VA - The History Of U.K. Underground Folk Rock - 1968-1978 - Vol. 2 (1996)

Like volume one of this enigmatically packaged and lightly distributed series, this is quality obscure British folk-rock from the late '60s and '70s. And this is obscure, when the best-known artist on a CD is Mellow Candle, who are not exactly tip-of-the-tongue names even to most committed British folk-rock fans. For anyone enamored of the sounds of Sandy Denny, the Incredible String Band, and the like, there are plenty of like-minded moments to please the ear here. It's true that nothing on the disc projects as strong an identity as Denny or the Incredibles. But there are enchanting high female vocals, pastoral hippie-ish lyrics, and deft blends of haunting melodic British Isles folk with psychedelic-tinged arrangements featuring acoustic guitars and flutes. That might sound like a lot of features to jam into one song, but sometimes that's accomplished, as on Stone Angel's "The Bells of Dunwich." Parameter's "Sun Gone" and "Virgin Childe" certainly achieve a low-key Incredible String Band vibe; Blue Epitaph's "Fief" has the rollicking acoustic guitars so typical of the genre at its best; Mark Newman's "Mustapha" has the folk-blues/world music fusion aura of U.K. guitarists like Davy Graham; Mourning Phase's "Ring Out the Bells" has the male-female harmonic blends that fans of this stuff love. With 66 minutes of music and consistent quality, it's very good value, not just one for insane collectors. Incidentally, despite the 1968-1978 chronological range given in the title, one cut, No. 9 Bread Street's "Girl for All Seasons," is dated as a 1967 recording in the track listings.