Now I know this has been spoken about before, but it wont be the first time a great album has popped back up on here for a quick encore...
Was just listening to this last night, not a bad track on here, I mean Deep Purple, Yardbirds, BJH, Move, Hendrix...what's not to like..
Most of the tracks are established classics of course, but these versions..
..so crunchy!! As I've said before, my fave guitar sound is that cranked up, natural distortion you get on all the best heavy Brit Freakbeat/Early Psych recordings and these recordings have it in spades...
The Yardbirds 'Think About it'...superb version, better than the released imo.
The Move's 'Cherry blossom clinic' gets an added blast of biff - bang - pow!!
with a muscular Pop Art ending...prefer this version too..
Even the the usually very mellow BJH turn in an excellent atypical gritty sounding offering.
The absolute stunners for me on this set tho come from Love Sculpture, the loud over driven guitar turns Pete Dello's laid back ballad, 'Do I still figure in Your Life' into a crunchy 'Perfumed Garden' sounding nugget, and as for their version of George Harrisons 'The Inner Light', this has to be heard to be believed..a stunning full on Psych out interpretation of an already excellent and very psychedelic song...masterpiece!! As far as I know these songs have never appeared anywhere else and make this set worth owning for these alone, tho as I said, it's all really good and one of the best comps around.
Thumbs up to Nigel at Top Sounds for his excellent releases....'Look at The Sun' is pretty damn hot too...
Kinda kicking myself a bit as when 'Alphabeat' and 'Shapes & Sounds' Vol 1 came out I told myself I couldn't afford them. I'm sure whatever I bought at the time instead wasn't limited like these and could've waited...what was I thinking?...
Anyhoo, I've gone off on a tangent...I'd highly recommend Radio Tymes to anyone toying with the idea of buying it, grab it before it's gone!
EDIT NOTE: I've just read thru this and realised that I didn't mention that these recordings are BBC Top Gear sessions as most of you will know already, but thought for the benefit of anyone reading this that didn't know, then it needs to be mentioned! Cheers.
Hi Mr Wizzer,
you're kinda in the right ball park there, but not in a strict sense...
having picked up a little about your tastes in UK stuff from your posts here... ( lotsa Brit Freakbeat & Psych/Prog w/organ...not so much of the pop..right? ) I'd guess you'd like Radio tymes the best...most likely Look At the Sun too..T2 and an unreleased blistering Fleur De Lys on that one. Of the 2 Shapes & Sounds I own,
( Vols 2&3 ) Number two I'd say is the most pop as it features Bystanders, Casuals, Mirage.
Number three features The End, Skip Biff, one from the Pretties... and DDDBM&T on
a good day!!
Hello P.Man. Yes you're on the ball there with my likes. Radio Tymes and Look At The Sun seem the best to me although I'm sure there are good tracks on the other comps.
In fact I do have one comp in the series(I think it's the same series)called Lovers From The Sky. This title track that was unreleased at the time is one one of the best freak beat/psych tracks I have come across in a long time. Anyone else know it? There's some other good tracks on the comp but nothing as good as this.