MOONKYTE 'COUNT ME OUT' ORIG. 1971 PSYCH FOLK LP

	£		206
	$		273

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MOONKYTE ‘COUNT ME OUT’ 1971 PRIVATE PRESSING (MOTHER LABEL) FOLK- PSYCH MASTERPIECE

Moonkyte, a truly psychedelic band from Bradford, England, issued this one obscure folk-rock-psychedelic album in 1971, ‘Count Me Out’. It has a tangential similarity to the work of the Incredible String Band, Dr. Strangely Strange and even sounds Strawb-like (to my ears, anyway) at times.  It has a bemused aura, odd and sometimes surreal lyrics, and hints of exoticism, prominently using harmonium as well as a bit of sitar.  It is also quite rock-oriented, however, both in its vocal harmonies, and its usual reliance on fairly standard rock instrumentation.

The songs are deceptively simple, but underscored with beautiful atmospheric touches of sitar and harmonium. The tunes are lilting and folky, and the words certainly enigmatic and impressionistic even by some acid folk standards.  "Girl Who Came Out of My Head", heralded by many as the stand-out track comes, in my opinion, second to the psychedelic masterpiece, ‘Way Out Hermit’ the track before it.  It is simply magical.

Some quite pleasant, soothing background harmonies help normalize the proceedings a little, and aftershocks of the late-'60s psychedelic era are heard in the sitar, especially on the aforementioned, "Way Out Hermit."  Much of it has the tinkerbell fairydust air heard in British Isles folk-rock from the Incredible String Band and Donovan on down, though "Lead This Sinner On" and "Happy Minstrel" have an earthier busking bluesy feel that exposes a more direct lineage to the angrier school of '60s folk.

Sleeve Condition:  impossible to grade as the delicate, die-cut sleeve has been badly damaged and as can be seen from the photograph, part of the die-cut is actually missing and the piece that is still there is hanging by a corner.  Infuriatingly, the rest of the sleeve isn’t even creased!  The illustrated, lyric inner is still present and in Ex condition.  Two corners are beveled and this would appear to be sleeve design to facilitate easy entry to the outer, ironically, to prevent damaging the die-cut design.  Not having seen one before, I can’t say that the corners have not been cut but it doesn’t look as if that’s been done after manufacture to me.

Record Condition:  Visually it is in Ex- condition with only the lightest and superficial looking marks.  There are however, a few clicks, happily between tracks two and three on the first side which disappear before the track four gets going properly.  There is also the occasional crackle and light click in other places.  This doesn’t appear to be vinyl damage and I can only put it down to poor quality vinyl.  Most private pressings are a bit iffy in this respect.  This is no exception and potential bidders should be aware that the record does have some background crackle due to this, though I was not aware of this intruding through the music whilst playing it.  Difficult to give it a grade then, but erring on the side of caution, I would grade it as VG. 

Having said that, I play-tested this all the way through and enjoyed it enormously!  In fact, I played it through several times and even considered hanging on to it, so impressed was I with the musical content, only aware of the odd crackle in between tracks.

It’s a shame that both sleeve and LP are compromised by either damage or poor pressing but it must also be recognized that this is a seriously scarce piece of vinyl, musical history.  It very rarely turns up in any condition and this is the real thing.  It should be seen as an opportunity to own an original psych monster at a fraction of the cost of acquiring a mint copy, if you could find one!

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