構成数 | 5枚

合計収録時間 | 06:05:06

This is a massive collection (97 tracks spread over five CDs -- each volume was originally released in numbered limited editions by Purple Lantern Records) of swirling psychedelic folk and rock featuring the sitar from the late '60s and early '70s. It draws on bands and performers from the U.S., Britain, India, Germany, Sweden, Holland, Australia, and several other points on the planet, and it's difficult to imagine getting more flower power drone for the dollar anywhere else. It's all wonderfully dated, of course, an incense-soaked time capsule from a very particular time in pop music, and some of it is incomprehensibly baffling, like Mehrpoojah's ultra-serious "Love Dance of the Lemmings" -- which sounds like nothing so much as Spinal Tap in full hippie phase -- while some of it seems like a natural fusion of Eastern and Western folk music (Pentangle's "Once I Had a Sweetheart"). George Harrison and the Beatles had a lot to do with this sitar phenomenon back in the Summer of Love, so it should come as no surprise that there are a couple of sitar-led instrumental versions of Beatles songs here ("I Am the Walrus" from Lord Sitar and "Eleanor Rigby" from Chim Kothari) as well as a version of the Byrds' "Eight Miles High" by the Folkswingers -- Roger McGuinn's iconic electric 12-string guitar breaks in the original version of the song were attempts to fuse Ravi Shankar with John Coltrane in the first place. The end result of all this droning through 97 tracks is a fun set that is probably best enjoyed in small doses -- one could seriously drift away on the incense. ~ Steve Leggett

録音 | ステレオ (Studio)