Principal Edwards Magic Theatre [Import, Soundtrack]

Principal Edwards Magic Theatre | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 25, 1995)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import, Soundtrack
• Label: See for Miles UK
• ASIN: B0000011AX
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #802,975 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Enigmatic Insomniac Machine

2. Sacrifice

3. The Death of Don Quixote

4. Third Sonnet to Sunday Notes of Music

5. To a Broken Guitar

6. Pinky: A Mystery Cycle

7. McAlpine's Dream

8. McAlpine Versus the Asmoto

9. The Asmoto Running Band

10. Asmoto Celebration

11. Further Asmoto Celebration

12. Total Glycerol Esther

13. Freef (R) All

14. The Kettering Song

15. Weirdsong of Breaking Through at Last

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Very Different, Unique, but surprisingly good!, September 9, 2005

By 

Strat_Lvr - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Principal Edwards Magic Theatre (Audio CD)

I've been wanting to write a review about this CD which features 2 albums on 1, but now that I've had the CD for a few weeks and have listened to it, I agree with what one of the other reviewers had to say about it in his describing it. Their are so many different sounds and styles of music from this group that it's hard for me to categorize it, but some of the playing of the guitars, both acoustic and electric, are very good, with some excellent lead guitar solos, and very good acoustic guitar as well. Then there's Vivien McAuliffe's vocals... Beautiful voice on many tracks, but their are also some tracks that are pretty outrageous and they get very "trippy" and wild. It's pretty "psychedelic" sounding on some tracks, and they do even manage to have that Indian-Raga sound thrown in on some songs as well. The thing I like about this group and the CD, is that the music is better than you think it would be, and Vivien McAuliffe's vocals are outstanding. I am giving this just 4 stars, not quite good enough to give it 5 stars, but it's an excellent deal for two great and unique albums from the late 60's, and if you like great female vocals and 60's style music with a bit of weirdness and "Psychedelia," then get this, it's much better than you think it would be. Glenn Signal Hill,CA USA

5.0 out of 5 stars Traveling Minstrel Show, June 22, 2005

By 

Robert Carlberg (Seattle) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Principal Edwards Magic Theatre (Audio CD)

PEMT was a collective of long-haired dancers & musicians who traipsed around the English countryside in 1968-1971. They were probably barefoot and wore flowers in their hair too, and undoubtedly smoked an awful lot of dope. Most of the 13-member band were students at Exeter University.

You can't hear that on CD of course. What you DO HEAR is the music, which was progressive in the best sense -- lots of shifting time signatures, non-Western scales, an astonishing variety of moods and tonalities, and some serious musical chops. They were, for want of a better description, the English Amon Düül.

Their music was well-informed, showing influences as diverse as English medieval folk, Indian raga, Arabic taqsim, and of course contemporary psychedelic rock (Nick Mason, Pink Floyd's drummer, produced their 2nd LP). Most important, it is fun-loving and joyeous stuff which fondly brings back to the listener those wild and woolly hippie-dippie days so long gone.

3 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars quirky hippy wierdness, September 22, 1999

By 

S. GODFREY "Stuart" (Risca, South Wales) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Principal Edwards Magic Theatre (Audio CD)

Principal Edwards were a wierd enough experience back in the late 1960's...to find them alive and well on CD is stranger still. This was music which really had to be experienced live; I have the vinyl albums but haven't played them for years. Fascinating period pieces, highly pretentious lyrics, some ace guitar and a general aura of quasi-intellctual hippy student wierdness...its all good fun but check out the Incredible String Band for a deeper insight into psychedelic folk - rock of the late Sixties.