Canterbury Scene S/D

Love me those two Hatfield & the North LPs. Had "Let's Eat (Real Soon)" on the jukebox at the old pinball emporium at college.

Kevin Ayers first couple of records, especially the first one, are wonderful.

I also love the Hatfield and the North albums. Definetly not for everyone though - are they not the noodly-est band EVER or what? The later National Health stuff is harder and more varied. There's threads on ILM about Henry Cow, Art Bears, Gong and the other associated bands.

Pretty much any Soft Machine is awesome, especially if said recording involves Robert Wyatt. Any Robert Wyatt post Soft Machine is brilliant as well, Matching Mole & solo (as far as my tastes are concerned--check out the Greatest Misses compilation as a jumping off point for solo work). Hugh Hopper is a genius songwriter.

Caravan is kind of.. Meh.. Jazz-fusion-ness that is very well-played, but a little too sterile.

Henry Cow is awesome, Comus is among the top bands I've ever heard in my life (yes, they were Canterbury Scene), Quiet Sun I've heard a bit of and think is great.... So many I haven't heard though.

Anybody hear Isotope, Gilgamesh, Mashu, The Polite Force or Rapid Eye Movement?

Still haven't found the mother of Canterbury Scene groups: The Wylde Flowers. I'm expecting mind blowingness.

HatN are easily the best with a great mix of charm and musicianship. And, yes, their noodly-ness is excellent - it just flows naturally instead of beaing a show-off thing. Caravan are similar especially their 1st 2 albums. Egg are a bit less interesting for me. Ofcourse, Soft Machine are the source - once again 1st 2 albums. and Henry Cow's only real 'canterbury' style album is the 1st - Leg End.

Yeah, the earlier Caravan stuff I've heard is quite palatable - when they were still steeped in late 60s sounds and imagery. If that's your bag then you'll like it.

I really want to check out more of this music. Any more recommendations? What's the best Soft Machine album?

I haven't really heard enough of this stuff, but the Soft Machine / Kevin Ayers / Robert Wyatt recommendations are seconded. National Health are pretty good but can get a bit Mahavishnu-y in places. Their bassist ended up playing with Whitesnake and Vow Wow!

Soft Machine :
First album (w/ Ayers) is my fave, really messy mix of psych, jazz and weirdness but they pull it all together amazingly.
Second album a bit less crazy but still great.
Third is most people's pick, I like it but it's a bit noodly.
Fourth and fifth I can't really remember, should play again. No Wyatt, heading into fusoid territory as I recall.
Fuck knows after that, probably just turned into test card music (esp. after lone founder member Mike Ratledge left - how often does that happen?).

There are a few Soft Machine threads if you search, though all seem to be album or song specific rather than overall S/Ds. I like 1-3 and also 7 is pretty good, with 4-6 being intermittently interesting.

There's a very comprehensive web site, called Calyx run by a French guy that also has a Yahoo group called What's Rattlin'. They probably wouldn't want a "what's the best SM album?" thread, though.

Robert Wyatt has a new album coming out, Comicopera.
This review is excellent.
http://www.uncut.co.uk/blog/index.php?blog=6&p=191&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1#more191
also, a cast featuring Brian Eno, Paul Weller and Phil Manzanera...
to be continued.

<img src="http://www.strongcomet.com/wyatt/images/noalcohol.jpg";>

http://www.strongcomet.com/wyatt/images/noalcohol.jpg
my bad

caravan "in the land of grey and pink" is pretty great. there's a bonus track on a recent reissue, called "i don't know its name," which is in heavy rotation round here.

Caravan are the kings. If I Could Do it All Over Again has to be one of the most underrated rock albums of all time.

I really can't listen to "Golf Girl", as soon as the vocal starts that's it - off.

Tokyo Jihen - Blackout

Search.

Pop neo-Canterbury.

http://northernspyrecords.com/cloud-becomes-your-hand-sand-of-sea/

is this a redux of some well-known prog passage? i swear i've never listened to this band/record before but almost the entire melody/arrangement seems familiar and i can't for the life of me figure out why

What good books are there about the Canterbury Scene and its history?

My White Bicycles, by Joe Boyd

Sorry, just called White Bicycles: Making Music In The 60s. Covers his whole career and not really about the Canterburylp

Not really about the Canterbury Scene except for The Soft Machine but still an awesome book full of great anecdotes and insights from beginning to end.

Cool, just got the sample for the Kindle app. Thanks!

Sure. Did you see the quote from Eno in the cover?

