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Product details
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Track Listings
| 1. Strangely Strange But Oddly Normal |
| 2. Dr. Dim And Dr. Strange |
| 3. Roy Rogers |
| 4. Dark Haired Lady |
| 5. On The West Cork Hack |
| 6. Tale Of Two Orphanages |
| 7. Strings In The Earth And Air |
| 8. Ship Of Fools |
| 9. Frosty Mornings |
| 10. Donnybrook Fair |
| 11. Mirror Mirror (Kip version) *** [Bonus Tracks]*** |
| 12. On The West Cork Hack (alternate take) *** [Bonus Tracks]*** |
| 13. Strings in the Earth and Air (instrumental mix) *** [Bonus Tracks]*** |
| 14. Strangely Strange but Oddly Normal (alternate take *** [Bonus Tracks]*** |
Product Description
CD Description
This is a long overdue reissue of this classic album, now newly re-mastered and with the addition of four previously unreleased bonus tracks. The Strangelies were friends and contemporaries of the Incredible String Band, whose producer Joe Boyd signed them to his Witchseason management and production company in 1969. This first album originally came out in mid 1969 on Island Records. Over the years, Kip has acquired a considerable cult status; in 2007, Record Collector Magazine proclaimed it one of the UK's ‘hundred most collectable progressive rock records.’ Previous CD reissues of Kip have been of variable quality, but we have now set matters right with this special Collectors’ Edition. Using the tape restoration skills of the Audio Archiving Company, we have re-mastered the album directly from the original stereo mixes and added four previously unheard bonus tracks, taken from the original studio sessions. Belying the age of the tapes, the sound quality is sparkling. Music historian Adrian Whittaker, responsible for our well-received archive Strangelies release Halcyon Days, has put together a lavish accompanying booklet including a history of the band, new interviews with the band members, Joe Boyd and writer Iain Sinclair, full lyrics to the songs and many previously unseen photographs. The CD cover is a reproduction of the original LP sleeve. Tracks: Strangely Strange But Oddly Normal / Dr. Dim And Dr. Strange / Roy Rogers / Dark Haired Lady / On The West Cork Hack / Tale Of Two Orphanages / Strings In The Earth And Air / Ship Of Fools / Frosty Mornings / Donnybrook Fair / Bonus tracks - Mirror Mirror (Kip version) / On The West Cork Hack (alternate take) / Strings in the Earth and Air (instrumental mix) / Strangely Strange but Oddly Normal (alternate take)
Product Description
2008 remastered edition of second LP from 1970, psychedelic Irish folk originally on Vertigo + 4 BONUS tracks
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
I love this album and have done since it came out in 1969, hence the 5 stars. However, please be aware when buying it that there is one CD pressing that PLAYS AT THE WRONG SPEED, quite a lot slower than it should! This dodgy version is an early 1990s official release from Island Records numbered 3D CID 1004. So that you can avoid it, here are the correct track times from the 2002 remastered re-release (Progressive Line label PL570), which agree very closely with the timings given on the original vinyl version:
1. Strangely Strange But Oddly Normal ... 4.28
2. Dr Dim and Dr Strange ... 7.33
3. Roy Rodgers ... 5.37
4. Dark Haired Lady ... 4.25
5. On the West Coast Hack ... 2.32
6. A Tale of Two Orphanages ... 3.49
7. Strings in the Earth and Air ... 1.52
8. Ship of Fools ... 6.18
9. Frosty Mornings ... 3.59
10. Donnybrook Fair ... 8.48
Judging from the track listing on Amazon's mp3 download version, at least half the tracks are taken from the version that plays slow. If you get it, you will not be hearing the album as originally recorded.
There's a recent re-issue with bonus tracks that has the correct track timings plus lyrics and extensive sleeve notes Kip Of The Serenes (Collectors Edition). I'd recommend that version of this utterly brilliant, thoroughly enchanting, humorous, surreal, delightful, nostalgia-dripping, psychedelic treat of an album.
