Deviation Street: High Times In Ladbroke Grove 1967-1975 3CD Clamshell Box Set

西ロンドンのラドブローク・グローブは、60 年代後半の英国のカウンターカルチャー運動の震源地に発展しました。急増するアンダーグラウンドプレスやさまざまなロックバンドのマネージメントエージェンシーを擁し、ホランドパーク、ノッティングヒルゲート周辺のエリアには、ホークウィンド、クインテッセンス、エドガーブロートンバンド、スキンアレー、サードイヤー バンド、ハイタイドなど、独自の音楽シーンが生まれました。上記のすべてのアクトをフィーチャーした「Deviation Street: High Times in Ladbroke Grove 1967-1975」は、ウェストロンドンのアンダーグラウンドフリークシーンをこれまでで最も包括的に網羅した貴重コンピ！！豪華48ページブックレットと約4時間分の音楽が収録されており、これまでにリリースされたことのない貴重な素材 (この地域で長きに渡って創世記を築いてきた Roxy Music による最初の自家製デモ録音を含む) をフィーチャーした本作は、60年代後半～70年代前半のブリティッシュ・アンダーグラウンドに興味がある人なら必聴の内容です！

In the late 60s and part of the 70s, the Ladbroke Grove area of West London was home to a thriving bohemian community that included hippies, activists, psychedelic experimenters, and a good number of bands funneling all of this energy into strange and exciting new rock & roll sounds. In that time, Ladbroke Grove and its adjoining sectors of Notting Hill and Holland Park were decades away from gentrification and offered the kind of low rent and under-maintained environment that artistic movements historically blossom in, and a cluster of freakish bands quickly congealed into a localized scene. Deviation Street: High Times in Ladbroke Grove 1967-1975 collects key artifacts from this scene, with three discs and more than 50 tracks from bands as well known as Roxy Music, Hawkwind, and Tyrannosaurus Rex (an early iteration of T. Rex) but mostly made up of more obscure artists. Tracks by more recognizable names are still off the beaten path, with pre-Hawkwind configuration Hawkwind Zoo contributing their mellow and beautiful folk-psych track "Hurry On Sundown" and Roxy Musics drony and experimental "2HB (Demo Version)" coming from the bands very first 1971 recording sessions. Other acts of note included on the comp are the Action, the Pretty Things, and the Pink Fairies, who burn the house down with their fiery ten-minute-plus proto-prog jam "Uncle Harrys Last Freak Out." The songs from the lesser-known acts are as interesting as those from the bands that made it out of Ladbroke Grove, and sometimes convey more daring creativity or more specific perspectives. Third Ear Bands "Very Fine…Far Away" is a formless cloud of floating voices and synthesizer textures that predicts ambient rock by at least 20 years. Blues-rocker Ram John Holder gets downright colloquial with some of his contributions, zeroing in on the joys and tribulations of his immediate surroundings on locals-only songs like "Ladbroke Grove Blues" and "Notting Hill Eviction Blues." The massive comp covers a lot of ground, most of it strange, surreal, and psychedelic, and the majority of material from the under-famous bands here is seeing widescale release for the first time. Taking in the Deviation Streets entire four-hour program is a transportational trip back to what must have been a wild and beautiful window of music history, with lots of weird wonders being unearthed. ~ Fred Thomas