"Living On The Hill: A Danish Underground Trip 1967-1974" by VARIOUS ARTISTS – featuring Beefeaters, Day Of Phoenix, Burnin' Red Ivanhoe, Young Flowers, The Savage Rose, Alrune Rod, Delta Blues Band, Rainbow Band, Ache, Pan, Blast Furnace, Culpeper's Orchard, The Old Man & The Sea, Midnight Sun, Thor's Hammer, Secret Oyster, Hurdy Gurdy and Dr. Dopo Jam (October 2020 UK Esoteric Recordings 3CD Clamshell Mini Box Set – Ben Wiseman Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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"...Mind Movies..."

I like to pride myself on knowledge when it comes to music (I used to run the Mail Order and Rarities department in Reckless Records London, a busy joint in the West End of London) - but I'd admit openly that looking at the band names on this extraordinary trawl through Denmark's underground music scene between 1967 and 1974 - I know only five of these wildly obscure bands - Day Of Phoenix, The Savage Rose, Burnin' Red Ivanhoe, Hurdy Gurdy and Midnight Sun - all of whom had limited UK albums releases - and I do mean ltd. 

I mention this because collectors of Sixties and Seventies Underground and beyond should be looking at this 3CD Clamshell Mini Box Set as a torch light shone under a very, very dark bush indeed. Know these acts - I can barely pronounce most of the titles of their songs. And I can tell you now that the album covers repro'd in the typically cool 36-page booklet that accompanies Esoteric's "Living On The Hill..." are not exactly growing on Record Fair trees. 

Content - Esoteric Recordings of the UK have once again dug deep and trumped up European LPs and 45-single goodies on Sonet Records, Polydor, Parlophone and Philips – stuff we've either forgotten and didn't know existed in any musical universe. So, onwards and backwards my hairy children of Thor's big Hammer (if you know what I'm saying)... 

UK released Friday, 30 October 2020 - "Living On The Hill: A Danish Underground Trip 1967-1974" by VARIOUS ARTISTS on Esoteric Recordings ECLEC32733 (Barcode 5013929473386) is a 3CD Clamshell Mini Box Set that plays out as follows: 

CD1 The Savage Rose pictured on the card sleeve (78:52 minutes): 

1. Night Flight - BEEFEATERS (from the 1967 Danish LP "Beef Eaters" on Sonet SLPS 1242)

2. Tell Me - DAY OF PHOENIX (A-side of a 1968 Danish 45-single on Sonet T 7255, a Dave Cousins of The Strawbs cover version)

3. Ouverture/Take Warning - YOUNG FLOWERS (from the 1968 Danish LP "Blomsterpistolen" on Sonet Records SLPS 1258)

4. Long Before I Was Born - THE SAVAGE ROSE (from the 1968 Danish LP "In The Plain" on Polydor SLP HM 46 292)

5. Ksilioy - BURNIN' RED IVANHOE (from the 1969 Danish 2LP-set "M 144" on Sonet Records SLPS 1512)

6. Natskyggevej - ALRUNE ROD (from the 1969 Danish LP "Alrune Rod" on Sonet Records SLPS 1516)

7. Kragerne Vender - YOUNG FLOWERS (from the 1969 Danish LP "No. Two" on Sonet Records SLPS 1511)

8. Opus 1 - DELTA BLUES BAND (from the 1969 Danish LP "Delta Blues Band" on Parlophone E 062-37038)

9. Wide Open N-Way - DAY OF THE PHOENIX (from the 1970 Danish LP "Wide Open N-Way" on Sonet Records SLPS 1519 - reissued 1971 in the UK with altered track listing on Greenwich Gramophone Company GSLP-R 1002)

10. B.M. - RAINBOW BAND (from the 1970 Danish LP "Rainbow Band" on Sonet Records SLPS 1523)

11. Jingle Jangle Man - BURNIN' RED IVANHOE (1969 Recording, No Details)

CD2 Culpeper's Orchard pictured on the card sleeve (79:41 minutes):