Singing: "Oh, I have some things on my mind and they're mostly all the time like cardboard scarecrows on a see-saw, but were I to impart those things I held to heart like fitting pieces to the jigsaw ..."
1. Strangely Strange But Oddly Normal ... 4.28
2. Dr Dim and Dr Strange ... 7.33
3. Roy Rodgers ... 5.37
4. Dark Haired Lady ... 4.25
5. On the West Coast Hack ... 2.32
6. A Tale of Two Orphanages ... 3.49
7. Strings in the Earth and Air ... 1.52
8. Ship of Fools ... 6.18
9. Frosty Mornings ... 3.59
10. Donnybrook Fair ... 8.48
Judging from the track listing on Amazon's mp3 download version, at least half the tracks are taken from the version that plays slow. If you get it, you will not be hearing the album as originally recorded.
There's a recent re-issue with bonus tracks that has the correct track timings plus lyrics and extensive sleeve notes Kip Of The Serenes (Collectors Edition). I'd recommend that version of this utterly brilliant, thoroughly enchanting, humorous, surreal, delightful, nostalgia-dripping, psychedelic treat of an album.
Singing: "Oh, I have some things on my mind and they're mostly all the time like cardboard scarecrows on a see-saw, but were I to impart those things I held to heart like fitting pieces to the jigsaw ..."
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
At last, Kip Of The Serenes has been re-issued on cd!
I bought Halcyon Days earlier this year and was delighted with it, and became all the more eager to finally hear Kip Of The Serenes when it transpired that it was to be re-released. For a few years I'd been smitten with Robin Williamson's version of "Strings In The Earth And Air", as performed on his beautiful, wayward solo album Myrrh, and had wanted to track down the original. Well, now I have it, and I am delighted, it is quite as lovely as I pictured. The whole of Kip Of The Serenes is equally great, and I am duly thrilled to own a copy!
From the opening of "Strangely Strange But Oddly Normal" to the last notes of "Donnybrook Fair" I'm in "that pleasant waking dream", and I'm speachless. Some songs have so many layers of subtle complexity to them I'm sure I could appreciate them differently each time I listen indefinately. They clearly had an acute sense for the little details and for how to tell their eccentric stories, unexpectedly baffling the listener by introducing a new tune mid-song, only for it to vanish again, as on the mellifluous "Dark-Haired Lady", when "Goldenhair" by James Joyce is quoted to an unexpected jazzy-Brazilian interlude (I have to wonder if there is any connection between this use of "Goldenhair" and Syd Barrett's, or did both DSS and Syd invent the wheel independently?). They were having a whale of a time making this album and that happy vibe rubs off on the listener.
Beyond the album itself there are four bonus tracks, all worthy additions. I think this version of "Mirror Mirror" is greater still than the very fine one featured on Halcyon Days, and the instrumental version of "Strings In The Earth And Air", in all its fragility, is very charming and acts as a great compliment to the album version.
My expectations for this album were exceeded, and now "Halcyon Days", in relationship to Kip Of the Serenes comes over more as an appendix, which in a sense is what it is.
It often seems that when Doctor Strangely Strange are mentioned, the Incredible String Band come into the conversation, but whilst I am sure that they were inspired by ISB, I think that it's unfair to cast them always in their shadow. To my thinking Kip Of The Serenes is stronger than The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter and 5,000 Spirits, it is possessed of some gorgeous intricate music, lyrics of a higher order, and more charm. Where the ISB on occasion might decay into a stoned stupour, everything on Kip... seems lovingly crafted, with great humour and a theatrical ear for the spell-binding that pays off again and again.
This is one of those albums that I feel an instant affection for, accompanied by an impossible wish that somehow I could turn back the calendar to 1992 and have known it since then, because I would have loved it all these years alongside the two Trees albums that came my way at that time. There's probably some means in the Strangely Strange universe to make that wish real...
