I'm not afraid to admit that I've always had a soft spot for The Moody Blues. That blend of 60s psychedelic rock and foppish, lute-playing minstrel pastiche has always been intriguing to me. Here are some other songs that exemplify this style:
The Pentangle - Light FlightDr. Strangely Strange - Dark Haired LadyCaravan - Winter WineThe Incredible String Band - The Hangman's Beautiful DaughterPink Floyd - much of Piper at the Gates of DawnProbably a number of Jethro Tull songs, though I don't know them well
I'm sure there are countless others. It was a leitmotif through the Spinal Tap movie, so it must have, by then, been a rock cliché. If anyone else has any suggestions, especially from the 60s, I would love to hear them.
http://assets0.smart.fm/assets/users/kshelp/713047d8.jpg
― 3×5, Wednesday, 25 February 2015 16:14 (nine years ago) link
i think Midlake is the present-day band currently carrying this torch
― ciderpress, Wednesday, 25 February 2015 16:21 (nine years ago) link
STACKRIDGE
― reggie (qualmsley), Wednesday, 25 February 2015 16:24 (nine years ago) link
a bunch of early prog records kinda slot into this aesthetic too don't they
― ciderpress, Wednesday, 25 February 2015 16:27 (nine years ago) link
donovan is kinda the king of this isn't he?
― tylerw, Wednesday, 25 February 2015 16:28 (nine years ago) link
Steeleye Span
― Keith Moom (Neil S), Wednesday, 25 February 2015 16:29 (nine years ago) link
Trees - The Garden of Jane Delawney and On the Shore
― dichtgekitte discman (unregistered), Wednesday, 25 February 2015 16:31 (nine years ago) link
Steeleye Span has an electrified medieval folk vibe to it as do a few others.I do like that late 70s Jethro Tull era where they sound like the turn of the 70s britfolk thing but smothered in synths. Tales From The Wood has it. I think Heavy Horses too.
But yeah updating a medieval sound seems pretty rife in the stuff later thought of as Acid folk.
I also really like Semiramis Dedicato A Frazz which has a circus music influence which would probably tie in here.
― Stevolende, Wednesday, 25 February 2015 16:36 (nine years ago) link
This is about where I recommend this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Seasons-Change-Experimental-Genuine-Jawbone/dp/1906002320
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 25 February 2015 16:38 (nine years ago) link
good? the book i always recommend is Electric Eden -- one of my favorite books about music.
― tylerw, Wednesday, 25 February 2015 16:40 (nine years ago) link
Seasons They Change explicitly tackles acid folk as (sometimes retroactive) concept but gives a good grounding in the medieval/Pre-Raphaelite impulses floating throughout. That it takes it and runs with it up through last decade is even better from where I sit.
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 25 February 2015 16:42 (nine years ago) link
Canterbury Glass - Sacred Scenes and Characters
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwkInw2aRw0
(I guess this is more medieval monastery than renaissance fair)
― dichtgekitte discman (unregistered), Wednesday, 25 February 2015 16:42 (nine years ago) link
xp I know the author of that book, she's dead nice and a real expert in her field (arf)
― Keith Moom (Neil S), Wednesday, 25 February 2015 16:43 (nine years ago) link
oh i know a good renaissance fair song, it's renaissance fair by the byrds
― let me be your fan taytay (NickB), Wednesday, 25 February 2015 17:04 (nine years ago) link
not heard the human instinct cover of it before (slightly nsfw video):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAhfnvl7me0
― let me be your fan taytay (NickB), Wednesday, 25 February 2015 17:06 (nine years ago) link
There's a band called Renaissance and the clue is kinda in the name
― vacuum head tree disease (imago), Wednesday, 25 February 2015 17:16 (nine years ago) link
The band Renaissance was originally a post-Yardbirds project for Keith Relf, His siter jane and Jim Mcarty. They left before the band took on the lineup it may be best known for. I'm not sure who if anybody remained overlapping the 2 main lineups.
I found the book Seasons They Change a bit too listy. Not really going into things in great detail. Think I far preferred Electric Eden
― Stevolende, Wednesday, 25 February 2015 18:30 (nine years ago) link
Thanks for the suggestions, I will have to check them out.
Midlake reinvents themselves every album -- however, I don't think they've ever sounded like renfair psych. I've listened to Antiphon, if that's the album you're talking about, and it doesn't have that sound to me.
I forgot about the band Love. Some of their stuff was very mintrelley in that way -- almost a self-parody (think Andmoreagain, The Castle, Old Man).
― 3×5, Wednesday, 25 February 2015 18:50 (nine years ago) link
*minstrelly? I know that's not even a word.
― 3×5, Wednesday, 25 February 2015 18:51 (nine years ago) link
Dorothy Carter! Later of the Medieval Baebes! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbF-sXeMQBs
― ian, Wednesday, 25 February 2015 20:01 (nine years ago) link
Not from the 60s, but Circulus
― I am using your worlds, Wednesday, 25 February 2015 20:04 (nine years ago) link
ctrl+f comus ??
