Many decades after The Incredible String Band first burst into the music world, it was time to reflect on the band’s successes. Although often unfortunately seen as a cult group of Hippies more than musicians that were respected, The Incredible String Band had a large and impressive back catalogue of Psychedelic Folk Music that was extremely impressive upon hearing. The three core members of the group were Edinburgh-based musicians Clive Palmer (no, not the Australian politician), Robin Williamson and Mike Heron. They also had contributions from others such as Licorice McKechnie, Rose Simpson and Malcolm Le Maistre. The band split up in 1976 but reformed with a changing lineup from 1999-2006. In any case, by 2001 it was time for a good release of the group’s music to celebrate their successes way back in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Let’s take a listen to this release, and we shall hope it holds up well today.

1. All Writ Down begins with some rather rough and ready recordings of sweet acoustic guitar playing and clean electric guitars to match. This quickly launches into a sweet and melodic tune that sounds really fantastic and awesomely melodic throughout. A great listening experience of musical proportions, this sounds absolutely fantastic. The lyrics throughout reference astral projection, which is an interesting phenomenon worth learning about. Another gorgeous and fantastic song by the group, this sounds gorgeously pleasant and listenable throughout. This music is pleasant, listenable and above all, a fine work of musical art. A great tune to listen to, The Incredible String Band were miles ahead of others at the time, including Bob Dylan. This multisectioned tune sounds as fresh and amazing as other cutting-edge musicians of the time such as Led Zeppelin, but in a much more simple way. Nonetheless, this is fantastic. Good job by all.

2. Vishangro begins with some strange yet beautifully melodic singing that sounds amazingly great. These guys obviously knew their craft and Hippie mythology extremely well. This music sounds really sweet and lovely, with some gorgeous musicianship of this song throughout. It is simply acoustic guitars and vocals, but it sounds absolutely and mind-blowingly fantastic. A really awesome tune, The Incredible String Band knew very well what worked musically, more than even some of their contemporaries ever did. A cool, calm and clever tune to listen to, these guys could make some sublime and lovely music for many generations of music lovers to enjoy. A fantastic and anthemic listening experience, this music will never die. A cool and interesting listen throughout, this is exceptionally outstanding music. With lyrical references to the Thames River and other interesting natural phenomena, this is very lovely. Another top tune by The Incredible String Band.

3. Worlds They Rise And Fall begins with some sweet acoustic guitar playing in the left channel, before launching into a terrific song with some gorgeous piano and playing throughout. This music sounds sensationally good to listen to and enjoy. A really unique and fresh listen, this is a deeply emotional and sweet-sounding tune that sounds incredibly good. There is a multitracked organ part that sounds a lot like an accordion alongside some really glorious harmony-based singing throughout. A short, sweet and very wonderful tune to listen to, this sounds absolutely amazing to hear. A great song, even if this is both underrated and underrepresented. This music is sweet, lovely and moving to hear. A really great listen throughout, this music is really cool to hear. Very, very nice and simply lovely and powerful. The string section at the end is amazing.

4. Talking Of The End begins with some interesting instrumentation including acoustic guitar, fiddle and some electronics to match. This sounds absolutely fantastic and worthy of a listen. A really Psychedelic and extraordinary tune. There is a change throughout with a ton of harpsichord that is upfront and precise in its methods. An awesome and sweet listen, this is followed by some awesome and deep harmonies which sound absolutely stunning. This changes into a very Eastern-sounding percussion-driven section which sounds absolutely awesome to hear. The Incredible String Band obviously knew music, inside and out. A sensationally great listen, this pauses briefly just before a Sitar-heavy midsection. This does sound truly fantastic and interesting throughout. A very cool listen, this is followed by an awesome section of music with both male and female vocals duking it out in competition. Absolutely awesome music to listen to, this tripped-out medley is awesomely fantastic to hear. The Sitar returns in the second half of this tune to illuminate and create a great musical atmosphere throughout. This is matched by some slide guitar and handclaps, a bit weird but this was actually quite normal at the time. An absolutely gorgeous tune to listen to. Very nice. Top-notch music.

5. Here Till Here Is There is the title track and begins with some solo vocals and sounds very deep and meaningful. A beautifully majestic and top-notch listen, this sounds awesome and powerful with descriptive lyrics that sound amazing throughout. Soon enough, a brief flute interlude enters with female vocals to match. The Incredible String Band do an amazing justice and sound to this collection of music, and they sound beautiful and many light years before anyone else out there. A really great listen, through and through. This music is timeless, wonderful and brilliantly crafted throughout. Towards the end is some great singing by multiple people, flute parts galore and a beautiful musical conclusion. Absolutely awesome.

