Albumen The Egg

With a strong Canterbury influence implanted into their sound, Egg's first album has the band looking to establish their niche as a progressive group, with Dave Stewart's sharp, effective keyboard work outlining much of the album's overall feel. Mixing jazz and progressive rock drifts, the tracks on Egg contain rhythms and meters that are never at a standstill, with ongoing instrumental action encompassing nearly every track. Numerous classical overtones make for a familiar listen against a backdrop of loose-ended jazz fusion and an unordered yet inviting array of haphazard progressive spillages.

Egg were exponents of the so-called "Canterbury" style of Folk/Rock music and were focused around the compositional and keyboard playing skills of Dave Stewart (later in Hatfield & The North) and Mont Campbell and Clive Brooks. In 1974, they recorded their final album for the Virgin Record label. Featuring guest musicians such as Steve Hillage (Gong) and members of Henry Cow, The Civil Surface is now regarded as a classic of the "Canterbury" and "Progressive" genres. This Esoteric Recordings release has been remastered from the original tapes and is certain to the many who made the reissues of Egg’s previous work such a success.

The Metronomical Society is a collection of live and studio recordings made by the pioneering trio between 1969 and 1972. It features archive material unheard for nearly 40 years, including a sizeable segment of Egg's last Roundhouse concert which demonstrates the group's live power. Also included are superior versions of tracks from the band's radio sessions, previously available only on poor-quality bootlegs. The CD lasts over an hour and ships in a full-colour Digipak with a 20-page booklet containing Egg's history in the musicians' own words, unique period photos and artwork. The foreword is written by the irrepressible Captain Sensible.

Egg were associated with the so-called ‘Canterbury’ style of rock music pioneered by artists such as Caravan and Soft Machine. The trio produced music of startling originality and energy, drawing on influences ranging from rock to jazz to psychedelia to classical. This fusion resulted in some of the most enduring releases to appear on Decca’s Deram and Nova imprints and are now critically regarded as some of the more unique albums of the early 1970’s. Egg’s classic second album is re-mastered from the original tapes.

Ixland is the debut album by Indigo Egg aka Ishq, Matt Hillier. Originally written in the late 90's and subsequently shelved and worked on over the years Ixland has now finally found its way onto CD and in a remastered and finished version. The album is a colourful and both melodic and also tripped out series of tracks all forming one fluid vision with hints of everything from electro alien harmonics to tibetan cities in the clouds, organic and deep yet with hints of the lightness and beauty which have found their way into the music of Ishq.

This 2-disc release of Herrmann's first score for Harryhausen is a lavish delight. Firstly, both discs are presented in full stereophonic sound - the full-bodied monaural descriptor being entirely wrong for the disc-1 complete score. This presentation utilizes the same remastered music stems that the Sony blu-ray disc offers, and is sonically splendid. The second disc is the original soundtrack album re-recording, all stereo except one track, and it's the familiar version that's been a collector's item for many years. The soundtrack album was conducted by Muir Mathieson, and contrary to Herrmann's opinion of it, it's a robust presentation of the original score. A masterpiece, right up there with the likes of Moross' THE BIG COUNTRY, North's SPARTACUS, Rosza's EL CID, and Jarre's LAWRENCE OF ARABIA.