I picked this up for a couple of quid in a sale at Our Price, believing I'd purchased something far rarer than it actually is (original LP goes for about £500, this CD only about £10). It's the long lost album which Egg did incognito for a minor label wanting a psychedelic album (bringing back former Uriel bandmate Steve Hillage to help out.
Recorded in one afternoon for £250, it's an interesting snapshot of proto-Canterbury prog.
Garden Of Earthly Delights starts the album, a simple proggy song, with Mont Campbell and Hillage sharing the vocals, then Azothath is more pedestrian, and frankly dull. Queen Street Gang was the theme to an ITV children's show of the same name (no, me neither), and plods along in a pleasant way with some fine Hammond organ by Dave Stewart (even if it does expose the limitations of a cheap studio). Leg has a heavy bluesy feel, and it's a reasonable listen, on a par with lots who did similar things at the time, although most didn't need to end with that feedback mayhem.
The album ends with two long pieces. Clean Innocent Fun - well, it might be clean and innocent, but it's a rambling piece of slow psych-prog, which drags repetitively across ten minutes. Similarly, Metempsychosis is a tedious 17 minute piece, with lots of extended solos, electronic noise, but little in the way of hook or melody - probably great live in 1969 with chemical assistance, but little more than heavy background for a pensioner half a century later. The wailing at the halfway point, doesn't help, either.
Stewart's self-deprecating CD notes make good reading, and do make the point that it was all cheap done in one afternoon, that the long pieces were practically made up on the spot, based on live work, and they were only 18 at the time!
2* - historically interesting early Canterbury-style prog, but none of the original pieces are strong
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