Edgar Broughton Band

In the early '70s, as Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin set new standards for pomp and excess in British rock, Harvest Records—a small subsidiary of EMI—quietly made its reputation as the home for some of the most innovative acts on the British underground scene. The eclectic label recorded the likes of eccentric folk master Roy Harper, psychedelic casualty Syd Barrett, and the hard-charging blues-rock group The Edgar Broughton Band. The group cut its teeth on the wild free-festival circuit of the early ‘70s, performing alongside likeminded acts like The Pink Fairies, The Groundhogs, and Hawkwind. The Broughton Band's first two LPs for Harvest were full of rowdy, hippified blues-rock that split the difference between the ear-shredding assault of Blue Cheer and the unrepentant strangeness of early Beefheart. The Broughton Band’s self-titled third album was somewhat more polished. But if it lacked the manic intensity of its predecessors, it made up for it with improved songwriting and lush, folk-inflected arrangements that sound like rougher, less refined takes on the same hippie-folk aesthetic perfected by the likes of The Incredible String Band and Roy Harper.