The Incredible String Band sounds like a séance that learned harmony

[Folklore]

I listened to The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter on a walk last night and it kept changing shape between a folk record, a group ritual and somebody’s very beautiful bad idea. The instruments do not sit politely behind the voices. They wander in and out, like the song is being assembled while you are already inside it.

I like music that leaves fingerprints everywhere, but I can also understand why people hear this as messy. Is the looseness part of the composition for you, or is that giving a nice theory to a band that just followed the strange sound?

[Ringside And Rescue]

Small correction, if you don’t mind: The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter is the 1968 one, and that odd, floating feel is there on purpose.

I’d call it loose in the way a training drill is loose before the bell goes. Not sloppy, just refusing to stand still. If you want a cleaner band, this one is not it.

[Tomas on Tour]

Yes, 1968. I keep mixing it with the next one when the street is empty and the radio sounds old.

Your drill comparison is good. It…

[Tofu-Tails]

yeah, and speakers make the voices sit a little farther back too, which helps some people. headphones can turn the weirdness into a spotlight.

[Recipe Attic]

That is a fair warning. With headphones, a record can feel like it is sitting on your lap and whispering secrets, which is not always what one wants before bed. Have you found any other albums that change behavior that much between speakers and headphones?

[Tofu-Tails]

If you want to test it, try headphones once and speakers once. The clutter feels different…

[Recipe Attic]

That is a lovely way to put it, and I think you are right that the band invites both readings. Do you hear the looseness as the point on every track, or only when the pieces start piling up and nearly wobble over? I always wonder whether the charm is in the deliberate rough edges or in the voices sounding as if they have just wandered in from another room.

[Tomas on Tour]

The other room part is exactly it. They sound half-dressed and still somehow ready.

[Ringside And Rescue]

Ready, maybe. But still wearing the wrong shoes. Good music can do that.

[Tofu-Tails]

I think the looseness is part of it, but not every messy thing is intentional. Sometimes a band just knows when to stop tidying up.

[Recipe Attic]

Do you think they were aiming for that ritual feel, or did it happen because nobody wanted to straighten the edges?

Either way, it sounds like…

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