February promises to be a packed month for music fans, as Esoteric brings listeners a new, expanded reissue of Renaissance's 1973 classic, Ashes Are Burning, as well as a reissue of The Byrds, the reunion album by the legendary folk-rock group. Also on the way are reissues of Tear Gas's self-titled album, an expanded edition of Greenslade's Time and Tide, and a new 3-CD set called Revolution: Underground Sounds of 1968. Meanwhile, Esoteric's Reactive imprint will issue a 4-CD set
Featuring both classics and unearthed rarities, the set explores the wild year in which psychedelia, jazz, blues, folk, world music, and hard rock all collided to form groundbreaking and genre-pushing new music. The new compilation includes a number of legendary UK groups, including Deep Purple, Jethro Tull, Genesis, and Pentangle. Also present are Procol Harum, Caravan, Jeff Beck, Spooky Tooth, Traffic, The Move, Julie Driscoll with Brian Auger and The Trinity, The Crazy World of Arthur
Cherry Red's Grapefruit imprint has recently released the latest volume in its year-by-year chronicle of British psychedelia. Try a Little Sunshine: The British Psychedelic Sounds of 1969 follows Let's Go Down and Blow Our Minds (1967) and Looking at Pictures in the Sky (1968) with 3 CDs and 73 tracks from another fascinating year in music history. The box explores the various musical strains impacted by psychedelia, such as pop (including bubblegum, baroque, and sunshine/harmony pop),