There’s a brief window at the end of the 60s and start of the 70s where ‘progressive’ referred to a much broader spectrum of music than what the world now thinks of as ‘prog’, a glorious melting pot of post-psychedelia, art rock and proto-metal that gave us Jethro Tull, Groundhogs and Wishbone Ash, Stray and countless more.
T2 are the great lost band of that era, a power trio who pushed the format of what rock could be, yet quickly dissolved and faded into music’s back history. But they left some amazing recordings behind, compiled on this three-CD collection, which includes their one and only album, an unreleased second, and demos for a third.
Led by singing drummer/songwriter Pete Dunton, but powered by wunderkind guitarist Keith Cross, there’s plentiful evidence of what an extraordinary band T2 were on the peculiarly titled It’ll All Work Out In Boomland (matched by its bizarre, outsider cover art). Opener In Circles blasts off with a jabbing, pulse-quickening riff counterpointed by Dunton’s wonderfully light voice, but it’s Cross’ ferocious technique that grabs the attention – at the time, he was hailed as the new Eric Clapton, but frankly he’s miles better. The Floyd-ish melancholy of JLT brings a complete change of tone, dancing piano and harpsichord building towards a majestic horn-driven motif. But it’s the astonishing No More White Horses that epitomises the T2 sound. A growling, sinister chug explodes into a fretboard freak-out and more brass, before Dunton’s beautifully sad vocal pulls it together – essentially The Stooges meet The Moody Blues. Oh, and the second side is a 21-minute track entitled Morning that ebbs, flows and surges, but never dawdles.
