Pink Floyd The Early Ears

Compilation CD's. Those Classic Golden Years - An Essential collection the second half of the sixties and the early seventies…

The new full length effort from West Virginia's own Brimstone Coven on Metal Blade Records. Ten tracks of dark occult rock. Echoing the eerie reverberations of hard rock heavyweights such as Black Sabbath and Pentagram, mixed with the Classic Rock style of Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd, Brimstone Coven has created a Vintage sound and style all their own…

It is a hefty box in every sense: 13 CDs, supplemented with two DVDs, accompanied by a gorgeous hardcover book and a variety of tchotchkes, including a poster that traces the twisted family trees and time lines of the band and, just as helpfully, replicas of legal documents that explain why the group didn't retain rights to its recordings for years…

Although the Greatest Show on Earth (GSOE) were not the first bunch of rockers to incorporate a powerful brass and woodwind section, they are among the best and heaviest-sounding British bands to have emerged from the post-psychedelia of the late '60s and early '70s. GSOE were, in essence, the invention of EMI Records subsidiary Harvest, who were focusing in on new and progressive artists such as Pink Floyd and Deep Purple. When the group was initially signed in 1968, they were an R&B/soul revue whose forte was more along the lines of Stax or Motown, instead of trippy acid rock. After ditching their original vocalist, Ozzie Lane, they eventually settled on Colin Horton Jennings, a multi-faceted performer who would begin to compose originals that would allow the octet to incrementally abandon their Yankee soul leanings.

Help Yourself (1971). There's no question that Help Yourself's debut album was a product of its times - something about the whole easygoing boogie vibe and gentle psych-inspired trippiness, the way of singing, the production, and more just screams early-'70s non-metal and non-glam rock & roll. Look at it one way and Help Yourself was just a cut above incipient bar band culture but, heard with fresh ears years after its release, it strikes a great balance between entertaining the crowd and exploration. Call the band a more down-to-earth Pink Floyd or Hawkwind set somewhere in the English countryside without specifically owing anything to either band. Morley, who takes vocal lead throughout, shows a fine voice similar to Neil Young's, with just that hint of twang while not sounding quite so cracked and strained…