Greenslade — Time And Tide

Time And Tide is the fourth full-length release from British Prog Rock Band Greenslade. The ten track album originally appeared in 1975, and is often seen as one of the bands most cohesive & balanced records- bringing together grand, genre-twisting, and dramatic instrumental tracks, with more short 'n' sharpe prog rock with often pop or showy leanings. From Cherry Red sub-label Esoteric Records, here’s a recent deluxe double CD reissue of the album- bringing together the original ten-track album, with a handful of bonus tracks & a second disc featuring a full length set from 1975.

Greenslade formed in London in late 1972- originally been centred around keyboardist David Greenslade and bass player Tony Reeves.  They released four albums in the 70s- taking 73’s self-titled, Bad Manners Are Extras also from 73, 74’s Spyglass Guest, and Time & Tide. The band briefly reformed in the early 2000’s releasing one other album Large Afternoon. And as you’d imagine with a keyboard player as one of the key members, the bands sound was often very organ, synth & keyboard heavy- with all of their 70’s albums featuring the double-headed keyboard sound of David Greenslade & Dave Lawson(The Alan Bown Set, Stackridge).

Appearing in February 1975 Time And Tide saw the line-up of Andrew McCulloch drums & percussion, Martin Briley on bass & backing Vocals. With of course David Greenslade & Dave Lawson on keyboards, Lawson also does lead vocals on a few tracks. The album kicks off with “Animal Farm” which is a sassy upbeat number featuring a blend boogie-woogie piano, synth horn embossments & dramatic backing vocals- Lawson lead vocals tops things off, having quite a raucous/ shouty quality to them- sitting somewhere between Greg Lake & a blues-rock singer, at the more exuberant- this opening track comes in at just shy of the three & a half minute mark, showing clearly the band where trying for a more of a commercial focuses.  Track three & four, “Time” And “Tide” see their more dramatic neo-classical side- the first tracks just over a minute runtime finds harpsichord grand-ness meeting grand choral male La-La’s, and the just under three minutes of "Tide" is a blend of a mysterious bass bound pulsing & mystic string set mellotrons.  As we move through the rest of the record the focus stays mainly on vocal based tracks- these go from sub-up-beat ELP tracks "The Ass's Ear", onto wavering felt & theatrical "Doddums"- which features deep dramatic banks of backing vocals, sea sounds, and grooving harpsichord blends.  At times one does feel some of the tracks do lack some identity- but there’s a lot of interesting ideas through-out, and the decidedly keyboard focused prog stylizing of the album is most pleasing.  The first CD takes in the albums original ten tracks, plus a shorter single version of one the album tracks, and a B side.

The second disc takes in a fifty-five minute live recording from Stockholm- this takes in nine tracks in all, and these move from more fusion focused instrumental prog, onto more vocal song based work- it’s a good & varied set highlighting the band's musical prowess, and talent for subtle-at-times playful genre shifting. The whole things recorded & mastered well enough with each instrument well defined, and when vocals come in they are also nicely balanced.

The release comes presented in a six-panel digipak- which recreates the albums great original artwork of a multi-handed goblin creature playing keyboards while holding up happy & sad masks. The set comes with a sixteen-page glossy inlay booklet- this takes in a new seven-page write-up about the band & the album, as well as full lyrics & credits

As 70’s prog rock albums go Time And Tide offers up a fairly compact, and focused selection of songs which highlight both the band's instrumental prowess & song-writing talents too- getting a good blend of dramatic atmospherics, and often fairly memorable formal song-craft.  And this reissue severs up a nice 24-bit digital remastering, and a very worthy live disc.