When Bruce Palmer was finally dumped by the Springfield in 1968, he began an epic musical exile punctuated by rare, traumatic reunions with Neil Young. In 1971, however, he managed to record one unsuccessful, engaging solo album. The Cycle Is Complete consists of four lengthy, cloudy jams, with flutes, violins, congas and haphazard vocals (courtesy of Rick James) in orbit round Palmer's meandering bass and guitar lines. Absolute flakiness is countered by Kaleidoscope pianist and arranger Jeff Kaplan, who introduces a semblance of organisation to what would otherwise be a roomful of hippies going diverse ways in pursuit of transcendence. "Calm Before The Storm", though, is tremendous?an unsteady symphony that acts as a folk correlative to David Axelrod's grandiose psychedelia.
When Bruce Palmer was finally dumped by the Springfield in 1968, he began an epic musical exile punctuated by rare, traumatic reunions with Neil Young. In 1971, however, he managed to record one unsuccessful, engaging solo album. The Cycle Is Complete consists of four lengthy, cloudy jams, with flutes, violins, congas and haphazard vocals (courtesy of Rick James) in orbit round Palmer’s meandering bass and guitar lines. Absolute flakiness is countered by Kaleidoscope pianist and arranger Jeff Kaplan, who introduces a semblance of organisation to what would otherwise be a roomful of hippies going diverse ways in pursuit of transcendence. “Calm Before The Storm”, though, is tremendous?an unsteady symphony that acts as a folk correlative to David Axelrod’s grandiose psychedelia.
