July’s self-titled record is easily one of the top UK Psych Lp’s.   Epic Records   (1968) Tony Duhig on guitar, John Field on flute and keyboards, Tom Newman on vocals, Alan James playing bass, and Chris Jackson on drums.   The band lasted barely a year, leaving behind one of the most sought-after LPs of the British psychedelic boom (on the Major Minor label in England, and Epic Records in the U.S. and Canada). Their sound was a mix of trippy, lugubrious psychedelic meanderings, eerie, trippy vignettes (“Dandelion Seeds,” “My Clown”), and strange, bright electric-acoustic textured tracks (“Friendly Man”), with some dazzling guitar workouts (Crying Is for Writers”) for good measure, all spiced with some elements of world music, courtesy of Tony Duhig (who has since come to regard July as an embarrassing element in his resume). Their first single, “My Clown” b/w “Dandelion Seeds,” has come to be considered a classic piece of psychedelia while the album is just plain collectable, despite some shortcomings. The band separated in 1969, with Duhig moving on to Jade Warrior, Newman becoming a well-respected engineer, with Mike Oldfield Tubular Bells to his credit, and bassist Alan James later working with Cat Stevens and Kevin Coyne, among others.

(67 votes, average: 3.79 out of 5)

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