LPCDreissues: Looking forward to the past

If any musical combo ever meshed perfectly with the times it was the Incredible String Band. And here's the proof: their 1966 debut, The Incredible String Band on deep-grooved, 180-gram vinyl. The wildly eclectic Scottish folk outfit—with the airy vocals and fretboard prowess of Robin Williamson and Mike Heron as its two constants—began life resurrecting wondrous and ancient Celtic ballads, then was transformed by the perfumed winds of 1967's psychedelic revolution to add sitar, oud, gimbri and all manner of exotic axes to its arsenal. The result is a gently mesmerizing psychedelia and anti-folk stance—consummate counterpoint to current psych heroes like Mogwai and Beachwood Sparks—that makes perfectly clear why the Incredible String Band remains just that: Incredible