Bored_unicorn Leake

The third Tyrannosaurus Rex album, and their debut U.S. release, Unicorn was also the first to steadfastly state the game plan which Marc Bolan had been patiently formulating for two years - the overnight transformation from underground icon to above ground superstar. Not only does it catch him experimenting with an electric guitar for the first time on record, it also sees Steve Peregrin Took exchange his bongos for a full drum kit, minor deviations to be sure, but significant ones regardless. And listen closely: you can hear the future. The opening "Chariots of Silk" sets the ball rolling, as slight and lovely as any of Bolan's early songs, but driven by a tumultuous drum roll, a pounding percussion which might be the sound of distant gunfire, but could as easily be a petulant four-year-old, stamping around an upstairs apartment…

Incredibly, Unicorn were on the road with Hawkwind when their third album hit the streets - incredibly, because it is difficult to think of two bands that existed at more extreme ends of the period rock spectrum. But the blending worked, as Unicorn's subtly countrified, folky-edged mantras fed the heads of the Hawkwind faithful with many of the same acoustic energies that fired the headliner's most evocative dreams. And, besides, who wouldn't admire a band like Unicorn, a quintessentially English folk-rock act that just happened to have collided with a love for American country rock, and wound up creating a hybrid that still sounds remarkable today? Widely regarded as Unicorn's finest album (a horrible disservice to Blue Pine Trees, but no matter), Too Many Crooks opens with the near-frenetic energy of "Weekend," and continues on through a greater number of rockers than either of its predecessors…

Agricola was praised by his contemporaries for the bizarre turn of his inspiration, and his music likened to quicksilver. By the standards of the period this is a highly unusual turn of phrase, but remains spot-on. The Ferrara Ensemble anthology, the first ever devoted to the composer, focused on the secular music, both instrumental and vocal, precisely the area covered by Michael Posch and Ensemble Unicorn in this most satisfying disc. Where there's duplication (surprisingly little, in fact) the performances compare with those of the Ferrara Ensemble, although the style of singing is very different. The voices are more up front and less inflected, perhaps the better to match the high instruments with which they're sometimes doubled. But the tensile quality of Agricola's lines comes through none the less, as does the miraculous inventiveness and charm of his music. Further, much of what's new to the catalogue really is indispensible, for example Agricola's most famous song, Allez, regretz. Unicorn keeps its improvisations and excursions to a minimum, and the music is the better for it. It really is a must-have.