― kyenkyen, Wednesday, 25 February 2015 21:24 (nine years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GB6Krjys-MQ
― scott seward, Wednesday, 25 February 2015 21:44 (nine years ago) link
^^^ yup.
― ian, Wednesday, 25 February 2015 21:53 (nine years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Q4BrtuM5mU
― ian, Wednesday, 25 February 2015 22:00 (nine years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdcDm978tng
― ian, Wednesday, 25 February 2015 22:07 (nine years ago) link
spriguns + mandy morton = all-time
― scott seward, Wednesday, 25 February 2015 22:13 (nine years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FntYQi9G9Bg
― describing a scene in which the Hulk gets a boner (contenderizer), Wednesday, 25 February 2015 22:16 (nine years ago) link
need the spriguns records.. stupidly did not buy the reissues ten yrs ago/..
― ian, Wednesday, 25 February 2015 23:11 (nine years ago) link
wow at the human instinct, that's got to be from their london sojourn?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=ZO7sq3uSWAg
renfair by way of the pre-raphaelite brotherhood
― no lime tangier, Thursday, 26 February 2015 08:32 (nine years ago) link
men-an-tol
their EP and album are both outstanding and hugely underrated
― don't ask me why i posted this (electricsound), Thursday, 26 February 2015 08:38 (nine years ago) link
(a 2010s band not a 60s one i should point out)
I was just wondering if the Spriguns reissues were still around. I did get that Time Will Tell but none of the others. It sounds like the turn of the 70s Britfolk sound somewhat updated, incorporating some later 70s rock elements.
Carol Of Harvest are also a decent slight update on that Britfolk sound. LP dates from '78 in Germany. Second Battle had the lp out a few years ago but I think that may be long gone too.
― Stevolende, Thursday, 26 February 2015 09:09 (nine years ago) link
Esoteric reissued several Spriguns titles in 2013
― Stevolende, Thursday, 26 February 2015 12:14 (nine years ago) link
It's always surprising to me how more modern psych revivalists miss out the folk element, it was absolutely core to British psychedelia in particular. When you listen back to this stuff you really get a sense of how the rules and conventions of rock music hadn't been codified properly, there was a sense that anything could creep in and often did. Modern revivalists tend to start with the melodic and harmonic strictures of current rock music and work backwards, but the presence of folk in the mix really opened the 60s and early 70s stuff out melodically. Modal scales and harmonies are crucial to this stuff and that's what you don't hear much of in eg Midlake.
― Matt DC, Thursday, 26 February 2015 12:41 (nine years ago) link
Kaleidoscope (UK), Nirvana (UK).... both possibly too twee though?
― Romeo Daltrey (Tom D.), Thursday, 26 February 2015 12:48 (nine years ago) link
Sally Oldfield (Mike's sister) made some records in this vein as well, some with Mike under the name The Sallyangie, but her own song Hide and Seek is my favourite (same sort of thing but with... added disco!).
United States of America - 'The Garden of Earthly Delights', and bits of 'The Nightmare of JB Stanislas' by Nick Garrie (although both possibly a bit too electric for your needs?) Pentangle's 'Basket of Light' and parts of the first Kaleidoscope album.
― Matt DC, Thursday, 26 February 2015 12:53 (nine years ago) link
calling it psych might be a bit of a stretch, but some of malicorne's dronier stuff works for me:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsMjvaTE-HA
and on a similar tip there's veronique chalot
― no lime tangier, Thursday, 26 February 2015 13:14 (nine years ago) link
Malicorne came out of Alain Stivell's band or at least some members did. His electric early stuff has a bit of a psych/prog feel in places.
I'm not sure about the Medieval thing with Albion Band but I find their Battle of The Field has an internal glow I find very lysergic. & it always reminds me of Kosmische music.
I've tended to find there is an indigenous folk element to most european early 70s prog that I've heard. to echo the comment by whoever that is above. Seems to be one element of the melange that makes up the sound.Not sure when rock became formularised as something that ceased to sound like a melange of other elements, you can hear the mix in a lotof the early stuff from 50s-70s jazz, folk, r'n'b, and whatever other elements.
― Stevolende, Thursday, 26 February 2015 13:36 (nine years ago) link
listening to malicorne right now! they were awesome. not psych but buy their records anyway.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xfp1/v/t1.0-9/10169216_10153737117277137_8503431178719778013_n.jpg?oh=bffbecdbc67f33a7752922bbac6ee91c&oe=558F1809&__gda__=1430938732_4c22187153ecc0cc1fb54c71210e6d4a
― scott seward, Thursday, 26 February 2015 16:44 (nine years ago) link
there is rock guitar in places.
― scott seward, Thursday, 26 February 2015 16:45 (nine years ago) link
oh that looks nice, would buy it if i saw it
third ear band should probably be mentioned here right?
i need to give those spriguns albums a go i guess. i had the mandy morton album 'magic lady' at one stage, but i couldn't really get into it - was kind of bumbling folky pub-rock iirc?