6. Red Hair begins with 12 12-string acoustic guitar in the right channel, which sounds really excellent. This music sounds really deep, meaningful and sweet throughout. Some violin enters, sounding majestic. A short, sweet and above all, beautiful piece of music that has some really interesting and attentiveness to detail-based sounds throughout. A truly awesome listen, this music is a winner. Very, very sweet to listen to. This sounds really amazing to enjoy. Fantastic.

7. Antoine begins with church styled organ and sounds mammoth-sized. Singing emerges about a French lady of one’s fancy, this is a tremendous and pleasant listening experience about having a crush on a lady at Church. A really sweet, lovely and great tune to listen to, this has more violin as well. A bit weird, but yeah. Regardless, this music has power in it, even without electric guitars throughout. A really cool and killer listening experience, this sounds absolutely fantastic to listen to and enjoy. The music within is very, very amazing to hear. It sounds super sweet and lovely to listen to, although this is about a peculiar subject. A good tale of twisted elements. Definitely worth a listen. Very, very good. This is a fine and sweet tune, like the best-tasting wine out there. Fantastic.

8. Restless Night sounds like an anti-lullaby done by The Incredible String Band. It’s a weird tune with weird lyrics, but with some decent instrumentation to match it all. This is a short tune with acoustic guitar, odd percussion and keyboards to illustrate the sound of these guys. Fantastic throughout, this music sounds extraordinarily good. A weird tune about strange things in the night, this music is still a wonderful listen. Good to hear though, this music will never die. It has some sweet sounds and instrumentation throughout, including a keyboard section that sounds a lot like a horn section. Another good listen, and again, great quality music to listen to. Highly enjoyable.

9. Banks Of Sweet Italy begins with some high-octave female vocals and launches into a sweet listen with acoustic guitar playing as well. This sounds gloriously fantastic and pleasant throughout and is a cool tune about the European sun and other weather-based ongoings. A lovely listen, this sounds extremely cool and pleasantly imaginative. A very good tune to listen to, this sounds awe-inspiring and illustrative of the circumstances at hand. A very, very cool listen which sounds extremely sweet. Worthy of one’s ears, through and through. A powerful, lovely and awesome listen from start to finish. Very good.

10. Moon Hang Low begins with a Jazzy feel with brushed percussion and horns and launches into a strange tune that is a weird mixture of Jazz and The Incredible String Band’s Psychedelic Folk Music. This sounds really sweet, but does the listener a lot of justice. Really weird sounding, even for these guys’s standards, this is a bit weird to listen to. John Lennon obviously had some decent competition at the time on his hands. Still, this sounds awesome and also very, very good to hear. Very unusual and odd, having said that. The acoustic guitar playing is very sweet, having said that, and the horns are a nice touch musically. Good but very different. This sounds completely way out there and different from anything that has come before it. A very strange tune, but good all the same. Worth it. This is akin to Frank Sinatra’s music for Hippies.

11. Seagull begins with some spacey-sounding acoustic guitar in the right channel, which sounds really good. This launches into some singing about a seagull, and the adventures that such a bird may have. A very gentle and refreshing tale, this goes on for over six minutes. This does sound very fantastic, however. The Incredible String Band were a bunch of natural musicians and their music was a fantastic listen throughout, every single time, for this reason. This music is miles ahead of the “celebrity with a laptop” styled approach that one finds in postmodern music today. A clean, clear and interesting song, this has a load of great and natural instrumentation which depicts a very pretty and natural music approach throughout, this is a great listening experience that sounds absolutely awesome. A wonderful, lovely and sweet tune to listen to, this is yet another winner of a song. Some of the best and most intelligent lyrics are present in this song, and this music propels us well into the 21st century, although this was recorded decades before the year 2000. A fantastic and sweet listen that has a great deal of musical finesse and character about it, this sounds totally sweet and lovely. Towards the end is chanting, bass guitar and acoustic guitar to conclude a lovely song. Very, very awesome, this will put a smile on your face. Excellent, and definitely worth hearing. A real musical treat to listen to. It fades out sweetly at the end.

