TRACTOR

Tractor were originally released on John Peel's Dandelion label and really was the follow up to The Way we Live which comprised of the members John Milne and Steve Clayton.The album was released in 1972 and the edition that I have is the recent release on the Airmail label and comes with 6 bonus tracks, 4 of them are demos

The album is comprised of 2 acoustic tracks,1 blues rock and the rest which is the better part of the album for me are the more heavier progressive tracks. John Milne plays the the lead guitar and does he like distortion which just makes this album a treat with all that fuzz sound from the guitar. He also plays bass and vocals and Steve Clayton did the drumming,keyboards,bass and flute.

The first track All Ends Up is a beauty which starts with a sound effect similar to a siren but then comes in with a hard driving beat and stays that way for most of the six and a half minutes of the tune with heaps of distortion used in the lead guitar but the playing is good and not sloppy at all. Great tune

The 2nd track is another nice progressive song which starts with an acoustic intro and then we are into it. Great lead solos and the drumming is fabulous as it is for the whole album on these songs.

Track 3 and 6 are acoustic and are pscychedelic. They are a quite good and are nice way to break up the album but they are not fantastic either but I do play them when listening to the album for the above mentioned reason.

Track4 Basically blues rock. Okay but if it had not been on the album. I would not bother chasing it up. The other 3 tracks are all in the heavier catergory with 7 being the quiter off them but the standout for me is the last one with a running time of 9 minutes which is"Make the Journey"

The songwriting is shared by both members in the band.

All in all well worth the money for an obscure band and a quite a good album but as I say to get 4 stars of me you have to want to play it again when the album finishes. This album does come very close but if in doubt as I am 3 stars is the way to go.