Refugees from Planet Gong, floating anarchists and an essential part of the counterculture movement, Here & Now were riding high in the early 80s with their Fantasy Shift album receiving mainstream acclaim and the whole Stonehenge Free Festival scene that they were so vital in pushing towards its zenith. So they tried to capture their space-punk reggae sound for a live album.
After myriad attempts using tape machines, cassette recorders, live mics and off-line recordings, they employed an 8-track mobile at Oxford Polytechnic and, with a knowing wink to how challenging it had been bottling the immediacy of their live sound, released Coaxed Out From Oxford themselves. From Gavin Da Blitz’s warbling electronics meshed with Deano Ferrari’s chugging guitar on 23 Skidoo, through the pulsing urgency of Heart Of The City and the infuriatingly catchy Salvador, it successfully nailed them.
>p>Then it was a cassette-only thing, here it’s still a resolutely lo-fi sounding CD remaster that absolutely describes their spirit: all spacey atmospherics, chanted lyrics and cranium-expanding bass lines. And new space-rock label 4 Zero have done it proud, with bonus tracks, new artwork and entertaining sleeveotes from everpresent bassist Keith ‘Le Missile’.
