WATER INTO WINE BAND: Harvest Time - LIMITED EDITION PRIVATE FOLK MONSTER

	£		192
	$		254

WATER INTO WINE BAND: Harvest Time (Private Release, CJT 002, 1976, LP)
This is an original 1976 copy of the severely limited edition LP. The band members disagreed about how many copies were pressed, whether it was 500 or 1000, but what is definitely known is that all copies sold out in one day after they played the 1976 Greenbelt Festival.
For those in the know, you know what you're getting! For those who don't know and who equate LPs by overtly Christian bands as inherently unlistenable, this is one (of only a handful of bands/artists) that blows that generally good theory out of the water. This was a group of musicians that happened to be Christian rather than a group of Christians that decided to form a band to promote the word of God. Effectively, if God is in the music, you don’t have to keep banging on about God!
Yes, God is in the music, as in there is an obviously apparent joy for all things (especially in the lovely harmony singing on Patience Is A Virtue - hm, giving the King's Singers a run for their money - and that is praise, by the way). If the first LP, Hill Climbing For Beginners, was a bloody good LP of modern folk-inspired music that could happily sit amongst the Incredible String Band, COB, Heron (the Dawn mob, that is, not the ISB offshoot), Forest, et al (I don't want to mention the overworked Nick Drake, but him too, what with a feel of innocence about the procedings), this one was on another level altogether. They had more experience of writing and recording by the time they got to this one and this album is far more focused on songwriting and arrangements, whilst the first had more of a 'blowing' feel in comparison.
The side 2 suite (sort of) sits somewhere between Magna Carta's Seasons and Shirley & Dolly Collins' Anthems In Eden, though without the twee pretentiousness of the former (yes, it does have a twee pretentiousness, but a completely different and far more palateable one - think 'pastoral'!) and without the 'well, all that's gone forever, now' feeling of nostalgic loss of the latter. Something cyclical, something renewed, a hint of Heaven on a warm British summer's day, and all kicked off with a wonderful arrangement of flute, clarinet, horn, bassoon, and oboe in overture that, if anything, reminds me of Stravinsky's more chamber-focussed work. The music here relies on precision playing that still manages to include 'feel'. I think that 'joie de vivre' and that (allegorically) 'winter must follow summer' pretty much says it.
The sleeve is VG with a light thumb crease on the front and some light edge creasing - see the photos. The black labels have some inevitable fingerprints that the photos probably won't pick up - these can probably be cleaned off but I'm not risking it on such a high value record! There are some light marks on the vinyl surface, from the record going into and out of the sleeve, which are cosmetic rather than audible. The record plays at EX on side 2 with a couple of random non-repeating pops. Side 1 plays mostly at EX, though with patches of 'distortion' dotted throughout the side for which there is no visible reason and which does not always seem to be related to the overall dynamics of the music. This is how it was when I bought the record in the early 1980s, though I have now given the record a couple of cleans and a couple of plays and the 'distortion' is noticeably quieter on the second play, though still there. Annoying considering the rest of the LP plays at EX, but not a show-stopper.
So, not mint by any means, but still a superior condition copy. Side 2 is a full EX and a some annoying buzzes of 'distortion' aside, side 1 is also up there for well over 95% of the time. Overall, a nice copy and one still commanding a decently high price.
This will be packed - record in inner sleeve outside the outer sleeve - very sturdily so that there is no chance of the sleeve being damaged in transit.
(Note that the inner sleeve as shown is a poly-lined one I put the record in back in 1982 or whenever it was I bought it - I've just found the sleeve it was originally in tucked into the sleeve so have now swapped over - so you do not get the later PVC-lined sleeve shown, but instead you get the sleeve it was in when I bought it. The sun has gone and the light is too bad to do new photos, so I'll try to remember in the morning!)
*    *    *    * Records generally have hairline or other surface marks from removal from/insertion into sleeves - these are not mentioned unless causing audible noise. Records are play tested unless stated and any defects over and above what should be expected of the generic Record Collector grading are described in the listing. Please look at the photos carefully for condition of sleeves, etc. 
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*    *    *    * All items are from my own various collections and most have been in storage for 20+ years. Lockdowns (and various heart ops.) made me wonder why I have thousands of records that I will never choose to listen to again.