I'm A Freak 2 Baby: Further Journey Through The British Heavy Psych /Hard Rock Underground Scene 1968-1973 / Various

hard to belive it took almost 3 years to get volume two of this great set out but better late then never, as i said a few years ago w/ volume one most of these artists where all hard rock bands back in the late 60s and early 70s crafting there sound, this volume offers some really good ones like STRAY, THE MOVE, STACK WADDY, SAM GOPAL,LEAF HOUND, TEAR GAS, THE DEVIANTS,HIGH TIDE, WARHORSE, BULLET & WICKED LADY. there are obviously so many more here as well, this was what was going on in the uk in the late 60s/early 70s and helped to craft the sound you would be hearing by bands like DEEP PURPLE, URIAH HEEP, UFO,NAZARETH, RAINBOW & so on,though many of the above mentioned already where in the uk charts by the early 70s these bands where the more underground bands that where on the london scene back then, i just wish CRUSHED BUTLER ( one of JESSE HECTORS ) early bands had made this second volume, anyway great remastering on all 3 discs, nice clamshell box w/ a decent booklet to come with this as only grapefruit/cherry red do so well................. this is a good one 5 stars from me hopefully we get some SPOOKY TOOTH if there is to be a volume 3.............................

If you like this kind of music, you are going to love this package. There are a few familiar names/songs throughout, but it is mostly bands I was unfamiliar with, but most of the songs are fantastic. Well worth the money. I'm a Freak 1 & 3 are also great buys.

Nice sequel comp to I'm A Freak Baby. Packaging A-1, includes booklet. The only rub I have are some of the song choices. Wouldn't you rather have Becks Bolero than Shapes Of Things? How "bout something off Budgies 3rd album instead, since were going to 73 now. Sam Gopals Season Of the Witch and Arthur Browns I Put a Spell On You would have been better choices. So would have Butterqueen by 3 Man Army. Nothing by Status Quo or Manfred Mann from the late 60s? No early Steve Marriott. I could go on and on. Pretty good , but could have been better.

Great collection. We listen to this in the car all the time.

"Suddenly everything was longer, louder, hairier, and heavier.""Normal people don't need drugs." Poster ad in the accompanying booklet.This second collection from the UK hard rock/psych scene from the late '60s/early '70s includes some well known names (some who were included on the first box set) but also includes many bands, many unfamiliar to most fans of this era's music. There seems to be a tighter focus on the theme of this second box which ups the overall feel of this music--a good thing. The bands come from England with several from Scotland and Wales, giving a good picture of the burgeoning underground music scene in those regions.You'll of course know names like Jeff Beck (was Jimmy Page influenced by Beck's album "Truth", represented here by "Shapes Of Things", with Rod Stewart's lung power and Mickey Waller's tough drumming, when he was putting together Led Zeppelin?), the Move, Atomic Rooster, Budgie, Edgar Broughton Band, Arthur Brown, Stone The Crows, along with a few others. And rightly they should be here to help flesh out another worthwhile overview of this UK period of music. But it's the lesser known groups like Leaf Hound (whose original album is pretty killer), Love Sculpture (with the great guitarist Dave Edmunds, here with the 7" version of "Sabre Dance"--but hear the 11 minute album version with the tape sounding slightly sped up), Sam Apple Pie (their album has some good guitar work), High Tide (a personal favorite), and Clark-Hutchinson (their albums are well worth hearing), along with more obscure groups that really add depth and flavor to this box set. Also included are several previously unreleased tracks by bands like Slowhand ("Rosie"), Tonge ("Old Father Time"), Thor ("Paranoid"), along with others from this scene that never went anywhere.With the psychedelic era starting to disintegrate rock music began to morph into something altogether (for the most part) into a tougher, sometimes darker feel. Some tracks here are simply straightforward hard rock, while others still have that UK psych sound to them, mixed with an edgier feel. Even the demos have a more of a visceral feel to them but, for whatever reason, some of these bands never went past that initial stage and disappeared. Not even halfway through Disc 1 songs like "Run The Night" by Wicked Lady tell the story of what this box set is all about. Previously unreleased, this tune from '69 has some killer guitar work (courtesy of Martin Weaver) but the band's hopes for any kind of recording contract disappeared when he punched out their A&R contact because he said something uncomplimentary about the guitarist's girlfriend. The drummer ("Mad" Dick Smith) was subsequently institutionalized at an early age. And then there's "Rosie" by Slowhand another previously unreleased track which is hard rock/proto heavy metal. And then we have "Clawstrophobia" (catchy spelling) by the band Iron Claw, also previously unreleased. Taking their name from King Crimson's "21st Century Schizoid Man", this is another venture down the road of hard rock into something a bit heavier. And talking about heavy--try "Dog Man" by Monument--a heavy slab of music from a band whose members were in an actual coven and into voodoo--no fake Black Sabbath wearing crosses/darkness here. And there's plenty more delights for late '60s/early '70s hard rock fans like these all through this set. But all the tracks collected here add up to another deeper look into what was going on in the UK during this period. I can't help but think of the recently released second large box set of whimsical British pop under the "Piccadilly Sunshine" title that is the polar opposite of what's going on here. Unlike the sometimes fey pop sounds (but similar to this box set in that much of the music is relatively obscure) this "Freak 2" box is basically tough no nonsense hard rock, sometimes with the lingering whiff of psych floating in the air, that paved the way for a number of bands that went on to forge a large and popular body of music we all know. But focusing on bands that never went too far makes this box a worthwhile listen for fans of more obscure groups from this particular period of years, when psych was dying/dead and things were powering up into what became widely known as hard rock/heavy metal.Similar to the first volume, the overall sound is very good which adds to the feel of this type of music. There's the usual thick 38 page booklet with copious notes on the bands plus period photos and other graphics. Each disc slips into a cardboard jacket, and everything fits into a substantial cardboard clamshell style box. All in all if you liked the first box, this continues a needed look at both well known and obscure bands who were developing a new sound in the UK that largely dispensed with a lot of the psych weirdness from before, and focused on harder edged music.