Another interesting book for you, although again not really about that scene per se is Electric Eden: Unearthing Britain's Visionary Music by Rob Young.

Yeah, that's a pretty strong endorsement.

Did you every read that one? In any case, new authorized bio of Robert Wyatt is out in case you didn't see on other threads.

Not yet, but I have many hours of plane/airport time coming up this week, so that may be my reading.

Something else just popped up as an ebook- Soft Machine: Out-Bloody-Rageous, by Graham Bennett.

That's great about out-bloody-rageous since I think it was one of several books put out by SAF that had otherwise long gone. Hope others reappear.

SAF also put out Daevid Allen's 2 volume Gong Dreaming of which I only have the 2nd, Gong era volume. It's pretty interesting so I'd assume the 1st book would be worth reading & would cover his time in Canterbury alongside other stuff.

Want to read the new Wyatt bio anyway.

I've read both the Daevid Allen Gong Dreaming books. Thought they were equally fascinating, although a bit TMI with some of his drug/sex epiphanies. What was unexpected: a) Allen's under-confidence/insecurities, b) the sheer volume of rancourous conflict within the band; Tim Blake comes out especially badly.

Been listening to The Little Red Record by Matching Mole so much this fall.

I can't really recommend the Wyatt bio, which I got instead of White Bicycles for travel reading. It's well enough written, but everything that's not about the music reveals Wyatt to have lived a pretty boring life. And the fact that it's authorized and had the full cooperation of Wyatt and Alfie makes the result a bit fawning.

this is so cool

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhVS8ty2Vfc

"The progressive rock session" currently held bimonthly at the rock bar "Honeyflash" in Warabi, Saitama, Japan.

Four players are all amateur musicians.
Without any rehearsal.
This is amazing !

playing national health! <3

Nobody mentioned Supersister the Dutch band that are pretty firmly in the Canterbury style.

Is Soft Machine still thought of as Canterbury towards the end? I mean when there are more Nucleus members than originals?

Also look out for Caravan live at Amouges 1969 which is a bootleg from the festival where Frank Zappa guested with every band. It's a bit heavier than them in the studio & has FZ jamming on one track.
There's also 2 volumes of radio sessions by them on Hux. Can't remember title but 1st vol was 68 to 71.

Wilde Flowers had their material compiled a couple of years back. Not sure how great they were, could be more historical than musical interest. Think they were about the first band for a few involved. But do have songs by people who were later pretty good writers.

Soft Machine have several compis with the Daevid Allen material on. They were pretty good at the time but more about 66-67 psych than long improvisation.
There's also a set by the Daevid Allen Trio from the early 60s which is instrumental jazz stuff.

I heard a Wilde Flowers collection several years ago, posted somewhere (Spotify?): demos, work tapes, at least a couple of versions of "Memories", which I read somewhere that Hugh Hopper wrote when he was 16---obviously gifted youngsters (incl.pre-Caravan), but Wyatt's already the star, without showing off; he's just got the charisma, and the writing and production (incl. the sense of a real band playing) cohere around him.
But I'm biased in his favor---I do like the Softs best with him, Ayers, Hopper, and stopped listening to them altogether when he quit or was fired (Ayers and Hopper were already gone, I think). I like most of the Wyatt I've heard, which isn't nearly all of it---so prolific---but yeah Matching Mole and others mentioned above. Also the comp Different Every Time, the two-volume edition: https://www.discogs.com/Robert-Wyatt-Different-Every-Time/master/810462
Pretty good Wyatt doc still available via the Music Documentaries Online thread, last time I checked (last week).

Speaking of Ayers, here's what I wrote about The Unfairground, his very late return, and the last album of new material released in his lifetime, I think---mainly of interest if you're wayyy into him/this scene/albums on which a seemingly hopeless old fart curmudgeon eventually comes back to creative life, at least for a while---kinda startling that way: https://papercomet.blogspot.com/2017/04/kevin-ayers.html

Ayers and Hopper weren't in SM at same time. Ayers went solo or back to Deya and Hopper came in.
Ayers era also saw Andy Summers in the band on guitar. Would love to get some recordings but not sure any exist. Summers was playing improvised ragaesque guitar lines. I don't think he got on with Ayers so he left. Oddly I think he turns up backing Ayers some time in the 70s.

Ayers solo stuff is pretty great for at least first 4 or 5 lps. There's a Dutch live set around that's pretty good also a Hyde Park one and I think I had a BBC In Concert cd too.

Also got to recommend the Robert Wyatt Theatre Royal Drury lane 1974 set even if it does dip in sound quality towards the end.