Across The Airwaves [Remaster]

Performer: The Incredible String Band
Engineer: Adrian Whittaker; Richard Bartram
Distributor: E1 Distribution (USA)

Notes: Liner Note Authors: Adrian Whittaker; Mike Heron. Recording information: 02/05/1969-05/17/1974. Photographers: Jorgen Angel; Keith Morris. As they have before with so many other quintessentially British bands, the ridiculously deep BBC archives deliver once again with ACROSS THE AIRWAVES: BBC RADIO RECORDINGS 1969-1974 by the Incredible String Band. Fans, rejoice: this two disc set captures Mike Williamson and Scott Heron's latter days as well as any previous collection. Revealing the true scope and diversity of the band's catalog, the set includes only a handful of songs that were released on proper Incredible String Band albums. The rest are scattered bits--songs that appeared later on solo records, unreleased tracks, improvisations--that present a side-glance history of the band's second era, albeit a comprehensive and dizzyingly impressive one. "Raga Puti" finds them in full-tilt electric raga mode with guitar work as accomplished as Richard Thompson's; "Secret Temple," a beautifully off-kilter ballad, features tender harpsichord and Licorice McKenzie on vocals; and their Carter Family cover, "You've Been A Friend to Me," reveals an oft-hidden fondness for American roots music. ACROSS THE AIRWAVES shows that even at their most eclectic, the Incredible String Band were among the era's most accomplished instrumentalists and musicologists. It is no wonder, then, that none other than Jimmy Page and Robert Plant thought them Britain's finest band.

Active from the mid 1960s, godfathers of the British underground psychedelic-folk movement the Incredible String Band mixed folk, Eastern influences, psychedelia, and a loopy, mythology-laced sense of humor. Long time associates of famed folk-rock producer Joe Boyd, the ISB evolved from a trio down to a duo (Robin Williamson and Mike Heron combining to make what is arguably their most successful incarnation) and later expanded to a full band. They sputtered out in the mid 1970s; however, Heron, Williamson, and assorted backing musicians re-formed to play several scattershot reunion shows in the late 1990s/early 2000s.

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