I think it's safe to say that the UK-er's would understand the Incredible String Band more than the yanks. They seem quintessentially English. The vocals were the most difficult part for me.
I wanted to mention Pentangle earlier but I started reading another thread and had forgotten about it. While their music may not have been overly psychedelic the end result had the same impact as a psychedelic record would have and that's transporting you to a different place. For my money, they never put out a bad record but I have no qualms about calling Basket Of Light their masterpiece.
I wanted to mention Pentangle earlier but I started reading another thread and had forgotten about it. While their music may not have been overly psychedelic the end result had the same impact as a psychedelic record would have and that's transporting you to a different place. For my money, they never put out a bad record but I have no qualms about calling Basket Of Light their masterpiece.
I think it's safe to say that the UK-er's would understand the Incredible String Band more than the yanks. They seem quintessentially English. The vocals were the most difficult part for me.
I'm not sure if it qualifies as folk music, but has anyone ever heard of Soft Canyon's album Broken Spirit, I Will Mend Your Wings? Pretty good psychedelic pop/rock with some proggy and folky elements at times. Great but way too short of an album. You can listen to most of the songs from it on their myspace page here: SOFT CANYON on MySpace Music - Free Streaming MP3s, Pictures & Music Downloads
If you want to get into them I recommend listening to the albums in turn as they came out, as they developed with each album. Robin Williamson's songs tend to be more intellectual flights of fancy, whilst Mike Heron's are slightly more poppy - certainly easier to pick up on the guitar!
It's worth giving them a go because, as someone says in the doc, they do take you on a journey. And despite what might initially look as plain weirdness they actually had a lot of rather sensible yet wonderful things to say!
There's a great little documentary here on them that serves as a good introduction:
This Mike Heron song is taken from the fourth album (my favourite):
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