Back again. Yes, despite the best efforts of an aircraft hangar’s worth of booze and a blossoming addiction to Mike Oldfield’s ‘On Horseback’, HFoS has made it through yet another Christmas.

King Crimson react to the news HFoS survived another Christmas

This year I’ve resolved to beat the post-seasonal hangover by remaining drunk, which, thus far, has proved to be an agreeable tactic… Pay no heed if my eyes glaze over or I lose my train of thought mid

As is customary this time of year, I will be making one or two rash promises, none of which I have any intention of adhering to. So we might as well get those out of the way first.

2012 will see a new look website and a raft of new features, as well as the return of some old ones.

There, pretty much the same as last year, minus the enthusiasm.

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music vid, news, prog rock, progressive folk

Hell’s teeth! It’s that time of year again. When I make a host of rash promises for what the new year at HFoS may bring, before buggering off to imbibe the Christmas spirit for a month or so.

This year, I’ll dispense with anything that could be held against me at a later date and, instead, leave you with the latest mixtape: The HFoS Prog Rock Xmas Stocking Filler.

Granted, it’s not particularly festive, nor exclusively prog-orientated, but it’s the best you’ll get from me this side of 2012.

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mixtapes, prog rock, progressive folk, psych-pop, psychedelic rock

Did you think I would leave you crying, when there’s room on me hoss for two? So said Rolf Harris to a small boy and it’s with a nod to this spirit of benevolence that I’ve put together a summer treat for both of my loyal readers. The one’s that put up with this nonsense week in, week out.

Yes, the first – and quite possibly last – ever Head Full of Snow progressive rock mix is here to tickle your royal earholes (track listing below).

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acid-folk, mixtapes, prog rock, progressive folk, psychedelic rock

HFoS is presently on summer holiday, hence the lackadaisical approach to posting over the past week, this week and, indeed, the next. Never fear, we were allowed to bring our games in on the last day of term and even wear our own clothes, which is always a bonus. I, myself, chose Game of Dracula and proceeded to thrash all comers. The soundtrack to this final day of inertia at HFoS Towers happened to be this rare beauty: Tudor Lodge, a fine old dose of progressive folk rock, by the band of the same name.

Originally released in 1971, Tudor Lodge is as pleasant as an English pasture. A testament to inoffensive, folkie fun by a trio of lovely people, sporting lovely tunes.

A foul night on the beer could find a mid-morning salve from a listen to the 13 tracks that sit innocuously on this splendid reissue. Largely acoustic, this is what it sounded like in certain quarters of England during the late 60s and early 70s. Hell’s teeth! One wishes it was still the same – long hair, flutes, the occasional piano and a soft voice guiding you onto the jagged rocks, courtesy of the ethereal timbre Ann Steuart traded in.

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album reviews, folk, folk rock, progressive folk

The suspect cover of Bill Nelson’s 1971 debut, Northern Dream, reflects the almost homemade nature of its sound. Written, produced, sung and harmonised by Nelson, with the musical auteur also playing the lion’s share of the instruments, it was recorded on the most basic of equipment and thus enjoys a rawer – dare I say, more honest – sound than one would find on professionally put together singer-songwriter releases of the time.

300 copies of the album were originally pressed, the sessions funded by Nelson’s local record shop in Wakefield. It took the intervention of legendary bumbler John Peel – as was so often the case – to bring Northern Dream to a wider audience and set young Bill on a road that would lead to the forming of unconventional prog act, Be-Bop Deluxe, and numerous other successes thereafter.

The music on Northern Dream transverses various styles, soaking up the psychedelic, folk, blues and even a smattering of country rock (‘Sad Feelings’). As the artist himself states, in this new CD reissue’s liner notes, he “wandered the fields of Yorkshire trying to live the ‘peace and love’, post-hippie dream… some sort of psychedelic troubadour or something.”

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album reviews, progressive folk, psych-folk, psych-pop

Skin Alley existed in the category vacuum that formed between the death of psychedelia and the dawn of what would become labelled as prog rock.

As with the likes of Clark-Hutchinson and assorted members of their Ladbroke Grove brethren, Skin Alley inhabited the underground rock cadre specifically tuned to blasting out driving jams from a field of hair, while all around lost their heads to a concoction of Extra Strong Mints and herbal tea.

Big Brother is Watching You – The CBS Recordings Anthology brings together the first two albums from Skin Alley – their 1970 eponymous debut and it’s follow up (also 1970) To Pagham and Beyond – along with a single ‘Better Be Blind’ and the unreleased soundtrack album to the equally unreleased film, Stop Veruschka. A rare old package and no mistaking, Guvnor.

