VA - Looking at the Pictures in the Sky: The British Psychedelic Sounds of 1968 [3CD Box Set] (2017)

This four-hour, 77-track, 3CD anthology Looking At The Pictures In The Sky is housed in a striking clambox that contains a 44 page booklet crammed with biographical information and rare photographs of the featured acts.

• It goes without saying that 1968 doesn’t have the same kind of cachet as 1967 – a year that, in musical terms, will always be indelibly associated with the Summer of Love, Sgt Pepper and the emergence of psychedelia.

• But although the major players turned away from the excesses of the previous year in favour of a back-to-basics musical approach, there were arguably a greater number of psychedelic records made in 1968 than during the preceding twelve months.

• Vital, lysergically-inclined 45s emerged from a whole host of younger groups, with The Factory, Mike Stuart Span, Fleur de Lys, The Fire, The Barrier, Boeing Duveen, Rupert’s People and numerous others all releasing singles that have long been widely regarded by psychedelic collectors as genre classics.

• All these and more are gathered on Looking At The Pictures In The Sky, which provide a fascinating overview of the group scene in Britain (and Ireland!) in 1968, shining a light on unreleased gems, cult classics, choice album cuts, neglected B-sides and alternative versions.

• As with its 1967 equivalent Let’s Go Down And Blow Our Minds, the four-hour, 77-track, 3CD anthology Looking At The Pictures In The Sky is housed in a striking clambox that contains a 44 page booklet crammed with biographical information and rare photographs of the featured acts.