The Canterbury Scene ☕

[Guybrush]

Hey, Canterbury thread is booming! Thanks guys for your wonderful posts and great music 🙂

@Saulaac Caravan was my own entry point into Canterbury. I had a particularly intense love affair with the album For Girls Who Grow Plump in the Night.

This is my favorite song from that album, but I'd guess it's a common pick 😊

You mention L'Auberge du Sanglier. The most exquisite part (imo) of that extended last track, incorporating a few melodies, is their version of Mike Ratledge's Backwards. Soft Machine recorded this song on their Third album where it's rolled into the larger composition Slightly All the Time. It can be heard after about 12:50 minutes here:

But Caravan's cover might be the better version? 🙂 Coming in here after about 4:19.

[larsvsnapster]

Funny thing about that sequence -- the one that begins with "L'auberge du Sanglier" the first time I saw it I misread it and thought it was "L'aubergine du Sanglier."  Instead of Sanglier's hostel, I thought it was about eggplants in Sanglier.  Seems more like a Caravan title to me, although it's missing a bawdy angle.  Good grief could they come up with some "dirty" titles.  The Love In Your Eye?  If I could do it again, I'd do it all over you?  The dog, the dog, he's at it again?  Cunning Stunts?  LOL  Maybe we could come up with a few creative things to do with that eggplant if it's the right shape.

That said, the proper Canterbury band that makes it for me is indeed Soft Machine.  Their third album actually unlocked Miles Davis for me when I learned how "Mousetrap" went.  For years I only had that song on a live tape -- before the era of massive archival releases.  They play the riff just before they go into "Noisette" during "Slightly All the Time" but they never play the head, and for a while Miles did that and refused to put the full track list on the album, just like Third.  I hear "Facelift" as one song.  "Slightly" includes a 9/4 song they don't seem to have played anywhere else, followed by "Mousetrap", "Noisette", "Backwards" and then "Noisette" again to end it.  I hear "Moon in June" as three songs followed by the jam they would play live, and then the vari-speed bit that has "Singing a Song in the Morning" in it.  "Out-Bloody-Rageous" I hear as "Spaced" followed by "Out-Bloody-Rageous" proper followed by "Eamonn Andrews" and then "Spaced" again.  And that album just seems so short to me.  I half wish that they'd gone even more like Miles and have the sides be nearer the half-hour mark. 

[Guybrush]

Soft Machine was never one of my favorites, but I still like some of their music and Third has a certain sound/vibe that's both kinda gritty and endearing. It takes me back to the time when I was discovering these bands.

Here are a couple of wonderful songs by Richard Sinclair (/Caravan of Dreams) that I suspect many will not have heard as they're from the 90s and relatively late in terms of what most people listen to from the Canterbury scene.

Going for a Song:

And What's Rattlin' which comments a bit on what it's like to be part of a scene that's kinda behind you.

[innerspaceboy]

I first discovered Steve Hillage through his progressive electro-ambient Rainbow Dome Musick LP. He also had production credits on key releases from The Orb like the iconic Blue Room and Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld.

Hillage led me to Egg's self-titled LP from 1970 and many other classic of the genre.

[Saulaac]

You mention L'Auberge du Sanglier. The most exquisite part (imo) of that extended last track, incorporating a few melodies, is their version of Mike Ratledge's Backwards. Soft Machine recorded this song on their Third album where it's rolled into the larger composition Slightly All the Time. It can be heard after about 12:50 minutes here:

But Caravan's cover might be the better version? 🙂 Coming in here after about 4:19.

Yes you're correct Guybrush, I thought that nice keyboard part was called Pengola but you're right of course, it's Backwards. (Pengola is apparently just a few riffs in the lead up to Backwards).
Soft Machine and Caravan versions are a bit different, but I'm tempted to say that I slightly prefer the Caravan cover.

[larsvsnapster]

(Pengola is apparently just a few riffs in the lead up to Backwards).

L'auberge du Sanglier = acoustic guitar section opening
A Hunting We Shall Go = the bit in 19/8 (5/4 + 9/8 alternating)
Pengola = the bit in 13/4 led by the viola
Backwards = obvious
then A Hunting We Shall Go again followed by massive thunder.

[Lexi Darling]

I first discovered Steve Hillage through his progressive electro-ambient Rainbow Dome Musick LP. He also had production credits on key releases from The Orb like the iconic Blue Room and Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld.