Skin Alley blended a formidable sonic stew, flavouring their musical melting pot with elements of psychedelia, folk and the occasional dash of jazz horns, played out against a snarling undercurrent of bluesy riffage. This was served to an eager audience of free-festival-dwelling counter culturites, on a sizeable platter of proto-progressive rock. Close your eyes for a second, while listening to Big Brother is Watching You, and witness the seething mass of barnets that their particular brand of underground stylings sailed across, undulating as a single consciousness on a summer’s afternoon in Dorset, 1969.

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album reviews, freak rock, prog rock, progressive folk

Gryphon must’ve sat somewhere near the front of the class, when their BTEC National course in progressive rock came to cover artwork. Take Red Queen to Gryphon Three, for instance, and witness the beast presented below.

It ticks all the necessary boxes when creating the right impression for its intended audience: A sage old man contemplating his next move in a game of chess; the pieces all in the shape of the mythical Griffin from which the band take their name. A landscape from the pages of Le Morte d’Arthur stretching out beyond the stone arch windows at which he sits, complete with riverside citadel, woodland fauna and imposing mountain ranges. A feudal world of the fantastical in the finest tradition of Roger Dean and countless other artists who’ve brought their imaginative prowess to the kingdom of 1970s prog and heavy rock. Hark at me; I’ve turned into posh art-botherer and professional prole-baiter, Brian-bleeding-Sewell.

But the fact remains, in 1974, when Red Queen to Gryphon Three was released, there was no call for an awkward band-shot; just straightforward fantasy daftness, as was to be expected. One must remember these hairy types could get away with such folly back then, without the slightest worry of a visit from Special Branch and their truncheon-wielding grunts.

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album reviews, prog rock, progressive folk

Renaissance was a fine band. They were also fully paid up members of that most exclusive of cliques – the one inhabited by stout fellows such as Soft Machine, Gong and Bucks Fizz – whose clientele completely changed their line up at some point during their career.

For me, the original incarnation of this band of symphonic prog folkies was better than the Annie Haslam-fronted one, and as such, when the original five members reformed in 1976 under the moniker of Illusion (the title of Renaissance’s second album), there was much rejoicing at HFoS Towers.

… That’s to say, there would’ve been, had I not existed only as a mardy one year old, surviving on a musical diet of Elvis, Queen and Jim-bloody-Reeves. Nonetheless, the celebrations would’ve been cut short, when, not long after, vocalist and guitarist Keith Relf electrocuted himself and died. Merriment would’ve recommenced though, albeit with a heavy heart, when Illusion announced that, following a cabinet reshuffle and the addition of Eddie McNeil on drums and John Knightsbridge on lead guitar, they would carry on.

Of course, none of this happened – aside from the reformation, the electrocution and the reshuffle – but had I been capable of anything other than lounging around in a nappy, waiting for another turn at the trough, I’m certain it would have.

Released in 1977, Out of the Mist is a fine comeback and a marked improvement on Renaissance’s second and last album as the original unit – the still tasty, but occasionally watery, Illusion. Hope we didn’t lose anybody there.

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album reviews, prog rock, progressive folk

It being Easter, the time is surely ripe for a wee gander at Jethro Tull’s audacious follow up to Thick as a Brick, the bone of contention that is A Passion Play.

Born of fire, following the abandonment of what was originally intended as Tull’s next album – the unfinished tracks of which are available on Nightcap, offering a window into the early creative process that would coagulate further down the line, here – A Passion Play caused its fair share of, how shall we say, “discussion” upon its original 1973 release. Critically panned and dismissed by some as a prime example of how the excesses of progressive rock would see the music disappear up its own arse, Ian Anderson’s second stab at a “mother of all concept albums” may lack the mischievous sense of fun that permeates every single bar of its somewhat glorious predecessor, but it’s certainly not the foul residue wrung from Satan’s purple loon pants that certain quarters would have you believe.

In fact, it’s nothing short of the truth when we at HFoS say that, along with Benefit from 1970, A Passion Play narrowly missed out on a much coveted spot in our Five Must-hear Jethro Tull Albums, featured here last year. It was pretty much a toss-up between those two and Minstrel in the Gallery; evidently, the coin fell in favour of the latter. If you don’t believe me, take a look for yourself.

But what I’m trying to say is that A Passion Play is, to a certain extent, a royal pleasure, preferable to anything that emerged post-Heavy Horses, and, when it all comes down to it, one hundred times better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.

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album reviews, prog rock, progressive folk

Always fashionably late to the party, HFoS celebrates St. Paddy’s Day two weeks after the event, with a dose of sun-kissed acid folk, drifting in like a bank of green mist from the glittering shores of the emerald isle.

Released in 1974, Loudest Whisper’s folk opera concept album, The Children of Lir, recounts a tall tale from Celtic legend, regarding a Sea god and his four children, who’re turned into swans by a jealous step-mother. Just another day at the office in Irish folklore.

