Customer Reviews

Principal Edwards Magic Theatre

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

 

 

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

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.

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.