SOUNDTRACK

University of Exeter (near-extreme South-West England) hippie students group that built a total musical show, complete with lights and dancers that was popular on the college circuit, Principal Edwards Magic Theatre is one of those all-too forgotten progressive folk bands that couldn't manage a record deal until BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel discovered them and signed them to his Dandelion label and appeared on a few TV shows on the presenter's impulse. This 13-humans band came with dancers, singers, light & sound men, and of course the core quartet of musicians, centred on main songwriter guitarist Root Cartwright and violin, keyboards and flute player Bindy Bourquin, while the lyrics came from three members, including the two lead singers, a typical folk male/female duo. The group's amusing name was rumoured to be about their Exeter University's principal, but more likely the said Edwards was percussionist's ancestor and Welsh preacher's name. The debut album has nothing to do with a film, but it was co-produced by Peel and the group, released in 69 in a gatefold group-photo shot artwork filled with 14 hippies.

The group's soundscapes are indeed very folk, but a demented psych prog folk one, one that can stretch from Incredible String Band to early Floyd (they toured with both and many more) and many other difficult to discern influences in between, but they have their own sound. Indeed the band's singing duet comprises of the astounding Vivienne McAuliffe (who would be around for a long time afterwards) and the more restrained but haunting Martin Stellman, but there is so much more than the singing to this band, including theatrical songwriting that has to do much with their stage act.

The opening Enigmatic Insomnia Machine (with a psych-rock second half) and its follow-up Sacrifice (reminiscent of ISB, despite some demented power chords opening it) are both setting the boundaries and yet blowing apart the rules set inside the psych-folk genre, but things go even madder (while staying very folk) with the epic ISB-esque 13-mins Death Of Don Quixote. One would fear this long track overstays its welcome but, surprisingly, it is relatively quickly over. One of the group's main asset is the multi-instrumentalist Bindy Bourquin, who plays flutes, keyboards and violin, and therefore brings on much colour in the band's soundscapes.

On the flipside, the opening Third Sonnet starts out much like the first part of the opus, but a sudden surge of guitar slides the album, giving it a heavy blues tinge, before returning to semi-medieval liturgics chants and both the blues and the folk will alternate some more. Cool stuff and an epic electric ending. The only short track (by far) To Be A Broken Guitar is rather self-explanatory and sung by Stellman alone. The album closes on the 10-mins Pinky, an excellent psych-folk as if early Floyd had fooled around with Fairport Convention. Definitely the album's highlight, the madness seems to approach Jan Dukes De Grey with some outstanding guitar picking and terminating on a great soliloquy, punctuated by a final guitar bravado.

Maybe not as outstanding as First Utterances, Asylum for The Musically Insane, St Radiguns, Rats &And Mice In The Loft, but Soundtrack s certainly another gem n that genre; but then again it might have been interesting to have witnessed the full dimension of their craft, including the visual aspects, which are absent on the albums. While some will classify PEMT as ISB-esque, I tend to think of this Exeter combo as quite superior, because it doesn't have the weird sonic particularities of the Scot duo/quartet.