Monday 13 April 2009

Incredible String Band

I've been, and continue to be, very busy at the moment. The clock is ticking down until we meet our new arrival. It's not long now. So posts may start to become sporadic for a little while.

Meanwhile I've developed something of an obsession with The Incredible String Band. The ISB were a psychedelic folk band formed in the late 60s by contemporaries of Bert Jansch and John Martyn. I can't say I've ever heard anything quite like them. Other people have worked in similar areas, but some of this stuff is out there.

Rainbow is from their 1970 album U. U was the recorded version of a stageshow they had been touring and was a double album recorded in just 48 hours. Rainbow itself clocks in at 15 minutes, and is stunning, being about five or six different songs in one, moving from slow delicate piano piece to raucous passionate proclaiming. Far out. Man.

The Incredible String Band - Rainbow

4 comments:

ally. said...

you be careful out there dearie, don't get tangled in any beards
x

davyh said...

Good on yer Simon, I'm absolutely all for this kind of adventuring on the high seas of rock and I downloaded this with anticipation (I have one earlier song by them I like and anything Joe Boyd-connected's always worth a listen isn't it?) but I confess I found it horribly proggy; the flutes didn't help.

Still nothing ventured, etc, and ever onward to new horizons me hearties!

(Ally's right about the beards mind).

Simon said...

Prog? Oh dear.

Yeah, it is a bit proggy around the edges. There well worth investigating though, some of the more straightforward blues/folk stuff is lovely and there's some stuff later on that sits alongside Nick Drake rather well.

I think of this track as being a bit Dexys circa Don't Stand Me Down. Although some might say that was Kevin's Prog moment....

davyh said...

Kevin always had too much soul to be prog ; )