(Maker of) Island's compilation almost gets it right but...
Tom | London | 09/03/2002
(4 out of 5 stars)
"What gives with record companies? The CD has been around long enough for even yer silver-haired granny to know that you can get up to 78 minutes of music on one of the little blighters - so why does this largely commendable compilation of the ISB's Island years only run to 68 minutes? Especially when several of the best songs from this thorny era are conspicuous by their absence? Give Island credit for cherry-picking exactly the right tracks from "Be Glad", "No Ruinous Feud" and "Hard Rope" - although, let's be honest, there aren't too many outstanding tracks to be had from those 3 albums. More problematic are the choices from the one great ISB album of the era, "Liquid Acrobat" and the interesting failure that was "Earthspan". No quibbles about the inclusion of Robin Williamson's wondrous Arabic/ Gregorian/ Country & Western knees-up, "Talking of the End", and Mike Heron's doubly beautiful "Worlds They Rise and Fall" and "Red Hair" but where is Robin's stirring LRH-inspired folk-rocker "Dear Old Battlefield" and his incredible, cinematic, "Darling Belle"? The latter is one the highlights of ISB's entire career and you can't say that about too much they produced after 1968. Okay, I know it's nearly 11 minutes long, but it could easily have been accommodated by leaving off a certain pleasant but unexceptional Williamson song... which just happens to give this compilation its title!The tracks selected from "Earthspan" demonstrate one other major weakness of this compilation - the complete absence of Malcolm Le Maistre. Now I'm not about to claim that young Malc was any kind of musical (or even terpsichorean) genius, and there's no doubt that he often looked and sounded like a prissy prancing prat, but he did contribute some interesting material to latter-day ISB. Yet Malcolm is airbrushed out of Raymond Greenoaken's sleevenotes and does not appear in any of the accompanying photos on the CD. In fact Rose Simpson, who LeMaistre more-or-less replaced, even appears on the CD cover in spite of the fact that she only plays on the opening track and had left ISB by the time they'd joined Island! Is Malcolm Le Maistre destined to be the Doug Yule of the Incredible String Band I wonder!So no room then for any of Malcolm's songs, meaning the absence of the likes of "My Father Was a Lighthouse Keeper" (undoubtedly the most striking song on "Earthspan"), "Sailor and the Dancer" et al. Do they sound like ISB? No. But does Robin's "Moon Hang Low"? Can't say I approve of the presence of the latter, though "Restless Night" and "Banks of Sweet Italy" probably do deserve to be here ("Banks of Sweet Italy" is actually titled "Bank of Sweet Italy" on this CD, are Island implying it may in fact be about international finance?). I don't quite understand the inclusion of "Seagull", Mike's ponderous postcard from sunny Sea Org (not so much "wish you were here" as "why am I here?"), but I am fascinated to learn from the sleevenotes that Monsieur Heron's tres outre "Antoine" is "based on the life of Hector Berlioz". Well, I never!"
Track Listings (16) - Disc #1