12. Saturday Maybe begins with some sweet acoustic guitar parts and launches into a lively and lovely tune that sounds really quite sweet. This has a smooth and delicious-sounding string section that emerges after some time, sounding absolutely awesome to hear. A really interesting yet simple tune that has some gorgeous acoustic guitar soloing present, this music sounds awesome and fantastic to listen to. The lyrics are very tripped out on this song, and this tune is a solid gold oldie that sounds really fantastic. A really awesome listen that sounds incredibly good to listen to. This ends with some Sgt. Pepper-styled string melodies. Sweet.

13. Little Girl begins with some crisp acoustic guitar picking, and some clear and fine vocals about childhood romance. A great listen from the start with some xylophone throughout, this is a powerful and interesting musical statement that sounds great and melodic with some of the simplest yet most consistent musical messages out there. A very lively and sweet tune to listen to, the acoustic guitar work is fantastic throughout, just sounding absolutely mint to hear. A lovely listening experience that sounds and plays beautifully, this music is an incredible music adventure that sounds nothing but supremely awesome. A love song about being with a childhood sweetheart, this has some excellent and precise musicianship that works better than imagined. A very cool listening experience that sounds incredibly intelligent and lively, this is a musical winner. Awesome stuff.

14. Maker Of Islands is a six-minute long piece that begins with some piano that sounds fantastic. A really cool and interesting listen, with some slow and timely percussion in the background. A really sweet and pretty tune, which eventually has some strings thrown into the mix, this sounds majestic, melancholic and emotional throughout. A really different musical listening experience than anything else done by The Incredible String Band, this sounds a lot like proto-Disco Music. A good listen, although quite deep and emotional throughout here. A lovely and passionate tune with some romanticism lighting this one up, this music sounds extraordinarily fantastic throughout. A cool tune, this blows away a lot of anything ever done in the name of Punk. Seriously. The music at hand is a really sweet listen, and it is a showcase of the best of acoustic-based Psychedelic Folk Music. A great tune to hear. This sounds very unusual yet sweet to listen to by the group. A good tune to hear, this carries a majestic and impressionistic spirit throughout it all. A lovely listen, with a loud crescendo towards the end, which lightens things up. A great piece of music, and something very underrated as a listen. The piano at the end in particular is very sweet.

15. Dreams Of No Return begins with some interesting acoustic guitar playing and launches straight into a tune that sounds very pretty. A gorgeously divine and wonderful tune to hear, this sounds really lovely and amazing throughout. This has some Sitar in the left channel, which sounds quite different. Obviously, without question, these guys could definitely play music very nicely and acoustically as well. A sweet and lovely listening experience that showcases how great these guys actually were in a musical sense, even if this wasn’t the most popular tune from this album release. The music throughout is absolutely awesome to listen to. A good mixture of East and West throughout, this sounds very inspired and different throughout. The second half launches into some Sitar and acoustic guitar toing and froing, just sounding amazing overall. A very interesting and pleasant tune to listen to, this has genuine character and a wonderful sound that cannot be matched. An awesome song that the likes of John Lennon and Syd Barrett would be incredibly jealous of. Very sweet and musically accomplished. The Sitar at the end is wonderful, followed by chanting to conclude.

16. Cold Days Of February is the final track on this album, with a spoken word introduction to the song. It is a live song and quickly launches into the song at hand with glorious flute being played throughout. This is an anti-war song, typically from these hippie-based musicians, and the music sounds very amazing and glorious. There is a loud and prominent organ throughout, which sounds a bit too loud here, given the mix. Even so, this is a good song to listen to. The flute throughout is very musically accomplished and sweet, and this tune is an enlightening one. A very cool listen throughout, this music is highly powerful and very political, in a left-wing way. A strange tune, this is likely about the war ongoing in Vietnam at the time. A cool and interesting listening experience, this sounds really super sweet to hear. A very fine tune, and proves that the music throughout is really very human and sweet to listen to. This wraps up an album that, although isn’t the best of The Incredible String Band, does very well throughout. A good album that finishes melodramatically with this fine song. This proves that both in the studio and live, The Incredible String Band were….well, incredible. A fine finish to a decent album, which receives some good applause to conclude with.

This isn’t the absolute best of The Incredible String Band. However, it is a good starting point to appreciate their wonderful and pure-sounding music. Overall, this is a fine representation of the best band that Psychedelic Folk based music that ever existed. Still, some of their early albums are better, but there is no denying that this is a good listen. Should you still listen to this album? Yes, particularly if you dig late 1960s music and pure, acoustic-based music performances. Fans of EDM-based music will unlikely enjoy this music, however.

Decent for what it is.

8/10