Various Artists

The origins of one strand of Prog can be traced to a sleepy city in Kent and in particular to the band The Wilde Flowers and those bands that were either offshoots or associated with Canterbury and the band. The different bands included Caravan, Soft Machine, Gong, Egg and many others and their music was esoteric, idiosyncratic, complex and sometimes downright strange.

This is a four disk set that features some of the best know artists to come out of Canterbury and include Robert Wyatt, both Hopper brothers, Mike Ratledge, Caravan, Pye Hastings and Zobe plus a delightful little number, ‘Slow Walkin’ Talk’ featuring Robert Wyatt with one Jimi Hendrix.

These are NOT pristine recordings or even recordings intended for release.
They are snapshots of the scene at the very beginning of Prog, where it still intersected with Jazz and Blues and the recording quality is generally pretty weak but the jam sessions, live tracks and demos give a great insight into the febrile musical atmosphere of the Canterbury scene in the mid-sixties and, frankly, any fan of the music should see this as an important document, a path to greater understanding of the wonderful music that came out of Canterbury.

More than moments, and some pretty exceptional jams – recording quality is what you would expect but that isn’t what it is for.