Review:
Most famous for including bassist Roger Glover and singer Ian Gillan before they joined Deep Purple, Episode Six managed to release no less than nine British singles between 1966 and 1969 without coming close to a hit record or establishing a solid identity. Also prominently featuring organist/singer Sheila Carter-Dimmock, the group's 1966-1967 singles were rather light pop/rock harmony numbers, with an occasional ballad and a bit of a soul influence. Light years removed from Deep Purple, Episode Six was nothing if not eclectic in their choice of material, trying their hands at numbers by the Hollies, the Beatles, the Tokens, and Charles Aznavour, as well as a British hot-rod tune (written by Glover). While their repertoire lacked focus, their singles were actually pleasant and their fine cover of Tim Rose's "Morning Dew" would have been a deserving hit.

In 1967, they began to fuse pop and psychedelia with reasonably impressive results, especially the single "I Can See Through You" (written by Glover), one of the finest British psychedelic obscurities. Their final two singles showed the band going in a much more progressive direction and anticipating some of the most indulgent art rock of the '70s with "Mozart Versus the Rest," which assaulted one of the composer's most famous riffs with manic electric guitars. Episode Six folded in 1969, after Gillan and Glover had joined Deep Purple.

Anyone arriving from another planet who saw this and the other various collections out on Episode Six could be forgiven for thinking that the band was a major part of the 1960s British rock & roll scene - they could even be forgiven, after hearing a lot of the contents of this double-CD set, for again assuming that the band was a fixture on the charts, radio, and television. And even this reviewer is at a loss to explain how Episode Six never managed to chart a record, even in England, based on the contents of the first disc in this double-CD set, which contains their single A- and B-sides from 1964 through 1968. But the fact is that they didn't, and that the raison d'etre for this and the other CDs of their work is explained in the big, violet-hued sticker on the jewel case that advises, "File Under 'Deep Purple'." This is all solidly commercial and eminently listenable British pop/rock of its era, and very nicely done, whether they were belatedly emulating a Merseybeat sound ("Put Yourself in My Place") or trying to sound like the Beach Boys ("Mighty Morris Ten" - a sort of U.K. answer to "409"). The title track is a cool piece of psychedelic pop/rock, complete with a jangling fuzz tone-laden lead guitar part and exquisite choruses adjacent to Ian Gillan's lead vocals. Most of what's here has been out before somewhere else, but that doesn't make this fascinating for fans of the period of music in which this band worked, or devotees of Deep Purple's history - everything here is at least as relevant (and perhaps easier to take on its own musical terms) as, say, Ritchie Blackmore's work with the British instrumental outfit the Outlaws or Jon Lord's work as part of Santa Barbara Machinehead; the fact is, this is the one precursor unit to Deep Purple that should have charted records in the middle/late '60s. Disc two, designated "Rarities, Demos, and Live Recordings" is even better and more interesting, showing some of the rougher and more intriguing edges of their sound that got smoothed down in the process of completing their singles. Certainly, no first-tier U.K. band of the time ranked below, say, the Hollies or the Move would feel defensive about anything on this disc, with the possible exception of the one digression here to harmony pop, "The Way You Look Tonight."

Track List:
1. Put Yourself In My Place
2. That's All I Want
3. I Hear Trumpets Blow
4. True Love Is Funny That Way
5. Here
6. There & Everywhere
7. Mighty Morris
8. Ten
9. Love Hate Revenge
10. Baby Baby Baby
11. Mornign Dew
12. Sunshine Girl
13. I Can See Through You
14. When I Fall In Love
15. Little Ones
16. Wide Smiles
17. Lucky Sunday
18. Mr Universe
19. Mozart Versus The Rest
20. Jak D'or
21. I Will Warm Your Heart (As Shelia Carter & Episode Six))
22. Incense (As Shelia Carter & Episode Six))
23. I Won't Hurt You (As Neo Maya)
24. U.F.O. (As Neo Maya)
25. Love Hate Revenge (Us Single Version)
26. Gentlemen Of The Park (Rare Ost)
27. Way You Look Tonight (Outtake)
28. My Little Red Book (Outtake)
29. Plastic Love (Outtake)
30. Time & Motion Man (Outtake)
31. Only Lonely People(Outtake)
32. Zip A Dee Doo Dah (Demo)
33. Cottonfields (Demo)
34. My Babe (Demo)
35. Love Is A Swinging Thing (Demo)
36. Steal Your Heart Away (Demo)
37. Walking To New Orleans (Demo)
38. I Want Money (Demo)
39. Mozart Versus The Rest (Live)
40. Him Or Me (Live)
41. Hazy Shade Of Winter (Live)
42. Monster In Paradise (Live)
43. Orange Air (Live)
44. Castle (Live)
45. Slow Down (Live)
46. I Am The Boss (Live)
47. Morning Dew (Live)

Log:

Code:
EAC extraction logfile from 31. December 2005, 18:54 for CD
Episode Six / Love, Hate, Revenge

Used drive : LITE-ON DVDRW SOHW-1693S Adapter: 0 ID: 3
Read mode : Secure with NO C2, accurate stream, disable cache
Combined read/write offset correction : 0
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No

Used output format : Internal WAV Routines
44.100 Hz; 16 Bit; Stereo

Other options :
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Installed external ASPI interface


Range status and errors
Selected range
Filename G:\epsode Six\Episode Six - Love, Hate, Revenge CD2.wav

Peak level 100.0 %
Range quality 100.0 %
CRC 75488977
Copy OK

No errors occured

End of status report