Illusive Dream - The Electric Garden/ Back Again

Epic soft orchestral psychedelia from a somewhat illusive - sorry, elusive - act

Label: RCA

Year of Release: 1969

A lot of soft harmony popsike or progressive orchestral tracks have been unjustly ignored by collectors and listeners. At the time they were never really hip or underground sounds, despite the highly respected Jimmy Webb originally setting the ball rolling in a wobblier direction, and in subsequent years they've never slotted neatly alongside the phased electric output of the non-music school graduates on compilations. 

Nonetheless, this is an example of how rambling, engaging and unpredictable a lot of the orchestrated stuff could be. The A-side of this disc is five-and-a-half minutes of winding, meandering, dream-like pop with a euphoric chorus about an "Electric Garden", whatever that may be. Rather than racing to the chorus, it stretches, sprawls and twitches contentedly, shifting groovy, delirious sixties pop melodies into a slightly more formal context. The group share close vocal harmonies adeptly and in a manner which could have pleased the variety circuit while singing lyrics which would have been utterly incomprehensible to that same audience. 

Sometimes if your music falls between two stools it ultimately fails to impress any audience sufficiently, and I'd hazard a guess that's what happened here. Too buttoned up for the hippy crowd, and too way-out for the easier side of the street, "The Electric Garden" has been somewhat ignored in subsequent years but really deserves your ears.

The B-side "Back Again" is more straightforward and snappy but isn't mere filler, combining deft harmony pop with Sergeant Pepper styled fanfares. 

Sadly, despite Disc and Music Echo raving about the act's "fantastic live show" and an album (featuring The Poets' George Gallacher) apparently resting in the can, there were to be no further releases from this act. Their full line-up is difficult to trace. It's known that Lionel Baron, Michael Denne and Terry Phillips were all members, but the female member included in all their publicity shots and clearly audible on this single doesn't appear to be named anywhere. 

In an unexpected career leap, Denne later joined forces with Ken Gold in the seventies to release a number of funk records. I can only hope there's no connection between that collaboration and the Denny/ Gold duo in Edwyn Collins' sit-com "West Heath Yard". 

 

If the previews below aren't working properly, please go right to the source.