Saturday, September 3, 2016

Caedmon. 1978 Scotland

Caedmon are a Christian folk rock band from Scotland, with a psychedelic streak that comes many years past others of this sound. Perhaps Mellow Candle, Agincourt, and Spirogyra are good guideposts here, and the music is clearly anachronistic for 1978. Crystal clear female vocals, acoustic guitar, String Synthesizer, cello, and a fuzz tone guitar define this fine work. A very pleasant, breezy, somewhat harmless psychedelic album. Its reputation is well deserved for the style, though it's very much inside the rails, so not one likely to wow anyone but the most dedicated progressive folk rock collector.

Personal collection

CD: 1995 Nices/Si-Wan (Korea)

The original LP is incredibly rare and sought after (as in 4 digits). The original also includes an additional 45 single. Funny to read the Discogs sales history for the original LP. Median price: $24.55. Yea. Of course, if you drill down on the sales history, you'll see that they are all commented as reissues, and simply placed there incorrectly. Unfortunately, Discogs has a lot of bad data like that which needs cleaning up. 

It appears I first picked up this CD in the mid 90s. And that CD is a co-production of Nices and Si-Wan. The former is a division of manufacturing giant Samsung, and the high quality CD is pressed by them. In effect, though, it's simply a repress of the Kissing Spell release from England, and is credited as such.

Kissing Spell, apparently, have issues with Christianity. They don't have the balls to say it as such, but that's exactly what it is. They hide behind the following phrase: "Kissing Spell is opposed to all forms of mysticism/religion - the sentiments expressed on this record in no way reflect those of K. Spell." Do you really think this would have been appended were the album representing Shinto, Hindu, Norse Mythology, or Islam? You know the answer already. I do tire of this kind of disguised hypocrisy. They even titled the final track simply as 'Give Me....' leaving out Jesus as originally presented. That's just pathetic. If it was 'Give me Thor', you think they would have changed it? Accept the music as it was presented and let others do the judging on their own. Leaves me with a bad taste for the label.

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