Progarchives, the progressive rock ultimate discography
The Incredible String Band - Liquid Acrobat As Regards The Air CD (album) cover

LIQUID ACROBAT AS REGARDS THE AIR

The Incredible String Band

 

Prog Folk

3.08 | 18 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

ClemofNazareth
Special Collaborator
Prog Folk Researcher
3 stars As far as I’m concerned this is the last studio release that qualifies as a true ISB album, and not coincidently the last one that is actually interesting as well. While the captivating Rose Simpson is gone, the rest of the core group remains and vocalist Malcolm Le Maistre (who would remain until the group disbanded) has been added. The upside here is that Le Maistre brought some variety to the group at a time when their collective creativity was starting to wane and his fledgling steps as an instrumental musician can be heard here in addition to his singing. The downside is that the band is left to rely completely on the increasingly odd McKechnie for the female vocal parts, and her often awkward singing doesn’t do much for the album as a whole.

The band seems to have gone electric as well with guitar, organ and even Heron’s piano getting plugged in to augment, and often dominate, the various stringed and woodwind acoustic instruments. This isn’t exactly a watershed though, as the meandering progressive compositions from Williamson and the mildly rocking Heron compositions don’t really emphasize the powered instruments anyway; but it is a noticeable change.

Aside from these differences the album offers mostly more of the same in terms of composition and acid folk lyrics. Heron’s “Words They Rise and Fall” is one of my favorite tracks, although it veers dangerously close to soft rock at times. Williamson is as off-beat as ever with the almost vaudevillian “Evolution Rag” and the meditative “Here Till Here is There” being the most characteristic songs for him. McKechnie earns songwriting credits for the mostly forgettable “Cosmic Boy”, which seems to have been included solely as a vehicle for her singing. And the whole band gets into the act with a wide range of instrumental forays on the expansive closing number “Darling Belle” that, as with so many of the group’s albums, provides not only filler but a lengthy closing to an record consisting otherwise of mostly short tracks.

This was reportedly the band’s most commercially successful album, a tribute more to timing than quality I’m sure. Coming off the stage show-centered ‘U’ and film-inspired ‘This Damn Thing Just Won’t End’ albums, the band was still enough of a draw (and their name in front of the limelight just enough) to garner decent sales despite rapidly changing tastes and an aging hippy fan base. Alas, things were about to change, with McKechnie getting ready to wander off into the California desert and the rest of the band about to begin their slow and tedious descent into oblivion.

For the moment though they could still put together something quite good if not exceptional, and the songs on this album hold up reasonably well after nearly forty years, so some acknowledgement is due them for that. Three stars seems to be what I’ve ended up rating most of their albums, but ‘good’ is a fairly broad range and this one teeters toward the leeward end of that range. Recommended to fans of the genre, but with a caution that any of their 1967-1969 albums would be a better place to start if you aren’t already familiar with their music.

peace

ClemofNazareth | 3/5 |

MEMBERS LOGIN ZONE

As a registered member (register here if not), you can post rating/reviews (& edit later), comments reviews and submit new albums.

You are not logged, please complete authentication before continuing (use forum credentials).

Forum user
Forum password

Share this THE INCREDIBLE STRING BAND review

Social review comments () BETA







Review related links

Copyright Prog Archives, All rights reserved. | Legal Notice | Privacy Policy | Advertise | RSS + syndications

Other sites in the MAC network: JazzMusicArchives.com — jazz music reviews and archives | MetalMusicArchives.com — metal music reviews and archives

Donate monthly and keep PA fast-loading and ad-free forever.