Comments on: Dantalian’s Chariot “Chariot Rising”

By: channel light vessel

channel light vessel — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 00:10:25 +0000

I’m listening to it now and I have been listening to it a lot. I can’t really compare it to the Big Roll Band as I haven’t heard any of that, but I think they did quite a good job of going psychedelic. Okay, so it’s not way-out like The Soft Machine or The Floyd. The songs are pretty well crafted and none reach the irritation levels of the Sgt. Pepper album or the tweeness of Syd sitting on a unicorn and travelling by telephone. Not a classic, but well worhth a listen.

By: dk

dk — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 03:17:59 +0000

Andy Summers’ autobiography ‘One Train Later’ is a droll, well-written book that talks about his entire career, including his time in Dantalian’s Chariot and The Police. Highly recommended…

By: Jason

Jason — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 01:05:50 +0000

I have mp3′s from a hard to find album Zoot released in 1969 titled Welcome To My Head. I would guess that it’s a better record than Transition though nothing on it reaches the highs of Madman Running Through The Fields (from the above cd which I also own). Welcome To My Head is often labelled as psychedelic pop and some of it kinda is but there’s more horns and strings not psychedelic freakouts/studio effects. Some of Zoot’s earlier big band sound seeps thru too but it’s really an interesting record that’s never been released on cd. None of it rocks hard either. I guess you could say that it’s progressive pop with lots of strings and horns…

By: Lad Litter

Lad Litter — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 10:39:26 +0000

Great. Thanks. I will check this out. My view of the psychedelic era is that the good stuff is great but the rest, sheesh…and the good quality usually confined to particular songs rather than whole albums.

By: Len Liechti

Len Liechti — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 09:30:42 +0000

Indeed, somewhat to my surprise, they have! It has only three tracks in common with Chariot Rising, which shows how far Transition was watered down from the original proposition: “Coffee Song”, “Recapture The Thrill” and “Soma”. Of these only the last, another sitar-led instrumental with a backing that sounds like Gregorian Monks intoning “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”, can really be considered serious psych. The other seven tracks are mostly standard Money R’n'B fare with soulful vocal and plenty of brass arrangements; of interest only to historians, I’d say. Chariot Rising is as near as you’re gonna get to the real deal. Incidentally, the CD of Chariot was reissued in 2007 and should still be available on eBay.

By: Jason

Jason — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 23:44:41 +0000

I remember the first time I heard Madman Running Through The Fields….it turned my head upside down. Even today, after hearing so much more great music from the era, I still rate this as one of the best singles ever..it’s imaginative, an immediate shock to the senses; up there with the best of the early Pink Floyd, Tintern Abbey’s lone single (both sides are killer) and the Beatles’ psychedelic work. I think they recently reissued the Zoot/Chariot album Transition.