McDonald & Giles - McDonald & Giles - Pink Color 180g Vinyl Record

When Ian McDonald and Michael Giles walked out of King Crimson at the end of 1969, they took a large part of that band's sound with them. This 1970 album is what they did next, and it is nothing like the doom of In the Court of the Crimson King. It is warm, pastoral, jazz-inflected English rock, made by two players with nothing to prove and no producer telling them to be heavy.

McDonald handles saxes, flute, keyboards and guitar; Giles plays some of the most musical drumming of the era, loose and conversational rather than driving. Peter Giles is on bass, and Steve Winwood guests on keys. "Flight of the Ibis" will sound familiar to Crimson listeners, because it is the same music as "Cadence and Cascade" with new lyrics. The flip is given over entirely to "Birdman", a side-long suite in six parts.

Pressed on pink 180 gram vinyl, using the master McDonald and Giles revisited and remastered themselves in 2001. A record that gets rediscovered every few years, and deserves to.

Tracklist

Side A
1. Suite in C (including Turnham Green, Here I Am and Others)
2. Flight of the Ibis
3. Is She Waiting?

Side B
1. Tomorrow's People, The Children of Today
2. Birdman (The Inventor's Dream (O.U.A.T.) / The Workshop / Wishbone Ascension / Birdman Flies! / Wings in the Sunset / Birdman, The Reflection)