VAN DER GRAF GENERATOR/68-71 CS 2 (-72) UK

UK prog/psych combo from Manchester existing in periods 1967-72, 1975-78 and from 2005 onwards. A band that to me for some reason always been in the outskirts so I'm now learning about them and wondering why it took so long to get them in focus. Just picked this compilation from a used bin and it's great in so many ways. Not only because I get very rare cuts, but the music is beautiful, having elaborated melodic numbers, lots of organ and excellent guitars. "Necromancer" and "Afterwards" from their in UK initially deleted debute album "Aerosol Grey Machine", making this the first time the songs were released on home soil. "The Boat Of Million Years" a former 45 B-side only and you also get the single mix of "Refugees". The numbers are firmly rooted in contemporary UK psych/prog with some resemblance to Crazy World Of Arthur Brown and early King Crimson. Still listening and learning and happy to have found a "new" band from my favorite period to get into. Hoping to find more of their albums eventually. For background on the group I recommend this very exhaustive and interesting Wikipedia article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_der_Graaf_Generator . Early releases also in a couple of other European countries, but not in US and to my knowledge never reissued on CD though most of the tracks have shown up on other CD compilations. UK reissue on "mad hatter" label. First had "scroll" as shown here, matt stickered cover and Charisma inner. (CÄX*)