YELLOW SEA YEARS 1968-1971

A huge disapointment after reading some excellent reviews everywhere comparing this band to Traffic, Jethro tull, Santana...Nothing of all that in this compilation and instead, it's a very light and vaguely psychedelic pop with few inspiration and even less progression. The sound is amateurish and dated and on top of that, there's some ugly singing. Not recommended.

It's really a shame that young people and non Peruvian Prog fans get their first impression of TEAFFIC SOUND from this sub-standard compilation, which is based more in less transcendental tracks and Latin Jazz oriented.

The recording is terrible, even in the original albums of the 60's and early 70's the production is much better, and of course the song selection is done with much more taste.

Songs like "La Camita", "El Gusano (Alice in Wormland)", "White Deal, Poco, Big Deal", "Marabunta". "Survival" or "Suavecito" are from the band's third album "Lux" recorded in a moment when the peak of the band had already passed.

Other tracks as "Virgin", "Last Song", "Jews Caboose", "America", or "You Got to Pay" are not included, which makes the quality of the album lower.

For God's sake, the album is called "Yellow Sea Years" and not even the track "Yellow Sea Days" which clearly inspired the name, is included.

As I always say, stick to the original recordings, specially "Virgin" or III, and if those are hard to get, you can go with "Traffic Sound's Greatest Hits", which I haven't heard but the song list is incredibly better.

Still because of some tracks as "Meskalina" or "Tibet's Suzettes", this poor compilation doesn't deserve less than 3 stars, but please, if you are not familiar with the band, don't start with this album.

Go with the first two albums and you'll find TRAFFIC SOUND was an excellent band, who had much more to offer than this album