super box!!!

Got both I'm a freak baby album .Problem is I have ended up buying more music I missed wicked lady and tear gas great mixture worth every penny

Ce coffret couvre une période fascinante qui court de 1968 à 1973. Fascinante parce que certains des plus grands disques de rock sont sortis durant cette période (les Stooges, par exemple). Mais, dans le même temps, le rock des sixties, phagocyté par le psychédélisme, perd la boule et va se perdre aux confins du volume qu'on n'a de cesse d'augmenter pour ne pas s'avouer que le genre est mort. Ce faisant, les groupes vont s'enfermer dans le hard rock, tuant l'innocence et le rêve, gommant toute trace de blues dans la musique, annihilant toute tentative de swing ou de bonne humeur. Ou comment passer des Small Faces à Humble Pie.L'heure est sombre et ça s'entend. Les sixties se terminent par un fiasco et la gueule de bois est inévitable. Les groupes présents dans ce coffret dédié, c'est marqué dessus, au "heavy psych" et au "hard rock" britanniques, en sont l'incommensurable reflet. On trouve ici beaucoup de seconds couteaux du genre, les plus connus étant Atomic Rooster ou Edgar Broughton, même si on a droit à "Shapes Of Things" par Jeff Beck au tout début. Certains groupes se nomment Thor, laissant présager évidemment beaucoup de finesse (même s'il manque l'enclume). Il y en a qui s'appelle carrément Purple Haze et devinez à qui il chique ? Frozen Tear, Bullet, Dark, Sardonicus, The Rats, Red Dirt, vraiment, tout un programme. Il y en a même un qui pousse le vice en s'intitulant Patto mais j'imagine qu'il n'a pas fait exprès...Les morceaux sont longs, traversés de solos de guitare vite éprouvants. C'est lourd ou lugubre, pas toujours bien écrit et les chanteurs ont parfois des voix assez épouvantables. Quand le groupe cumule tout ça: long, lourd, lugubre, mal écrit, guitariste égrillard et chanteur gueulard, c'est vraiment mauvais. On en trouve quelques-uns ici. On rencontre aussi des choses vraiment moyennes pour ceux qui ne cumulent seulement que deux ou trois tares précitées. Mais on saura gré aux compilateurs d'avoir sans doute choisi les meilleurs morceaux de chacun de ces groupes car on entend finalement aussi de bonnes choses (dans ce cas, une seule tare est décelée durant l'écoute du titre). Rien de génial par contre, il y a toujours un défaut quelque part.Le panorama laisse songeur mais le voyage est pertinent. Le rock est bel et bien, à cette époque, dans le creux de la vague et s'embarque dans une impasse. Ils ont beau gesticuler et prétendre qu'ils ont plus d'une six-cordes à leur cul-de-sac, ce qui est souvent le cas ceci-dit, on s'embourbe gentiment tout du long, là. Black Sabbath va remettre un peu d'ordre à tout ça avec tout le plomb qu'on lui connait, montrant une autre voie, plus létale et latente, vicieuse et sinueuse, moins chevelu hirsute dépoitraillé toute. En attendant, ce hard rock symbolise bel et bien la fin des utopies. Ce qui est marrant, c'est que c'est un certain âge d'or, paradoxalement, concernant la musique, clairement ici libérée des carcans commerciaux et prompte à dévaler des contrées inconnues. Les batteurs, par exemple, sont ici follement à la fête, en en foutant tout partout tant que faire se peut à force de moulinets extatiques et autres roulements frénétiques. Vite épuisant en vérité.Ailleurs, certains ont déjà entamé un retour aux racines (The Band et consorts) tandis que plus tard, le glam viendra simplifier tout ça à coups de paillettes et de rockabilly distancié. Le rock progressif offrira une autre alternative, là encore en repoussant les possibilités de l'idiome, tandis que le hard mutera jusqu'à définir tout un tas de sous-genres innombrables. Pour l'heure, c'est la débandade, et ce coffret nous le prouve en trois CDs forts en décibels. Humble Pie, quelqu'un, vous en reprendrez bien une part ?

Wieder mal eine hervorragende Auswahl zum größten Teil unbekannter Tracks der Britischen Rockszene der frühen 70er Jahre, hervorragend gemastert und mit informativem, umfangreichen Booklet.

いいチョイスと思います。3まで購入です。