For those that don't know the story; during the boom of progressive music around the late 60's following the reign of British Psychedelia and The Beatles evolution, London was at the epicenter with mainstay prog bands like King Crimson and Pink Floyd being unleashed with a loud knock on the door of the music scene with their new experimental and conceptualized sounds seeing the progressive rock genre witness its defining moments. Yet another sound was developing in the relatively quiet City of Canterbury in the corner of the Kent countryside, so inherent that it would end up assuming its very own sub-genre known as The Canterbury Scene. With musicians like Robert Wyatt, Kevin Ayers and Pye Hastings moving ahead from their psychedelic roots in The Wilde Flowers onto form such notable bands as Soft Machine and Caravan and a certain Australian import arriving in the form of Daevid Allen introducing the incomparable Gong, the musicality in the City went from strength to strength with original music emerging from bands like Hatfield & the North, Egg and National Health following the typically jazz and percussion orientated trend native to the genre yet remaining totally unique in their own right.
The Canterbury Scene carries something of a precious, mystical tone by nature and is a thrilling one to discover and having recently uncovered some suitably hidden away stashes in and around the countryside by some avid collectors of the time we have recently found some great examples of originals by Caravan, Camel and Soft Machine to name but a few!
Lots for you to delve into from this majestic area of the prog world, so distinct and so good they gave it its own name and rightly so, all hail The Canterbury Scene!
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