This is a compilation that we've wanted to post for close to year, but I held back because we had it only in mp3. Then a few days back we lucked out and found it in lossless. There is some stunningly beautiful music here, so try not to pass it by. As usual, enjoy!
From Richie Unterberger at All Music Guide:
You can think of this as sort of an equivalent to specialty series like Nuggets, Rubble, and Pebbles that unearthed very obscure 1960s rock, the difference being that this focuses on British folk-rock of the late '60s and '70s. Although artists like Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span, the Incredible String Band, and Pentangle are fairly popular and well-known, there have been very few discs dedicated to excavation of other bands working along the same lines that never got anywhere (commercially that is). This CD is compiled from rare albums, along with presenting previously unavailable songs by the Trees, Tir Na Nog, Mellow Candle, and Harison. Now, when the Trees and Mellow Candle are by far the most recognizable names on the track listing, you know this is digging deep. Note, however, that unlike many anthologies of obscure genre music — for whatever genre — the quality on this and Vol. 2 of this series is pretty high, and virtually guaranteed to appeal to fans of classic British folk-rock in the Fairport/Steeleye/Incredibles mold. Whether high female vocals in the Sandy Denny/Jacqui McShee style or fairly exotic acoustic-based folk-psych is your bag, there's a lot of it here. While there may not be anything as outstanding as the best of the well-known bands, it's a fine soundtrack for imagining yourself hiking through the British greenlands, with the style's characteristic emphasis on minor-based, folky melodies. Some of the stuff will appeal to psychedelic fans of any kind, too, like Parameter's "Emmeline," with its Ray Davies-like vocal, wiggly guitar, and general aura of disembodied cloudiness.
Volume 1 Technical Information:
Artist: Various Artists
Album: The History of U.K. Underground Folk Rock (Vol. 1)
Year: 1968-1978/2007
Audio Codec(s): FLAC
Encoding: Lossless
Rip: split tracks
Avg. bitrate: 649 kb/s
Sample rate: 44100 Hz
Bits per sample: 16
Channels: 2
File size: 349 MB
Length: 1:15:15
Tracklisting:
01. Shide & Acorn- Under the Tree (4:29)
02. Caedmon- Aslan (4:26)
03. Tir Na Nog- Our Love (3:10)
04. Mellow Candle- Sheep Season (3:36)
05. Parameter- Emmeline (5:49)
06. Fibbertigibbet- Little Roving Sailor (2:18)
07. Horison- Sea of Tranquility (5:50)
08. Vulcans Hammer- Jamie (3:34)
09. Caedmon- Sea Song (5:35)
10. Stone Angel- Dancing at Whitsun (3:15)
11. Mark Newman- Patterns (2:30)
12. Trees- Little Black Cloud (2:13)
13. Midwinter- Winter Song (3:59)
14. Artist Unknown- Hymn for Today (4:20)
15. Loudest Whisper- She Moves to the Fair (5:56)
16. Skybird- Magdalena (3:24)
17. Gallery- The Baron of Brackley (4:29)
18. Water into Wine Band- Waiting for Another Day (6:23)
Volume 1 Megaupload Link
Volume 2 Technical Information:
Artist: Various Artists
Album: The History of U.K. Underground Folk Rock (Vol. 2)
Year: 1968-1978/2007
Audio Codec(s): FLAC
Encoding: Lossless
Rip: split tracks
Avg. bitrate: 640 kb/s
Sample rate: 44100 Hz
Bits per sample: 16
Channels: 2
File size: 307 MB
Length: 1:07:08
Tracklisting:
01. Mellow Candle- Silver Song (4:11)
02. Stone Angel- The Bells of Dunwich (6:00)
03. Loudest Whisper- Silent O'Moyle (5:55)
04. Parameter- Sun Gone (1:06)
05. Shide & Acorn- I Used to Live Within a World (3:31)
06. Blue Epitaph- Ffief (2:34)
07. Mark Newman- Mustapha (4:34)
08. Mourning Phase- Ring Out the Bells (4:30)
09. No. 9 Bread St.- Girl for All Seasons (2:11)
10. Melton Constable- River Lane (3:53)
11. Parameter- Virgin Childe (2:50)
12. Horison- Epic (4:00)
13. Waiting for the Sun- Waiting for the Sun (3:50)
14. Moths- Halfdan's Daughter (3:06)
15. Caedmon- London Psalm (5:27)
16. Tir Na Nog- Daisy Lady (1:43)
17. Flibbertigibbert- My Lagan Love (3:40)
18. Midwinter- Sanctuary Stone (4:09)
Volume 2 Megaupload Link
