Octopus - Restless Night: The Complete Pop-Psych Sessions 1967-1971
SKU
05-REV-OLACRREV180
"Octopus' sole 1969 long-player Restless Night is something of a treasure among '60s Brit-psych fans due to its mixture of proto-progressive riffs, accomplished pop tunes and sparkling Beatlesque flourishes. The band evolved out of the thriving Hertfordshire beat scene that also gave us The Zombies, The Gods and those other cult pop-psych heroes Forever Amber. Octopus' music was colored by the use of keyboards and layered vocal harmonies in much the same way. By the time they'd been signed to Larry Page's Penny Farthing label in 1969, their sound had expanded to encompass the burgeoning progressive scene, the dawn of the solo troubadour and the omnipresent influence of The Beatles, illustrated perfectly by their live sets of the period. The first single and album opener 'The River' is a tough dancefloor groover complete with lysergic fuzz guitar and has appeared on several compilations while the album cover art is an eye-opening classic of the 'so bad it's good' school. Much to the band's horror, they discovered that Page had released a bastardized version of the album which omitted two of the original tracks and added the B-side of the single. Previous re-issues of the album have, not surprisingly, stuck to the erroneous tracklist but here at Rev-Ola we always strive to give you more. So here it is pop pickers, for the first time ever, the original version of the Octopus album as the band intended... containing previously unheard (and uniformly excellent) tunes plus the usual plethora of previously unreleased bonus tracks, single sides, demos. Our edition also features new and extensive liner notes telling the full-on story of Octopus as they morphed from provincial beat favorites into psychedelic warriors."