The debut album from the unsung heroes of prog rock, Barclay James Harvest, is a melancholic affair and one that signposts at an early stage the reflective, sometimes darkly desolate ambience that would become a common motif during their recording years (‘Suicide?’ from Octoberon, anyone?).

Released in 1970 at the tail-end of the psychedelic boom, the self-titled Barclay James Harvest is one of those early prog albums that sits on the cusp of what had gone before and what was about to come.

The psychedelic comedown hangs heavy throughout, but this is by no means a psychedelic album. It captures the beginnings of a band that would go on to release ten studio albums in their original four-piece guise between 1970 and 1979, but were notably denied the mainstream success enjoyed by some of their contemporaries on the progressive rock scene.

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album reviews, prog rock

Anybody with half a mind to come off second best in an argument with a solid wall of psychedelic sound could do a lot worse than checking out Oxford’s own Spiral 25.

This currently unsigned act have been plying their trade in technicolour noisemaking since early 2008, and their four-track EP, released last year through digital download, is a minor tour-de-force that harks back to the heavier psych/space rock bands of the late 1960s.

If Hawkwind had enlisted the services of Jim Morrison at any time during their 500+ years on the planet, the result might’ve sounded a little like Spiral 25′s E.P. But less of the comparisons, this is here and now and if this is anything to go by, Spiral 25 is delivering the goods on the current UK psychedelic scene.

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album reviews, psychedelic rock

Roy Wood, prog rock or not? Discuss…

Although Birmingham’s finest beard (and bard) can boast a finger jabbed deep into many a musical pie, as far back as his early days in The Move there has been an experimental edge asserting its authority over the poppier elements. The Move’s third album, Looking On, was as progressive as they come, and then there’s both ELO’s debut and Wizzard’s Wizzard Brew, the latter a heavy, eclectic mixture that’s the sonic equivalent of a progressive brick wall falling on your head.

Roy Wood’s second solo album, 1975′s Mustard, is no exception. Traditional prog rock, in the vein of Yes, ELP or King Crimson, this is not, but the scope of its invention and the refusal to adhere to what might be regarded as common musical strictures makes it equally as progressive as a Gentle Giant album. The fact that, as with his previous solo excursion Boulders, Roy Wood wrote, arranged, produced, sang and played all the instruments himself only adds to this unconventional approach and justification of the prog label I’ve bestowed upon it. I like to label things, see?

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album reviews, prog rock, progressive pop crossover

Edit: I am reliably informed by the good people at Fruits de Mer Records that this is the first review of this forthcoming Vibravoid release anywhere.

Following on from Us & Them’s splendid ‘Julia Dream’ reworking for the previous Fruits de Mer release, the record label that shouldn’t work but bloody well does, have tapped the Pink Floyd psychedelic vein once more to bring us mere mortals  the deity-like splendour that is Vibravoid’s What Colour is Pink? EP.

Vibravoid, the German psychedelic rock outfit, are no strangers to the Fruits de Mer experience, having already appeared on the Krautrock Sensation EP. This time around the likes of Can and Kraftwerk are replaced solely by acid rock’s highest profile exponents, Pink Floyd.

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album reviews, music vid, psychedelic rock

Vanessa Williams once warbled, “save the best till last,” and though her insipid brand of asinine drivel is as welcome at Head Full of Snow as a particularly nasty bout of necrotizing fasciitis, as far as Compilation Week is concerned, we find ourselves obliged to heed her advice and have, indeed, saved the best till last.

Real Life Permanent Dreams – a cornucopia of British psychedelia 1965-1970, from Sanctuary Records, is exactly what it says on the tin, a veritable abundance of psychedelic joy that’s as essential as it is comprehensive.

With four discs (yes, four), a 46-page, oversized glossy booklet, and a monumental 99 tracks that kick off with the original demo version of The Smoke’s ‘My Friend Jack’, is there really any need for me to continue this review?

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album reviews, prog rock, psych-pop, psychedelic rock

As far as label compilations go, this three-disc profusion of prog and psychedelic prime cuts is difficult to beat.

Spirit of Joy gathers some of the better and the lesser known tracks from the considerable underground canon hosted by Polydor and its imprints during the golden age of music. From The Crazy World of Arthur Brown to Focus, stopping at such picturesque stops as Eric Burdon, Supersister, and Barclay James Harvest in between.

Despite the rare low point (is there really any need for the jazz stylings of John McLaughlin or Ginger Baker’s Air Force?), Mark Powell, who compiled the tracks and penned the extensive liner notes in the 45 page booklet, has put together a definitive retrospective of the surprisingly underground output of the traditionally overground label.

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album reviews, prog rock, psychedelic rock

It’s not often we plug businesses here at Head Full of Snow, but Birmingham’s own Dan Reddington,  the virtual storekeeper at Reddingtons Rare Records, has inspired me to break with tradition.

Reddingtons Rare Records in 2006. Image courtesy of and © Andy Brown

Not only is his online store an Aladdin’s cave of rare vinyl treats, festooned with decade’s worth of original pressings, but the man himself goes out of his way to help.

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feature

Any compilation that features the song from the maypole scene in The Wicker Man is going to have something going for it.

Strange Folk is a collection of folk songs, some from the 1960s and 1970s, and others more recent, which share a dark or decidedly unusual edge. The 19 tracks hereon range from the eerie, in Beth Gibbons & Rustin Man’s ‘Mysteries’, to the unintentionally terrifying with the Incredible String Band’s masterclass in cat-strangling, tuneless dirgemaking ‘Saturday Maybe’.

But don’t let the inclusion of those enemies of the carried note put you off – skip buttons could well have been invented with these forte-free fiends in mind – as Strange Folk manages to erase any bad Incredible String-based experiences with some shrewdly chosen musical remedies.

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acid-folk, folk, psych-folk

Cave of Clear Light from Esoteric Recordings does for Pye Records – and its progressive imprint Dawn – what Spirit of Joy and Breath of Fresh Air do respectively for Polydor, and EMI’s prog label Harvest.

That is, deliver a comprehensive, beautifully packaged three-disc extravaganza complete with extensively detailed booklet.

Once again compiled by Mark Powell, behind both the Polydor and Harvest excursions, Cave of Clear Light shines the fiery torch on the label that’s been dismissed as a poor relation to the more dedicated exponents of the psychedelic and progressive sound. Unfairly so, one might add, as Pye/Dawn had an impressive roster of artists on the books, even if the vast majority never so much as tickled the public conscious.

Obviously, that’s the style of output HFoS thrives on.

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acid-folk, album reviews, prog rock, psychedelic rock

Following on from last year’s wholly unsuccessful Procol Harum week, HFoS has decided to launch another week-long, themed extravaganza – Compilation week. Kicking things off is the just released Looking Towards the Sky:

Reissue imprint Fantastic Voyage have made it their mission to excavate the legacy of long extinct UK label, Ember Records. Following much deep mining they’ve struck upon a rich vein of psychedelic/progressive sounds and Looking Towards the Sky pulls together the first part of this sonic yield.

We’re in obscurity heaven here, with the rarities coming thick and fast. I’m not ashamed to admit I’ve only heard one of the bands included on this compilation, Blonde on Blonde, but it’s safe to say there are one or two more I’d like to hear more of.

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album reviews, prog rock, psychedelic rock