I bought Halcyon Days earlier this year and was delighted with it, and became all the more eager to finally hear Kip Of The Serenes when it transpired that it was to be re-released. For a few years I'd been smitten with Robin Williamson's version of "Strings In The Earth And Air", as performed on his beautiful, wayward solo album Myrrh, and had wanted to track down the original. Well, now I have it, and I am delighted, it is quite as lovely as I pictured. The whole of Kip Of The Serenes is equally great, and I am duly thrilled to own a copy!
From the opening of "Strangely Strange But Oddly Normal" to the last notes of "Donnybrook Fair" I'm in "that pleasant waking dream", and I'm speachless. Some songs have so many layers of subtle complexity to them I'm sure I could appreciate them differently each time I listen indefinately. They clearly had an acute sense for the little details and for how to tell their eccentric stories, unexpectedly baffling the listener by introducing a new tune mid-song, only for it to vanish again, as on the mellifluous "Dark-Haired Lady", when "Goldenhair" by James Joyce is quoted to an unexpected jazzy-Brazilian interlude (I have to wonder if there is any connection between this use of "Goldenhair" and Syd Barrett's, or did both DSS and Syd invent the wheel independently?). They were having a whale of a time making this album and that happy vibe rubs off on the listener.
Beyond the album itself there are four bonus tracks, all worthy additions. I think this version of "Mirror Mirror" is greater still than the very fine one featured on Halcyon Days, and the instrumental version of "Strings In The Earth And Air", in all its fragility, is very charming and acts as a great compliment to the album version.
My expectations for this album were exceeded, and now "Halcyon Days", in relationship to Kip Of the Serenes comes over more as an appendix, which in a sense is what it is.
It often seems that when Doctor Strangely Strange are mentioned, the Incredible String Band come into the conversation, but whilst I am sure that they were inspired by ISB, I think that it's unfair to cast them always in their shadow. To my thinking Kip Of The Serenes is stronger than The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter and 5,000 Spirits, it is possessed of some gorgeous intricate music, lyrics of a higher order, and more charm. Where the ISB on occasion might decay into a stoned stupour, everything on Kip... seems lovingly crafted, with great humour and a theatrical ear for the spell-binding that pays off again and again.
This is one of those albums that I feel an instant affection for, accompanied by an impossible wish that somehow I could turn back the calendar to 1992 and have known it since then, because I would have loved it all these years alongside the two Trees albums that came my way at that time. There's probably some means in the Strangely Strange universe to make that wish real...
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Been waiting for this in cd form for ages. Bought the vinyl L.P.on the day it came out years ago. My kind of music/song akin to Incredible String Band although it doesn`t have the power/magic of Robin or Mike (of ISB).
Nice bit of nostalgia!
Nice bit of nostalgia!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
SLEEPERS, AWAKE!
"Kip of the Serenes" is a beautiful and eccentric record that still deserves a level of attention that has for too long been withheld. Read more
Published on 8 Jan 2010 by Kerry Leimer
Can you unravel the track listing mystery?
I bought this album based on the wonderful Island "Nice Enough To Eat" sampler in order that I could recreate it myself as Island have never seen fit to re-issuing it - other than... Read more
Published on 30 Oct 2009 by Edgar of Baddesley
hardcore flower power
Be warned, this is for hardcore flower children only.
No other cultural artefact distills the essence of flower power better than this record. Read more
No other cultural artefact distills the essence of flower power better than this record. Read more
Published on 16 May 2009 by Rychard Carrington
Beautiful and witty.
I too first came accross this band on Nice Enough To Eat, in itself a wonderful collection.
I bought Kip of the Serenes and found what is probably my favourite album ever. Read more
I bought Kip of the Serenes and found what is probably my favourite album ever. Read more
Published on 1 Aug 2008 by J. W. Astbury
It is a little strange, but it certainly grew on me.
I bought an Island sampler called "Nice Enough To Eat" around 1970. On it was a track called "Strangely Strange But Oddly Normal" from this album. Read more
Published on 12 Dec 1999
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