Thousands On a Raft

Reissued with two bonus cuts (both sides of the single "Can't Get Off the Planet" and "Broken Magic"), this album was remembered as much for its cover as anything else — a picture of a model Titanic and a model Concorde sinking in a puddle, as rafts of toast ferry thousands of baked beans to the shore. Musically it was some good jazz-rock, with the emphasis not always on Brown's vocals and elliptical lyrics, as Jim Mullen's "Highland Song" offered an inventive, lengthy instrumental as the disc's centerpiece. The title cut has a Pink Floyd edge, surprising given Brown's predilection for jazz and blues, but it works well in the context. Guitarist Mullen is co-writer throughout, while the rhythm section of Rob Tait and Steve Glover swing rather than plod. "Station Song Platform Two" employs Mellotron to full prog rock effect, while "Got a Letter from a Computer" seems eerily ahead of its time for the early '70s. This was the last gasp of this incarnation of Piblokto!, but there's no doubt they went out on a high note.