"Uh ... Clem"

Clem Alford is kinda-sorta the U.K.'s Collin Walcott. They should swap names, you ask me. Nothing more Brit than Collin, nothing more U.S. than Clem.

Both play the sitar, see. Not just sprinkling Eastern fairydust over whiteboy Pilsbury hash cakes, but actually mastering the thing, which takes some moxie. And then incorporating it into music that we can sit through without falling asleep.

Magic Carpet used to be rare, back in the Old Normal days when you could rub greasy shoulders with swivel-eyed collectors in any store that had a box of albums on the floor without catching anything worse than dandruff. Dem was th' days, huh pals? I had to find this twice to get both a good sleeve and minty-fresh vinyl. From '72 - you'll think earlier.

Whip-pan to '74, a time slip which is only evident in the startling-in-context synth patches on the second track of Mirror Image. Jeez - wotta chapati-n'-cheez cover. Recursivity may be swell in principle but difficult to accomplish, as demonstrated here.

Today, Clem is still asking the musical question why does the porridge bird lay its eggs in the air? His latest band - the snappily-monickered Uniting Of Opposites - a name I'll have forgotten again by the time I reach the end of this sentence - made this fabulous thing, Ancient Lights, in 2018. It's as gorgeous as its cover. Who's it by again?