1. De Homine Urbano - ACHE (from the 1970 Danish LP "De Homine Urbano" on Philips PY 841 906)

2. To Get Along - PAN (from the 1970 Danish LP "Pan" on Sonet Records SLPS 1518)

3. Rainbow Song - RAINBOW BAND (from the 1970 Danish LP "Rainbow Band" on Sonet Records SLPS 1523)

4. Toytown - BLAST FURANCE (from the 1971 Danish LP "Blast Furnace" on Polydor 2380 013)

5. Mountain Music (Part One) - CULPEPER'S ORCHARD (from the 1971 Danish LP "Culpeper's Orchard" on Polydor 2380 006)

6. Living Dead - THE OLD MAN & THE SEA (from the 1972 Danish LP "The Old Man And The Sea" on Sonet Records SLPS 1539)

7. Tapiola - THE SAVAGE ROSE (from the 1971 Danish LP "Your Daily Gift" on Polydor 2380 004)

8. Living On The Hill - RAINBOW BAND/MIDNIGHT SUN (from the 1971 Danish LP "Midnight Sun" on Sonet Records SLPS 1523)

9. Shadow Of A Gypsy - ACHE (August 1970 45 and also from the 1971 Danish LP "Green Man" on Philips Records 6318 005) 

CD3 Burnin' Red Ivanhoe pictured on the card sleeve (78:36 minutes):

1. Equatorial Rain - ACHE (from the 1971 Danish LP "Green Man" on Philips Records 6318 005) 

2. Avez Vous Kaskelainen? - BURNIN' RED IVANHOE (from the 1971 Danish LP "W.W.W." on Sonet records SLPS 1530 - UK-issued by John Peel's British label in 1971 on Dandelion 2310 145)

3. Paradox - DAY OF PHOENIX (from the 1972 Danish LP "The Neighbour's Son" on Sonet SLPS 1549)

4. A La Turca - MIDNIGHT SUN (from the 1972 Danish LP "Walking Circles" on Sonet SLPS 1536)

5. Mexico - THOR'S HAMMER (from the 1971 Danish LP "Thor's Hammer" on Metronome 15412)

6. Ginger Cake - BLAST FURNACE (from the 1971 Danish LP "Blast Furnace" on Polydor 2380 013)  

7. Going Blind - THE OLD MAN & THE SEA (from the 1972 Danish LP "The Old Man And The Sea" on Sonet Records SLPS 1539)

8. Fire And Water - SECRET OYSTER (from the 1973 Danish LP "Secret Oyster" on CBS Records CBS 65769)

9. Lost In The Jungle - HURDY GURDY (from the 1971 Danish and 1972 UK LP "Hurdy Gurdy" on CBS Records S 64871)

10. Spring Theme - Summer Theme - Dr. DOPO JAM (from the 1973 Danish LP "Entree" on Zebra 2949 007)

11. Classified Ads - CULPEPER'S ORCHARD (from the 1972 Danish LP "Second Sight" on Polydor 2380 018)

12. Mind Movie - SECRET OYSTER (from the 1974 Danish LP "Sea Son" on CBS Records S 80489)

A glossy clamshell mini box set houses three singular picture card-sleeves and a chunky 36-page booklet stuffed to the European tariffs with factoids, rare album cover art and peace sign photos of bands that rarely get a foot into any discography. Head honcho MARK POWELL has annotated this set with each artist and their recording history examined in alphabetical order - their country's counterculture explored and explained too. The genres work their way up from late 60ts Ten Years After swirling Blues Rock into wildly un-commercial Pop and more. But it is early 70ts Euro Prog Rock that dominates, some Psych guitars, Jazz flute and saxophones joining the proceedings on many occasions – with most tracks reassuringly long (as you can see from above, the near 80-minutes playing time of each CD is generous too). 

BEN WISEMAN has remastered the original tapes that concentrate a lot on Sonet Records and its eclectic output. I had expected wildly varying soundstages, and sure enough some of the tracks on CD1 betray crude productions. But as it progresses, the sound gets stronger and better. Wiseman has an enviable resume when it comes to transferring these kinds of recordings and like Andy Pearce and Matt Wortham (other top Audio Engineers), is a name I find I can rely on. It is so here. To the savage roses...

