The Incredible String Band
Album: Hard Rope And Silken Twine
Label: BGO
Tracks: 6
Website: http://www.bgo-records.com

1974's Hard Rope And Silken Twine was the final official ISB release in the sequence of albums that began unpretentiously in 1965 and continued on through unsurpassed and ultra-influential psychedelic glories 5,000 Spirits and Wee Tam & The Big Huge, into the rambling, mystical Changing Horses and the uncertainly ragbag Liquid Acrobat As Regards The Air and thence onto misguided forays like No Ruinous Feud, where the surviving band members somewhat uncomfortably adopted the mantle of commercially savvy Jacks-of-all-trades. The band's recorded swansong proved to be not as disappointing musically as the latter by any means, but it was nevertheless an unsatisfactory affair that ultimately lacked the necessary coherence and in the end felt somewhat less than the potential or actual sum of its parts.

The album has been unavailable for some time, having enjoyed only the one CD reissue (on Edsel), and BGO is to be congratulated on making it available again now, for in spite of its status as "last gasp" within the ISB canon it contains some very good ideas. The cynics of the time felt there to be something of an aura of "let's season the latest record with some tried-and-tested gambits to please the fans", especially on the pair of very fine new Robin Williamson compositions, Dreams Of No Return (which for one brief four-minute span brought back the glory days of the sitar-guitar dialogue) and Cold February (an impassioned anti-war piece whose potent, spare tin whistle and organ setting directly paralleled 1968's The Circle Is Unbroken). Dreams Of No Return was also notable for containing the brilliant guest musicianship of Danny Thompson on double bass (not a cello as cited in the booklet note!), captured in exemplary studio sound. Cold February, on the other hand, is a thin, shrill live recording from the previous autumn (rather naughtily, not credited as such, and blatantly not a studio version as so confidently asserted in the booklet note… - ouch! just one of a number of unfortunate errors in the well-intentioned supporting documentation). On the remainder of what formed the original LP's Side One, Mike Heron's attractively orchestrated (and to my mind rather Elton-John-like) Maker Of Islands made for an appealing opening statement, while Malcolm LeMaistre's Glancing Love was pleasant but more mainstream and side closer Dumb Kate was a fiddle-driven cod-hoedown of the old school but ultimately a bit of a makeweight (and again quite muted in impact due to the poor live recording which lacked presence).

The final track, Ithkos, straddled the entire second side of the original LP; it took the form of an experimental, episodic (and, necessarily, flawed) epic, ostensibly in seven "movements" and sporting a rock rhythm section and a nascent proto-prog style but still embracing, if sometimes rather hesitantly and not always ideally integrated, a host of world and folk influences along the way. Heck, it even delivered a fully-fledged hard-rock electric guitar solo from Graham Forbes! Ambitious or wot?… Anyway, the adventures of Ithkos provided a foil for the more backward-glancing gestures of the remainder of the album, and generally speaking the standard of playing (aside from some distinctly lacklustre drumming) was sound.

As far as presentation goes, this new edition includes a useful booklet essay that puts the album into context and includes a good potted biography - but unaccountably omits the lyrics (which if I recall correctly had adorned the original LP's inner sleeve), and, even less logically, provides photos that date not from the time of the album and the full six-piece lineup but instead portray just Mike and Robin in the late 60s. The ship is spoilt for the proverbial ha'porth of tar, methinks; but those not already in possession of the 90s CD reissue will nevertheless need this release, and its remastered sound is still quite an improvement on that earlier reissue.

David Kidman