Although there are those who nail their spirals to Vertigo as the prog label of choice, EMI’s Harvest certainly vies with it for pole position. With Harvest, the detail was everything. Loaded with the bizarre, striking and the strange, turns abounded like the Third Ear Band, Kevin Ayers and The Greatest Show On Earth. From the bad acid of Edgar Broughton’s There’s No Vibrations, But Wait through the squiffy majesty of Dave Mason’s You Shouldn’t Have Took More Than You Gave, to Be- Bop Deluxe’s future pop of Jet Silver and the Dolls Of Venus, this collection is impressive and nostalgic – its very lack of a house style providing its consistency.
It was Pink Floyd who took the label into most homes, and their two contributions here – including the super-rare (but really rather dull) Embryo – offer few clues to just how enormous they’d be. Syd’s here too, of course.
It ends in 1974, as its original principles were being compromised and Marshall Hain and La Belle Epoque were just around the corner… Oh, Wot A Dream it all is.