Hillage led me to Egg's self-titled LP from 1970 and many other classic of the genre.

Rainbow Dome Musick is one of my all time faves! If I ever get around to continuing my top 100 ambient albums thread, that will be evident in how high up it is.

Love The Orb too, though Ultraworld is the only album I know well.

[Saulaac]

L'auberge du Sanglier = acoustic guitar section opening
A Hunting We Shall Go = the bit in 19/8 (5/4 + 9/8 alternating)
Pengola = the bit in 13/4 led by the viola
Backwards = obvious
then A Hunting We Shall Go again followed by massive thunder.

Thanks lars. What threw me is that I didn't know exactly where Pengola started, so I'll look out for where the viola starts the 13/4 bit.

[Guybrush]

^
@Saulaac They're very different, so as background music for, say, brewing coffee in the morning I might prefer Soft Machine. For listening to on headphones while sitting on the bus, I'd prefer Caravan's version 🙂

[Guybrush]

Now that I'm interested in learning some Rhodes-songs, I might have to take a stab at this song by National Health.

Clocks and Clouds - sung by ex-Northette Amanda Parsons and unreleased until Missing Pieces (archival release) came out in the mid 90s.

[grindy]

Another great but somewhat lesser known offshoot of the original scene.

[Guybrush]

Thanks for sharing, @grindy 🙂

I know Phil and his In Cahoots kept things going for quite a while, so.. While I've dipped my toe in it, there's a lot that I've yet to listen to.

I think there was also some intent to publish more unreleased material after his death which might be worth checking up on.

[Guybrush]

I've sometimes mentioned that me and my daughter listen to music together at bedtime.

Something we might listen to then is Glass Butterflies by Dirk (or sometimes Mont) Campbell who was in Egg and also briefly in National Health, so.. there's some Canterbury connection to his wonderful world music.

Writing about him, I am also tempted to share his composition Agrippa from when he was in NH, BUT it does feel like one of those times when I like something most people don't 😅

It's kinda slow and meandering so prob not a fan favorite - and it wasn't released in its time either. Still, there's something to this song that I quite like.

[ribbons]

I've sometimes mentioned that me and my daughter listen to music together at bedtime.

@Guybrush, your daughter will have a well trained ear and rich sonic palette given the fine music you're exposing her to.  That's lovely.

Dirk 'Mont' has always been sort of mysterious and wonderful, a superb creative bassist and multi-instrumentalist and a deft composer.  I've heard Music From a Round Tower and his other world musics but unfortunately have heard only snippets of Music From a Walled Garden.  Thanks for the gentle reminder that I need to listen to the entire album.

Writing about him, I am also tempted to share his composition Agrippa from when he was in NH, BUT it does feel like one of those times when I like something most people don't 😅

It's kinda slow and meandering so prob not a fan favorite - and it wasn't released in its time either. Still, there's something to this song that I quite like.

Hardly - I happen to think "Agrippa" was his finest composition and certainly the best thing he did with National Health.  Besides, I like slow and meandering.    

[Guybrush]

@Guybrush, your daughter will have a well trained ear and rich sonic palette given the fine music you're exposing her to.  That's lovely.

Dirk 'Mont' has always been sort of mysterious and wonderful, a superb creative bassist and multi-instrumentalist and a deft composer.  I've heard Music From a Round Tower and his other world musics but unfortunately have heard only snippets of Music From a Walled Garden.  Thanks for the gentle reminder that I need to listen to the entire album.

Hardly - I happen to think "Agrippa" was his finest composition and certainly the best thing he did with National Health.  Besides, I like slow and meandering.    

@ribbons , I'm astonished you know this! How? But then you do have impeccable taste. But I consider these albums by Dirk to be relatively obscure. In fact, I don't think I've ever listened to Music From a Round Tower myself, though I might see if I can buy it digitally from someplace tomorrow.

I know he also has played in the Safar wind band and checking YouTube Music, he's actually up now with two other albums I've never heard, Middle Eastern Journeys and Meditation. Checking his Wikipedia page, it seems these are both from a multitude of library music albums (?) he's done, so maybe they've not had a regular release before.

An exciting discovery 🙂 tomorrow will be world music day.

Another obscure track, a very good friend of mine plays bass in Panzerpappa and they got a hold of Richard Sinclair for a collab for their 2006 album Koralrevens Klagesang (lament of the coral fox). It's not the best song from that album, but a pleasant tune still: