Customer Reviews

Gather In The Mushrooms: British Acid Folk Underground 1968-1974

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

...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)!

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.

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.

Not really 'folk' in the true sense of the word,
This album is still beautiful and really should be heard.

'Folk-influenced', perhaps, is a better description,
Like the neo-folk that blossomed in 1980s Britain

This 1960s 'acid folk' derives its inspiration
From trad folk, without becoming slavish imitation.

Some real gems here, like Trader Horne's 'Morning Way',
Which shimmers like the sun at the threshold of day.

And Magnet's erotic setting of a Robert Burns poem
From the soundtrack of 'The Wicker Man' should be very widely known.

And then there's Forest's 'Graveyard', an amazing little piece,
Or 'The Herald' by Comus, from their debut masterpiece.

The only misplaced song is Buffalo's 'Writing on the Wall'
- a blues-based piece which I don't like at all.

Apart from that, I recommend this album with full heart.
It will take your soul away to a realm of timeless art.

I am a big british folk rock fan, along with folk rock in general, but this collection gives you music that you are not going to find easily from other sources than this CD...What's the big deal? Well, the Sandy Denny "Milk and Honey" song, while not her best, stands for itself and unless you have her complete CD collection (at about $175.00) you would have to root around for it. Pentangle: "Lyke Wyke Dirge" may get on some people's nerves was only on two of their CD's "Basket of Light" as well as an earlier more obscure album and is a "real madrigal" (song written in the early 14-1600's) and is about the passage from life to death for those who are in the process of dying (and during that time would have been the black death). If you take the term: "Gather in the Mushrooms" seriously, they are referring to what to listen to during an acid trip/mushroom trip! Lesley Duncan's "Love Song" is fantstic, and while covered by Elton John in his Tumbleweed Connection Album, is a lost gem. She stopped the music business in the 1970's and her music is Etherial and fits well in this album. I would have LOVED to have something by The Fools in here (Graham Nash production), but C'est La Vie...this is a well rounded, well put together CD and cannot be beat for the price. For anyone else interested in Folk Music of this kind, I would also suggest: Quintessence, as well as the British group Renaissance.

As a teenager growing up in Britain I was very fortunate that I was able to buy what were termed "sampler albums", where a particular label took tracks from various albums and packaged them at a very reasonable price for customers to avail themselves of some of the new music of the time. Given that the times were in the last few years of the '60s, than there were a proliferation of new bands, new artists and new music as a thousand flowers bllomed.

Island Records were at the forefront of such albums, You Can All Join In and El Pea being particular favourites. I must confess to spending substantial sums on the albums that I was introduced to and do not regret that expenditure to this day.

This album seems to be a part of a trend, particularly in Britain, whereby sampler albums with a selection of music from yesteryear are compiled to aquaint a whole new generation of music lovers to some of the lost classics of the past. These appetisers contain some very tasty morsels indeed and this is no exception. The inclusion of some well known names can be a little tiresome but it must be understood that the fame is to whet the appetite for more.

I would have liked to see a Pete Frame family tree connecting these artists as although the liner notes are comprehensive a diagrammatic exposition would have made for hours of delightful study and suggestions for further listening.

For me, each and every track on this album is a little gem, although I felt at the conclusion that I had merely finished the first course. It was a surprise to find only a single disc when there must surely be material enough for two, at least.

If I had to pick out particular tracks I would certainly join the consensus about Trader Horne, a vinyl album once owned but lost in the midst of bedsitter images, but Shirley Collins demonstrates a magisterial hold over her craft and John Renbourn, as always, a joy to hear.

Buy this album, for you and for you children and your children's children.