Browse by Label: TOP SOUNDS (UK)

Artist:	VA
Title:	Alphabeat: Pop, Psych & Prog Rock 1967-1970
Label:	TOP SOUNDS (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$25.00
Catalog #:	TSCD 001CD

2005 release. "Compiled and realized by Nigel Lees (author of much of Record Collector magazine's long running series 'The British Psychedelic Trip'), Alphabeat marks the debut release on his own label Top Sounds, a collection which brings together 13 rare slices of pop, psychedelia and progressive rock recorded during 1967-1970. Only 2 have appeared previously on compilations, the remainder bar the obscure 1970 45 by Mississippi have never been released and make their vinyl and CD debut on Alphabeat. All tracks have been professionally restored and the release includes an informative and profusely illustrated 24-page booklet which features histories of all the artists, together with many photos which have never been published before. The release has the blessing of at least one member of each group and in some cases several. Many of the selections on Alphabeat were not even known to exist before the release of the compilation, and few connoisseurs of obscure late '60s pop, psych and prog will be disappointed with its contents. Dubbed from a master supplied by a Belgian television company, 'Foxy Lady' and 'Toad' were recorded live at a pop festival in 1968 and prove The Barrier to be as exciting on stage as on their best singles from the same year, while Mississippi impress with their heavy bluesy rock which is lifted from their lone and very rare 45 from 1970. The pigeonholing of Breakthru as a lightweight pop act through their only single 'Ice Cream Tree' is devastatingly dismissed by the unveiling of 2 incendiary slices of psychedelically-inclined rock recorded at a Birmingham studio in late 1967, and an unknown group who recorded at R.G Jones' OAK studios sound uncannily like The Game 3 years on with the slow burning 'First Back From Heaven.' The Pathfinders' 'Pumpkin Lantern' has appeared before on compilations on a number of occasions, but thanks to the discovery of another acetate copy, it's presented here in premium quality together for the first time with its previously ignored but very special rendering of the Bee Gees' 'To Love Somebody.' Graded Grains have presented psych collectors with a mystery and an enigma since their acetate of 'Animal Magic' and ' Lucifer Sam' was unearthed for Chocolate Soup For Diabetics Volume 3 way back in the early '80s, and such was their dogged obscurity that some came to believe there was no such band called Graded Grains at all. Top Sounds however, are able to present 4 tracks recorded on the continent in Paris in 1969 which beautifully exhibit authentic pop psych with a marked Barrett-era Pink Floyd influence, one of which is a later (and much cleaner!) take of the famed 'Animal Magic.' And last but by no means least, the legendary blues band Black Cat Bones prove their versatility and deliver an uptempo psych-flavored rocker called 'Warmth Of The Day,' which aside from inclusion on a fairly recent bootleg has only previously been available on the rare 1969 promotional for the QE2 ocean liner."

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Artist:	VA
Title:	Shapes & Sounds: Orange & Red Beams from the BBC Archives
Label:	TOP SOUNDS (UK)
Format:	LP
Price:	$26.00
Catalog #:	TSLP 002LP