T.2. [AKA: 1970; FANTASY]

The music here was recorded back in 1970, to be their second album after their debut "We'll Work It Out In Boomland", but it was never released. Put in the vaults you could say after virtuoso guitarist Keith Cross left the band. T2 had a comeback though in the first half of the nineties releasing three albums but the drummer/vocalist Peter Dunton would be the only original member to participate, and those albums are very poorly rated. Maybe the release of this archival recording in 1997 doesn't happen without the failed comeback, I don't know, but this is release is a must if your a huge fan of "We'll Work It Out In Boomland" like myself.

Similar sounding to the debut but the sound quality is not as good, although it has no negative affect on my enjoyment of it. More mellotron here, and perhaps this is more adventerous too with those three long closing tracks being great examples of that. "Highway" is a short 3 minute piece that is the most straightforward of them all. Heavy riffs, powerful vocals, along with guitar solos gets us warmed up fast. "Careful Sam" at 6 minutes starts off quietly enough but soon abrasive guitar solos and a more passionate sound take over. "Timothy Monday" opens with relaxed vocals and a laid back sound. Really enjoyable before that instrumental section around 2 minutes in with the guitar soloing. Nice. Back to the vocals and this ends heavily.

The last three tracks really make this a very solid 4 star record. So much mellotron on these three that range from over 8 minutes to 14 1/2 minutes. "Cd/The Minstrel" is 10 1/2 minutes long and features such an amazing jazz section around 3 1/2 minutes in by all three musicians. So cool. There's a beautiful mellotron section after 7 1/2 minutes and earlier with laid back vocals. More abrasive guitar on "Fantasy" as well as another jazzy section just before 3 minutes. This can get experimental as well. The closer "T2" would have been a fitting closer for their careers actually had this been released back in the day. Mellotron is the word but at 14 1/2 minutes it runs the gambit. A statement of sorts.

I have been playing this in the evenings over the last few weeks but must move on sadly. My kind of music, and this is one of those archival releases that is a real find.