Incredible String Band

Originally released as a double album Wee Tam & The Big Huge for some reasons gets commercialized as two separate Cds, the first called Wee Tam and the next being The Big Huge. Again the Boyd/Elektra connection is present, the pastoral setting of artwork (both albums photos taken from the same shoot (same clothes) and the group was at its apex. This Cd reissue of Wee Tam should read side 1 & 2 of the double vinyl issue Well no matter how you look at it, ISB’s better moment had turned with Hangman (which remains one of the Acid Folk reference. Indeed both Wee Tam and Big Huge are direct successors of that album, but turn out to be flawed, Wee Tam, being a quieter album, with rather standard songs between 2 minutes and less than 7, a short organ- lead instrumental and an almost “epic” Ducks On A Pond (and its dumb kazoo solo). The moods range from a harmonica-laden Log Cabin with intrusive Dylan influences, to the Indian-laced Yellow Snake with its sitar or almost country-esque in the closing Ducks, etc.. Actually Wee Tam is either soporific or downright irritating (the singing can get to you if you’re not ready for it), but the songs never get tense or solemn like it used to sometimes on 5 000 Spirits or Hangman. We are far from a Pentangle, a Comus or even a Spirogyra, were the song cast a spell, haunting you with its dramatic ambiances minutes after the needle left the vinyl. Nope Wee Tam leaves you with an empty vacuous mind, as no songs were really able to stand to attention.