The Incredible String Band: Mike Heron, Robin Williamson.

This 28-track, two-disc set presents the Incredible String Band in a pair of notably different scenarios. The first disc consists of acoustic demo sessions that the influential British psych-folk ensemble (essentially multi-instrumentalists Mike Heron and Robin Williamson) cut in 1967 before its second album, 5000 SPIRITS OR THE LAYERS OF THE ONION. While some of the songs from that record appear here in early versions (including the wistful "First Girl I Loved" and the spare, whimsical "Little Cloud"), a number of non-album tracks surface as well (the absurdist "Lover Man" and others). The second disc captures the Incredible String Band on its '72 tour of Canada, with the duo augmented by additional musicians, making for a loose, dynamic batch of tunes that includes the madcap extended narrative "Giles Crocodile." Though not an ideal introduction to the ISB, THE CIRCLE IS UNBROKEN will certainly be of interest to devoted fans of the revered U.K. act.

Uncut (p.88) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "This was the defining line-up of Robin Williamson and Mike Heron, each fronting his own distinctively flavoured songs with the other providing esoteric and exotic back-up."

Mojo (Publisher) (p.109) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "[With] a playfully ragged potpourri of folk songs, jigs, novelty kazoo numbers and even a bossa version of 'First Girl I Loved'..."