Farfisa Organ and grungy Guitar combine to open "Night Flight" by Beefeaters on CD1 – a shortish instrumental that features some gibberish spoken-words as it whirls to its homemade finish. Next up is Day Of Phoenix who is given two shots on Disc One. Back in September 2012, Esoteric CD-reissued their Danish LP "Wide Open N-Way" with Ben Wiseman Remasters (from original tapes) that tagged on both sides of their rare 45-single "Tell Me" b/w "I Think It's Going To Rain Today" as Bonus Tracks to ECLEC 2331 (Barcode 5013929433144). Both 7" single sides were covers - the A being a Dave Cousins song from the first Strawbs LP in 1969 with a famous Randy Newman track on the B. This Box Set returns to the A-side of the single first and then later on the lengthy "Wide Open N-Way" album title track. The eleven and a half minute title track is a tad meandering but in its better moments at times also feels like early Kraut Rock. Produced by Colosseum's Tony Reeves (later with Greenslade too) - "Wide Open N-Way" was also one of only a handful of Danish LPs issued in the UK (early 1971 saw it pressed on Chapter 1's Progressive Rock imprint label Greenwich Gramophone Company in a slightly altered track form). So along with Burnin' Red Ivanhoe - Day Of Phoenix have at least been seen by British genre fans from time to time in record shop racks and their tune here is a highlight. 

Young Flowers do a nightmarish Psych drone intro for "Ouverture/Take Warning" that quickly becomes a cool Rock groove, their album title "Blomsterpistolen" being Danish for 'Flower Pistols'. Anisette Hansen and her distinctive lead vocals for The Savage Rose comes on like Grace Slick's slightly demented younger sister – while the intriguing mishmash of styles displayed by Burnin' Red Ivanhoe encompasses American Harmony Vocals and Blodwyn Pig via Flute Rock. Members of The Maxwells and Burnin' Red Ivanhoe joined Young Flowers for the Kraut Rock drone of "Kragerne Vender". Not sure I thought much of the plodding Thor's Hammer song, strangulated vocals ahoy. 

One of Denmark's most respected underground groups Rainbow Band - would eventually morph into Midnight Sun as a Canadian act of the same name forced a change in moniker. Rainbow Band/Midnight Sun's four cuts across the three CDs are more than warranted, their genuinely brilliant and cool "B.M." sounding not unlike Pentangle with its heavy reliance on double-bass and Jazz floating rhythms. And you can so hear why their two British MCA Records albums "Midnight Sun" and "Walking Circles" from 1971 and 1972 (complete with Roger Dean artwork) are worth so much dosh. 

Disc 2 mellows down the mood a lot with the Hammond M3 Organ sound of Ache soon joined by fuzzed-up guitars while Pan could be Spooky Tooth meets the more trippy ethereal Blues side of John Mayall circa "Bare Wires" or "Blues From laurel Canyon". And despite the industrial warehouse cauldron of a name, Blast Furnace feels like a mid-tempo Wishbone Ash love song, Neils Vangkilde giving it some superb treated guitar until its fade-out ending. The Old Man And The Sea LP reputedly saw only 500 copies pressed by an unsure Sonet Records – hence the uber-rare cover art of a shark with its jaws on display on Page 26 of the booklet is a new one on me. And on the strength of the Grateful Dead meets Budgie track by Culpeper's Orchard on Disc 3 (Cy Nicklin on guitar), I'm looking forward to Esoteric's "Mountain Music: The Polydor Recordings 1971-1973" vaults reissue on the Danish band come 26 November 2020. And on it goes...

For sure I was expecting this listen to be arduous and perhaps too doomy for my aging tastes, but it wasn't. And furthermore, I am certain that lovers of 60ts and 70ts Psych, Euro Prog, Jazz Rock and even the trippy side of Blues Rock are going to love the discoveries offered in here. I know this sort of Prog and Jazz Rock won't be everyone's cup of herbal tea, but you absolutely have to say that Esoteric have done it again – finding gems on that yellow brick road of old we should give a second look at. 

Want a bit of Alrune's Rod shoved up your Kragerne Vender by Dr. Dopo's Jam - then look no further my fluffy friends (now isn't that a comforting thought)...