Originally envisaged as a stage show and performed parochially, The Children of Lir turned out to be such an ambitious production that a pared-down version of it was featured in a primetime slot on national TV station RTE. The band, accompanied by 50 or so performers and vocalist/slide guitarist Ron Kavanagh, succeeded in wowing their audiences and the TV exposure helped bring about a record deal with Polydor, a label offering sanctuary to many a progressive artist throughout the preceding years.

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acid-folk, album reviews, folk rock, progressive folk, psych-folk

And so it’s with a hey-nonny-no, a pewter tankard of Abbot’s Wedding Tackle™ and an aran-knit jumper you could walk to the North Pole in, that HFoS bids farewell to 2010 with a festive folk Christmas Selection Pack.

The rules, as ever, remain the same. This is no top five and shouldn’t be treated as such. Just another pointless list that captures a few of Head Full of Snow’s favourite acid folk/folk rock albums from the moisty mists of time.

Comus – First Utterance

As unfestive an album as it’s possible to get. Comus’s songs of bloody Pagan sacrifice, murder, rape and insanity are certainly not recommended listening for the Christmas dinner table when granny comes around. Liable to cause an untoward reaction in those of a delicate persuasion, First Utterance is the Witchfinder General of progressive acid-folk. Released in 1971, this godless nightmare of an album features an astounding vocal performance by lead singer Roger Wootton, whose words form like the gnarled, twisted roots of a hanging tree against the icy, death-sodden melodies that seethe ominously away, somewhere beneath. A full review of First Utterance can be found here.

First Utterance by Comus is available as part of 2-disc anthology Song to Comus, to buy from Amazon.co.uk
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acid-folk, album reviews, folk rock, progressive folk

Long have I avoided the folk/prog outfit formerly known as The Strawberry Hill Boys. This has been a premeditated decision that has everything to do with their highest charting single, ‘Part of the Union’. This sorry offering is both offensive and musically reprehensible. I won’t dwell on the rights and wrongs of well-fed rock stars smugly making fun of the downtrodden; suffice to say HFoS doesn’t approve. One bit.

That said, this distasteful example of anti-trade union sentiment was written by the band’s rhythm section, who would depart soon after, and despite any animosity I might hold towards the song and its writers, if the truth be known, before this affront to the working classes was vomited onto an unsuspecting world, clad in an ill-fitting overcoat of jauntiness, the Strawbs were a cracking good band. Even after this unsightly smear of a song had been foisted upon the Great British public, the Strawbs could still knock out a half-decent album, leaving the pro-Tory vaudevillian act in the gutter where it belonged.

Political rant over, the epiphany that allowed this previously despised group into HFoS towers came in two forms. Sid Smith’s Postcards From the Yellow Room podcast and Rob Young’s essential and essentially weighty tome on British folk music, Electric Eden. Rock writer Sid gave us a Strawbs special, admitting he too had held similar reservations about the band because of the abysmal ‘Part of the Union’, while the Electric Eden book dedicated a substantial proportion of a chapter to them. Whisperings of folk and prog stylings piqued the interest and voila! Here we are with a look at 1971′s From the Witchwood.

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acid-folk, album reviews, folk rock, progressive folk

Remember the days when your brand loyalty to a certain comic, week in and week out, come rain, snow or shine, was rewarded around the festive season with a bumper hardback edition? Commonly known as an Annual, it would feature all your favourite strips, as well as a gala of supplementary fluff, slipped in as low-rent filler.

Fruits de Mer Records have taken this idea on board – minus the supplementary fluff – and are releasing their Fruits de Mer Annual 2011 at the end of November. Just in time, as is the case with all good annuals, for Christmas.

Gathered here, in a double 7″ coloured vinyl pack, are four tracks from four bands, which stick to the label’s remit of reinterpreting songs from the swirly eras of psychedelia and prog.

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album reviews, prog rock, progressive folk, psychedelic rock

If there’s four words guaranteed to strike fear into the hearts of those of a nervous disposition, assorted woodland animals and my good self, they are The Incredible String Band. I have previous with this particular band of “musical” ne’er-do-wells and it wasn’t pretty, so imagine my horror when reading the liner notes of Spirogyra’s 1971 debut, St. Radigunds, and their name cropped up as a major influence on guitarist, vocalist and songwriter, Martin Cockerham.

It’s enough to turn a man to drink but fear not, for although there are occasions when Cockerham’s voice does sail dangerously close to the tuneless whine often heard emanating from the vicinity of the ISB’s Robin Williamson, he manages to keep it together, ensuring a listening experience that isn’t likely to leave you reaching for the bleach as a pre-bedtime nightcap.

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acid-folk, album reviews, folk rock, progressive folk