Web – I Spider (Side 2) `Very Rare` 1st Ever UK Issue 1970 `Monster Prog LP` £700

Released in 1970 on the Polydor Label (2383 024), here showing is the 1st Ever UK Issue by Prog/Psych band `Web`, their 3rd and final album and reputedly their best. A nice Mint copy sold in 2012 for a cool 772 British Pounds, however Mint copies seem to be averaging between 500 – 600 British pounds with prices rising nicely. The original came in a matt finish gatefold sleeve with Polydor Super on front bottom left corner and on the Red Polydor Label

Side 2
1
Love You
2 Ymphasomniac
3 Always I Wait

Released in 1970 bringing to fruition the group’s sound and leaving behind the rather stumbling genre experimentations of yesteryear. Moving strongly into progressive rock, the band strode far afield from the psychedelic meanderings they’d undertaken on their last set, `Theraphosa Blondi`. Lawson’s fabulous organ playing was now the band’s fulcrum, filling the album with rich and (especially on the title track) haunting atmospheres, as well as providing a fixed point from which the rest of the band could swoop off in their own directions. If “I Spider” is the album’s most evocative track, the epic set opener “Concerto for Bedsprings” is it`s most magnificent. Its passages shift in moods and style, with the jazz-inspired “Sack Song” section particularly impressive, while the aggressive “You Can Keep the Good Life” is as hard-edged as any punk-fueled no wave band. Dramatic shifts in dynamic also drive “Love You,” with John Eaton’s vicious, buzzing bassline powering the whole second half of the piece and providing furious encouragement to Tony Edwards’ fuzz-drenched guitar. And that is the glory of this album, as most of the songs comprise two diametrically opposed halves, cleverly brought together either with a crash or with an inspired middle passage. The group went out on a high with this superb set.