me of The Beach Boys‘ album Holland). This record was reviewed as part of some big catalogue move. Mojo saw it fit to give a whole double page to a bunch of Jansch related releases.

I don’t know if I’m ever going to be a big English folk guy. This apparent classic of the genre is helping any. There’s something so twee and distancing about it. I also find the subject matter on this album so distancing. It’s so impressionist it fails to really make an impression. Again this might be me unfairly comparing it to its American brother, who seemed to say everything music could say in the 60s (and that’s just Bob Dylan).

You can definitely hear some cool guitar stuff, but the baroque-y, almost choral music just puts me off. Light Flight and Springtime Promises are lovely. Jansch in particular has a lovely vocal. Lyke-Wake Dirge – utterly horrible. I’d also like to note here that I’ve never bought into that very Tolkien-esque lyric bands.

I’ll keep this on the iPod a while longer, and let it perculate. I feel like there is something I’m not hearing in that pastoral English Folk music.

Basket-of-light