Various Artists

I'm A Freak Baby

Grapefruit/Cherry Red

SUBTITLED, with absolute clarity, A Journey Through The British Heavy Psych And Hard Rock Underground Scene 1968-72, this three-disc set is a indeed a fascinating trip. Well known names like Deep Purple, Fleetwood Mac and The Yardbirds sit alongside ones like The Iron Maiden, The Mickey Finn and The Kult who are nothing to do with the famous ones and obscure gems by bands whose opus never even achieved a release, like Skullcrusher by the Black Sabbath-worshipping Iron Claw from Dumfries, which is indeed, as the sleeve notes promise, "staggering".

Those notes, and the compilation, are the work of Dave Wells, and the stories he unearths are as much worth the price of admission as the music, although all of that is worth hearing and some of it is a truly excellent and important reminder of a crucial flowering of amplified rock'n'roll. As well as the tale of Alex Wilson's south-west Scotland outfit, the parallel between the free-form excursion of Sweet Slag's Twisted Trip Woman and guitarist Mick Kerensky's road to head of waste management at Luton Borough Council is a story of our times. This is the context in which The Move's Brontosaurus and The Mac's Green Manalishi are best heard.

Keith Bruce