Jan Dukes de Grey - Sorcerers/Mice and Rats in the Attic 2 x CDs (expanded/remastered)
SKU
23-CRTREE003
Jan Dukes de Grey were a great, whacked out. UK psych/folk band that released two overlooked at the time albums in 1969/1971 that are now revered as classics of that now very hip sound. Sorcerers was released on Decca Nova and has never been reissued before! Mice and Rats was their second, final and definitely much more whacked album of the two Both are quite good, but this one is the one that resonates especially strongly now, I think. Derek Noy wrote the material, sang lead and played guitar, trumpet, trombone and 'zelda chord', Denis Conlan played drums and Michael Bairstow played flute, clarinets and saxophones. There were also some excellent and at times really odd orchestrations. Three long tracks here. This also comes with two bonus tracks from a single that was released after Mice and Rats and a history of the group, never-seen photos and more. If you dig Espers and that sound, here where it all comes from.
"...totally uncommercial "folk" albums by a Yorkshire act. That doesn't mean they use any traditional songs...all tracks are composed and sung by Noy, with inventive but not always coherent accompaniment on wind instruments by Bairstow...this album has its share of completely uncommon, yet strangely innocent melodies, put forward in a strongly self-willed way. The second album continues in the same vein, yet sounds completely different. Instead of concise songs, we get long suited, still folky efforts but heavily spiced with dissonance and wild improvisations. None of the restraint is left, though the few arrangements are very well executed. In spite of some overlong solos, this is highly interesting music made by minds that seem to be on the verge of disintegrating. Not for everyone's tastes, probably, but recommended nonetheless."-Tapestry of Delights
"Digitally remastered two CD set containing two rare British Acid Folk gems. Led by the inscrutably gnomic Derek Noy, Yorkshire-based outfit Jan Dukes de Grey briefly emerged in the late '60s to deliver two of the rarest, most sought-after albums in the British Acid Folk lexicon, Sorcerers and the extraordinary Mice And Rats In The Loft, before disappearing into the ether once more. Some four decades after they were recorded, both albums are finally collected under one roof, thereby charting the startling musical and personal journey undertaken by a band that metamorphosed overnight from beatific flower children singing newly-minted hymns to Mother Nature to paranoid, knife-wielding refugees from Witchfinder General. With the addition of a little-known post-band single, this vital new release unveils the band's story for the first time, featuring numerous previously unpublished photos and first-ever quotes from the newly-unearthed Derek Noy."