Bertie

Seelie Court - the world's premier label for rare and previously unreleased archive recordings of underground folk, rock, proto-metal, and psychedelic music presents a mad Kinks-influenced underground progressive masterpiece. It's as if Noel Coward, Hawkwind, The Incredible String Band, Neu, The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band and The Kinks were scrambled together in a disastrous Star Trek teleportation accident. In 1970 the Berties took over a crumbling mansion in the wilds of Wales, made this LP, sent it to John Peel, and never left. They remain in Wales to this day. Bertie by Algy Lord Grey is a deranged, subversive and witty concept album about a man's descent into ruin. Bertie was created in 1970 in an edition of 50 hand-made copies, each with unique painted & sprayed covers that predicted a Westwood-McLaren Punk aesthetic. Very few Berties have survived to this day. It is also that rarest of beasts, the Concept Album, as such joining the hallowed ranks of Close To The Edge, S.F. Sorrow, Tommy, The Plan, 2112, The Story of Simon Simopath, Arthur and Bad Girls, outclassing them all apart from the latter, which it almost equals in it's sublime grandeur. Bertie also casually invented Motorik drumming in Dragonfly Wings, at a primordial point when Neu were still in the can, and Can were still very neu. Bertie's music, like all works of genius, is barely definable. If we imagine an early Teleportation experiment such as those performed with mixed success by British Rail in the 1950's, in which the co-ordinates strayed to a stage upon which were gathered Hawkwind, Richie Valens, The Incredible String Band, Noel Coward, Neu, Ray Davies of the Kinks and Purcell, and say the Technician was badly distracted by a Tea Lady as he beamed them up, only Bertie would emerge godlike and wreathed in ether at B.R. HQ. Bertie, hopelessly clouded in obscurity as it is, is the greatest achievement of 20th Century rock music. John Peel's response to a Bertie-borne missive is reproduced within, and shows, incredibly, that Bertie was beyond even that great man's full comprehension. If you are the kind of chap who dares look into the face of an ancient pan-dimensional Pagan God, perhaps try this platter.