As with the earlier volumes of the
Canterburied Sounds series,
Vol. 4 is a mishmash of early recordings by members of
the Wilde Flowers and two lengthy early explorations by
Caravan, a loosely affiliated (singer
Richard Sinclair had been in
the Flowers for a time) but largely separate group of musicians. (Actually, one of the two
Caravan offers this time out, the 14-minute "Austin Cambridge," is the most exciting
Caravan track in the entire series, a slowly building drone that explodes into a psychedelic climax that makes
Syd Barrett's
Pink Floyd look like a bunch of pikers.) Of the
Wilde Flowers material, the clear highlight is "Some of the Time," a rehearsal improv recorded with an unknown guitarist whose idiosyncratic style sounds like a very young and somewhat unformed
Daevid Allen. A later version of
Brian Hopper's "Slow Walkin' Talk" recorded by his post-
Wilde Flowers band, Zobe, suggests a possible
T. Rex influence. As on the other records in the series, a
Wilde Flowers R&B cover (this time "Johnny B. Goode") shows that this band, while in many ways possibly the most adventurous young band in England circa 1965, had a bad habit of just jammin' on some blues, maaaan, which thankfully was missing by the time
Robert Wyatt,
Hugh Hopper,
Kevin Ayers, and Mike Ratledge had regrouped as
the Soft Machine. ~ Stewart Mason