Moonstone - ST

Tracks

Side 1

		Track Name	Length
	1	Focus	04:43
	2	In Case	04:28
	3	Top Heavy	02:39
	4	Finas Birthday Song	00:51
	5	Cointreau	03:30
	6	Relative Hoak	02:28

Side 2

		Track Name	Length
	1	Black Blind Light	04:24
	2	David	04:27
	3	Murk	02:08
	4	Said Gently	03:55
	5	Hope You Come See	03:03

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Information/Write-up

Moonstone all lived together in a big house on Gertrude St. in Winnipeg Manitoba and released a completely left unnoticed LP on the private Canadian label Kot’Ai, recorded in Montreal somewhere in the early ‘70’s, and, like the label says, what a great discovery this is indeed. On the first track, female singer Carolyn MacLeod sounds like a cross between Vasthi Bunyan and perhaps Linda Perhacs.

All tracks have delicate and gentle fingerpicking guitar. There’s one short instrumental based upon guitars only, “Fina’s Birthday Song”. Often the male vocals lead and there are nicely worked out vocal harmonies. “In Case”, “Cointreau” and “Relative Hoak” and the melancholic “Said Gently” (with piano only) does this with a definite West Coast feeling and harmony, at times close to Crosby,Stills, Nash & Young, performed with a similar gentleness as the other tracks. “Black Blind Light” is a bit more psychedelic, with flute and guitars improvisations.

Last track, “Hope you can see” is the most melancholic song of the album, a track which can stand well against another favourite folkpsych track favourite of mine which I mentioned before in another review (of The Search Party, mentioning the similar track "All but this”), namely Jefferson Airplain’s "Coming back to me"
-Rockasteria

The album was re-issued legitimately in South Korea under the Media Arte (Vivid) and Kotai licenses in 2012-13, both with the reissued Radioactive disc. They have different packaging but all contain the same poor quality Radioactive CD inside. The only decent recording is the original LP's.

Released by Montreal's small labels, the content is partly related to the hippie folk duo of men and women who released an album from the same label, but it is a mysterious and hollow song that starts before you know it and ends when you notice it. The atmosphere is unique to this group. While you can hear the cold lyrical sound peculiar to Canada, the atmosphere that is familiar to British acid folk such as Tyrannosaurus Rex and The Incredible String Band is also undeniable. Members are Randy Price (vocals, 6-string & 12-string guitar), Michael Heath (vocals, 6-string guitar, piano), Carolyn McLeod (vocals, 6-string guitar, piano), David Bath (bass), Francis.・ The six members of Pass (flute), three of whom are in charge of vocals, are also in charge of songwriting, which suggests that they were the core of the group. The magical male and female vocals and the pale psychedelic color that springs from the dazzling and dreamy back performance envelop the listener mysteriously. at the beginning is a psychedelic fork with a female vocal in front and Jefferson Airplane softened, and is the best track of this board. Celtic Trad-style featuring flute. The gloomy and profound atmosphere of Heath's accompaniment with the piano is beautiful , followed by Price's where the lead vocals are shared by the songs and the difference in tune is subtly produced. The Media At (Vivid) disc this time uses a reissued disc from the previous British RADIO ACTIVE, this time with a license.

Randy Price: vocals, 12 string, six string, electric
Michael Heath: vocals, six string, piano
Carolyn MacLeod: vocals, six string, piano
David Bass: bass
Francis Path: flute

Engineers: Hubert Leisker, Jesse Winchester, Tony Roman
Produced by Moonstone
Mixed by Jean Paul Lauzon & Moonstone
Cover Art by Carolyn, Michael & Rollie

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