Keef Hartley Band

The Time Is Near...

Deram DES 18047 LP 33RPM 12" 1970 (Canada)

At the time, the transformation from R&B into hard rock and prog rock seemed seamless, swept along a current of subtly shifting styles, a view today cemented by hindsight into inevitability. But all one has to do is listen to bands that fell by the wayside to see that the end result was in no way insured, and that other paths beckoned, only to quickly become cul-de-sacs. Drummer Keef Hartley established his reputation upon joining British blues legends John Mayall's Bluesbreakers in 1967, performing on four of their albums before his departure the following year. That same year, Hartley formed his eponymous band around the axis of himself, bassist Gary Thain, and singer/guitarist/composer Miller Anderson, with their musical horizons widened by a kaleidoscope cast of brass, keyboardists, and flügelhorn players. The group released The Time Is Near..., its third album, in 1970, a set that found the group moving into ever more esoteric pastures. Some critics complained the album was directionless, but au contraire, the band knew precisely where they were going and what their goal was -- to create a tapestry of sound that intricately weaves together American R&B with a decided Stax slant, intertwining funkier flavors with the brass flash of the earlier soul era, and criss-crossing it with jazz. Some songs are embroidered with a harder rock sound, others are threaded with bright splashes of Latin colors, and others still with more subdued acoustic passages. It takes several listens for the full aural impact to coalesce, a reflection of the song's lack of infectious hooks and strong melodies, a sign too of the band's growing proggy bend and jazzy leanings. But given enough time, the album begins to weave its spell, and its greatness starts to solidify. However, as a path to chart success, this album was a dead-end street; pop fans want instant gratification, and Time Is Near wasn't supplying that.

Tracklist
A1 Morning Rain 3:00
A2 From The Window 3:28
A3 The Time Is Near 10:09
B1 You Can't Take It With You 7:19
B2 Premonition 4:24
B3 Another Time Another Place 2:35
B4 Change 4:00

Manufactured By – London Records Of Canada Ltd.

Producer – Keef Hartley, Neil Slaven

Front cover - left bottom catalog number - bottom right Deram and underneath London logo

Vinyl is VG++ in a plastic inner sleeve in a hard card picture sleeve in VERY GOOD condition (edge wear) in a plastic protector sleeve.

Note About Shipping To The U.S.
We are located in Canada, but have registered ourselves on eBay.com instead of eBay.ca because it gives us significantly better global exposure.  The problem with this is that eBay wants us to charge shipping appropriate to US, where media mail and other options make for fairly reasonable delivery costs. We tried it for a while but ended up losing money on shipping or having to cancel the orders because we couldn't afford to ship for those rates. To manage this we have set the US shipping to run a calculator based on an American location (we chose Plattsburgh as fairly close) and charging according to UPS pricing.  This avoids the cancellation issue, but appears to the buyer to be a prohibitive shipping cost and misrepresents the shipping as being only expedited. If you give us your postal code we will see if we can offer a more reasonable option, but generally we can get a single LP by air to most places in the continental US for $11, a few bucks less for ground.
Thanks for shopping Sir Helmitt,
Jeff Green, e-sales

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