U - THE INCREDIBLE STRING BAND***

El Wool Suite/The Juggler's Song/Time/Bad Sadie Lee/Queen Of Love/Partial Belated Overture/Light In Time Of Darkness-Glad To See You/Walking Along With You/Hirem Pawnitof-Fairies Hornpipe/Bridge Theme/Bridge Song/Astral Plane Theme/Invocation/Robot Blues/Puppet Song/Cutting The Strings/I Know You/Rainbow

U was a double LP from The Incredible String Band showcasing a variety of exotic musical styles. It originated in an experimental multimedia collaboration with a theatrical group. (US:183 UK:34)

“This one finally breaks the straight acoustic folk chains, opting for at least some progressive elements, including some eastern flavoured material with exotic acoustic instrumentation. Male/female vocals are also a welcome addition.”

“This album is unusual even by the broad standards set by the band as it documents the soundtrack of an ambitious stage programme with pantomimist Malcolm Le Maistre and his theatrical group Stone Monkey, an innovative performance involving multimedia, definitely way ahead of its time. The music is truly up to the task and holds water on its own. Although not easy listening, this is exceptional music, which loses none of its inspiration and quality over time.”

“Here you have a masterpiece comprising a mixture of world music and psychedelic folk. Some tracks have got long improvisation, which could be boring for some, but the acoustic atmosphere is really magic, so pure and great.”

“While there are many tunes in here that are in the spirit of The String Band's previous albums, there are some very offbeat tunes that sounded very 1970s folk with a large twist of children's music thrown into the recipe.”

“ISB range from their normal Anglo fairy-folk into Indian ragas, blues, rock & roll, mock-cowboy songs and long progressive instrumentals. Even though parts of it are gratingly awful, others are among the best pieces in their oeuvre. Such genreexploding variety is almost never heard these days and they must be given huge points for the effort.”

“Probably their greatest work with a variety only equalled by the White Album. Nevertheless I am glad that I don't have to go through the pantomime and dances. It is not a beginner’s album to the ISB, it's the highlight.”