Well Done Castle.....
Bill23 | Manchester United Kingdom | 08/17/2004
(4 out of 5 stars)
"...for opening a new front in the reissue wars. We're well past the good stuff now in garage punk, sunshine pop and brit psychedelics, surely - but this seam sounds worth mining further.The real highlights are the least-known artists: Heron's sublime dark-pastoral'Lord and Master', Fresh Maggots impossibly tuneful 'Rosemary Hill',and Andy Roberts irresistable 'Moonlight World'. Add an obscure early Sandy Denny (Milk and Honey) which stands with the very best of her Fairport stuff, Lesley Duncans ethereal 'Love Song' (covered by Elton John ages ago), 2 spooky tracks from Pentangle and Spirogyra, the theme from The Wicker Man and Writing on the Wall's eerie Buffalo (more prog than folk really but who cares?)and you have a magnificent compilation - thoughtful, tuneful,gentle but sslightly unsettling, perfect for late summer (harvest-time?) evenings - and I haven't even mentioned Comus, Forest, and Vashti Bunyan. This really is a superb, fresh sounding compilation - docked one star only because it's only a single disc! Come on Castle, get to work on Vol 2 - and make it a double (at least)!"
Earnest but engaging congerie
John L Murphy | Los Angeles | 02/08/2006
(4 out of 5 stars)
"I listened to this while stuck in L.A. traffic, and it certainly did transport me to another sonic realm entirely. I'm more a fan of electrified folk-meets-rock from the late 60s-early 70s, but this collection opened up some artists--Forest, Comus, Vashti Bunyan, Andy Roberts and Trader Horne--about whom I had only read and never heard before. The collection flows very well in its sequencing, and serves as a fine soundtrack for more introspective or melancholy moods, in traffic or otherwise.
The quality of the tracks proper understandably is rather uneven, as the more famous jostle against the very obscure. I could go without hearing Pentangle's "Lyke Wake Walk" for the umpteenth time, but if you've never heard it before, it's worth it! Similarly, Sandy Denny's "Milk & Honey", while it shows off her unmistakable vocal style, is not much of a tune on its own. Amazingly, only a couple of by comparison overly dated tracks, more in lyrics than in sound, get in the way, and these are somehow fitting reminders of the period charm, awkward as it could be in its 'hippie comes down' ambiance.
The two standout tracks for me were by Trader Horne--ex-member of Them meets ex-Fairport vocalist pre-Sandy D. This expressed the ambition of the time, as folk and softened psychedelic rock combined; its arrangement stands well above many of the others here--with the exception of the Pentangle cut, as might be expected. And, last of all, on a track that's about triple that of any other song here, Comus' fine contribution finally makes this anthology haunting and sinister as well as light and winsome.
The liner notes are wittily written, and convey too the feel of the times concisely without falling into whimsy. This wise detour away from cutesiness about elves, etc. makes this collection better than I expected. You definitely have to be in the mood, but if you are, it's an evocative way to while away an hour and nearly a half--a good value for the money, too.
"
Beautiful album
R. A. Wolinsky | Minneapolis, MN USA | 09/21/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I love this album. All of the songs are interesting, and the CD flows well from one song to the next. I like the Trader Horne song and was obsessed with "Graveyard" for a long while. Now I tend to listen to the album as a whole, rather than one or two songs at a time."
Track Listings (18) - Disc #1