Various Artists - Insane Times: 25 British Psychedelic Artefacts from the EMI Vaults

…Sergeant Pepper taught the band to play.” Blimey, that’s a casually enormous premise for these EMI bods to stroll in on – The Beatles as inventors of British psychedelia rather than mere stylistic sponges. Nevertheless, it’s one that gives this year’s umpteenth psych collection a theme, a lofty sense of self, a self-perpetuating raison d’etre. Just as the notes say, it’s a “shame” early Syd/Floyd and Donovan rarities couldn’t be included “for contractual reasons”. Ditto Macca’s mythical avantgarde cut-up Carnival Of Light. Still, not much doubt whose vaults they lie in, ready for release sooner or later.Setting aside EMI’s strident answer to the chicken-and-egg conundrum, which is then proved with tracks dating into the 70s, this is an expert packaging of bigger names (Kevin Ayers, Syd with the Soft Machine on No Good Trying) with oddities (Paul Jones’ The Dog Presides) and obscure, groovy tiddlers (Orange Bicycle, The Penny Peeps). Most striking of the lot is a new digital remaster of Ipsissimus’ proto-heavy Hold On (one of the eight tracks previously compiled on The Rubble Collecton Vol 2).