The Rainbow Band - The Rainbow Band (1971 us, beautiful spiritual oriental psychedelic folk rock, Wounded Bird 2008 issue)

This first song repeats the “rama rama” theme in group with mind blank naivety and at least some song inspiration, tablas, piano, tempura, acoustic guitar which repeat the rhythmic hypnosis with a hippie minded psychedelic devotion, before the guitar in a strummed raga fashion develops the theme in an energetic way with one more return of the group marching row singers. 

After this tuning in, the right atmosphere has been made. “Lotus” has a stoned rhythm and beautiful male / female harmony vocals in the song, with melancholic pickings with rhythmic and sound accents on drums, percussion, congas and electric guitar. 

The track calms down to a total free open space with pickings and sweet flute improvisation, for a last part to a “I am who I am” mushroom-effect of a last devotional song part. “Sweater song”, led by the female singer is accompanied by acoustic guitar and electric jazz guitar, is another sweet hippie song. “Simple Song” is an improvisation with all the hippies singing and with lots of percussion including hand claps and glockenspiel, piano, a somewhat naive song with high tones in the female voice reminding me a bit of Incredible String Band during their performances on “U”. 

“Midnite Song” is more electric (with slide effects) and with more drums, rocking a bit with an American country-rock flavour. “Song Of The Navajo” is a songwriter song, a lament with acoustic guitar. The last track, “Now Is The time” with tampura drones is an improvisation with Indian styled associations on the guitar unfolding like a raga as the instrumental foundation, with a dual vocal sad song on top. The song increases in rhythm towards a psychedelic raga orgasm, unfolding its speeding up rhythm with electrified raga guitar, drums and some bass. A very nice psychedelic conclusion.

from Psych-Folk

Tracks
1. Rama Rama - 05:20
2. Lutus - 05:31
3. Sweater Song - 02:24
4. Simple Song - 04:07
5. Midnite Sun - 03:14
6. Song Of The Navajo - 04:09
7. Now Is The Time - 09:06
All compositions by Mahesh and Pavarthi

Musicians
*Mahesh
*Pavarthi
*Muruga Booker - Drumset
*Nithyan Gefron
*Scotty Avedisian
*Phil Catanzaro
*Ragunath Mancini
*Trevor Young
*Gary Olerich
*Darius Brubeck
*Collin Walcott - Sitar, Tabla
*Nirmala
*Sharon Simon
*Lalitha
*Janiki Tenny
*Priscilla
*Victoria
*Felix
*Anandi
*Shiva

identical artists
1970  Oriental Sunshine - Dedicated To The Bird We Love
1971  Magic Carpet - Magic Carpet

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