― let me be your fan taytay (NickB), Thursday, 26 February 2015 16:56 (nine years ago) link
All of William D Drake's albums are essential. Not just for ren folk devotees, but in general.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apxzwkO8nnM
I should also mention this wonderful Bob Stanley-compiled collection from a few years back. The Mellow Candle track was a particular revelation.
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61s2E4OJ%2BAL.jpg
― Pheeel, Thursday, 26 February 2015 19:35 (nine years ago) link
Was waiting for the Cardiacsy crossover. William D Drake is a hero!
― vacuum head tree disease (imago), Thursday, 26 February 2015 19:49 (nine years ago) link
i think i'll pass on the william d. drake. but mellow candle are always top of the heap! also:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkSFlJubQU8
― scott seward, Thursday, 26 February 2015 20:18 (nine years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1jNLR9tjXE
― scott seward, Thursday, 26 February 2015 20:20 (nine years ago) link
also, did nobody mention...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuJSC0o_egI
― scott seward, Thursday, 26 February 2015 20:22 (nine years ago) link
also a big fave of mine. the dunhill vinyl is cheap as dirt. (i love this band in general. your mileage may vary. as they say.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdJngJgljSk
― scott seward, Thursday, 26 February 2015 20:33 (nine years ago) link
i think i'll pass on the william d. drake.
Why? I mean, I know musical taste is subjective and all that, but I've had so many experiences of others dismissing this stuff out of hand(or worse, total disinterest) and I just don't get it. What is it that turns people off that I can't hear?
― Pheeel, Thursday, 26 February 2015 20:54 (nine years ago) link
it's too.....something for me. i didn't want to play the whole thing that's all i know.
― scott seward, Thursday, 26 February 2015 22:08 (nine years ago) link
Gryphon, motherfuckers
― a date with density (Jon Lewis), Friday, 27 February 2015 00:41 (nine years ago) link
always wanted to hear midnight mushrumps just based on the cover, and spirogyra, yes!straying outside the bounds of psych again, love the first john renbourn group lp:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eejS-nVrmks
― no lime tangier, Friday, 27 February 2015 02:32 (nine years ago) link
xxxxxp he also did another one that i've got, its great - http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_400/MI0000/913/MI0000913966.jpg
― just sayin, Friday, 27 February 2015 02:37 (nine years ago) link
"Gryphon, motherfuckers"
psych, though, really?
― scott seward, Friday, 27 February 2015 02:46 (nine years ago) link
A bit more prog? Good though.Wish I still had the 2fer of the 1st 2 lps but it disappeared on me.& the Sanctuary anthology is tracked non chronologically and I'm not sure if it has everything from those lps on anyway.Do wish the tv appearance from Magpie would turn up in good condition.
― Stevolende, Friday, 27 February 2015 07:47 (nine years ago) link
Definitely prog but impossible not to mention
― a date with density (Jon Lewis), Saturday, 28 February 2015 15:28 (nine years ago) link
― Pheeel, Thursday, 26 February 2015 20:54 (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
It's too knowingly cutesy and twee for me, and I am a HUGE Cardiacs fan.
― ultros ultros-ghali, Saturday, 28 February 2015 18:43 (nine years ago) link
The William D Drake linked upthread is just all wrong, it might be that I'm just not interested in modern recreations of this sound but it needs to be wide-eyed and kind of naive and informed by loads of drugs and it being the late 60s, OR it needs to be creepy and sinister and informed by loads of drugs and it being the late 60s/early 70s. The William D Drake feels like a genre exercise.
― Matt DC, Sunday, 1 March 2015 10:49 (nine years ago) link
It doesn't help that in that video you can see them in a record studio and one of them is literally smirking in places.
― Matt DC, Sunday, 1 March 2015 11:36 (nine years ago) link
Ougenweide?
― Moon tells the salt (doo dah), Sunday, 1 March 2015 13:42 (nine years ago) link
I have the idea in my head that there is a strain of elizabethan/jacobian referencing post punk, some of it Derek Jarman connected/inspired? The first two albums by The Passage maybe, what other stuff?
― soref, Sunday, 1 March 2015 14:18 (nine years ago) link
That's because they're a bunch of close friends having a good time playing music. Personally I like the interplay between the drummer and bassist on these videos, but whatever.
See, now this is bullshit. If you'd said "I don't like his voice", I could understand that, but I can't hold with such an absurdly narrow and arbitrary criteria of musical worth. It's just dogmatic nonsense!
I also think it's worth pointing out the original recording of this song is almost as old as that venerated 70s era acid folk(recorded sometime between 83-4), and to my ears has that creepy, naive vibe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhTYgRaA60E
― Pheeel, Sunday, 1 March 2015 14:23 (nine years ago) link
the American band Chrysalis were on another Saint Etienne related complilation, they seem pretty foppish and lute-playing, I'd always thought they were british
― soref, Sunday, 1 March 2015 14:31 (nine years ago) link
the Chrysalis album is a masterpiece.
― scott seward, Sunday, 1 March 2015 15:02 (nine years ago) link