Dr Strangely Strange: Kip of the Serenes

The Good Doctor remains in rude health; Kip is a masterwork, Heavy Petting likewise, although less of the folk or the acid in their second outing, just a wholesome rockin' sound. Both are reportedly heavy on Ritalin, giving rise to such classics as Dr Dim and Dr Strange. Also essential is Halcyon Days, which gathers up unreleased tracks from the Golden Era with a booklet of encyclopedic dimensions that will clarify your mind or else blow it entirely at the wonder of it all - much as Luca Ferrari did in his exhaustive Third Ear Band - Necromancers of the Drifting West.

Are the Third Ear Band acid folk? I believe the term Acid Raga was used at one point to describe their music, and acid drenched it certainly is. Leader Glen 'Zen' Sweeney (RIP) called them a Pop Group, though no doubt with a wry-trickster twinkle in his eye given their violin / cello /oboe / handdrums lineup and repertoir of entirely improvised instrumentals drawing on medieval, alchemical, universal influences which could move audience members to orgasm or suicide or else to embrace the secrets of the Tao or the Egyptian Book of the Dead.

For all things Third Ear related check Luca's Ghetto Raga blog which provides a fascinating glimpse into a long vanished era and a long vanished music...