My all-time favourite Canterbury-sounding song is...

For non-English "Canterburians", I will go with the Worm Ouroboros from Belarus, and their song Return to the Cold Sea of Nothing :


The Worm Ouroboros Return to the Cold Sea of Nothing (from Of Things That Never Were, 2013)

 

Doing my part to keep the thread going...

One End More / Phil's Little Dance / Worlds of Zin, by Gilgamesh, from their self-titled debut album (1975)



I might like the version that's on the Cuneiform compendium "Arriving Twice" a little more than the album cut.

 

Great topic. You should have somehow found a way to tie it into the Beatles, so it would get more traffic.

No way to pick an all time favourite song. I can't do it for any other genre I listen to, why would Canterbury be any different for me.

70's Canterbury, from Canterbury:

Probably something from National Health. They probably took the genres of the time, to about its most progressive and complex. But so many other great choices.

I'll go with both parts of:

"The Bryden 2-Step (For Amphibians)"

70's Canterbury, not from Canterbury:

Again, way too tough of as decision to pick one, but for the purposed of this thread, I'll go with

Picchio Dal Pozzo - Abbiamo Tutti I Suoi Problemi

But: Supersister (Netherlands), Moving Gelatine Plates (France), Ain Soph (Japan), Volare (USA), Cos (Belgium), all had top quality recordings from that time.

Contemporary Canterbury:

Lots of extremely good bands from quite recently doing a great job with a modern Canterbury interpretation.

ZOPP (UK), only 1 release from 2020 so far, but it is extremely good.
The Winstons (Italy), 3 releases from 2016, 2017, 2019. They also have a touch of psych in the mix.
Manna/Mirage (USA), 4 killer releases from 2015. 2018, 2020, 2021. All are great, the latest being the strongest.
De Lorians (Japan), only 1 killer album from 2019.
Homunculus Res (Italy), 4 releases from 2013, 2015, 2018, 2020. Maybe the best of the contemporary crop.
Machine and the Synergetic Nuts (Japan), a couple of releases from the early 2000's. Many people consider them Canterbury, but in my opinion, they only kind of touch on it, but I'd thought I'd include them, anyway, because they a really good.

 

I just did a little check on this..."Not Alone" actually starts at 48:50. It's quite a delightful little journey. I suggest anyone who enjoys the style of music we're discussing to take it for a little spin.

The Bandcamp alert I receive for Cuneiform Records says that there will be a boxed set of unreleased and live Muffins material released in 2022. I am excited about this, as they are one of my favorites. It's too bad that after a lifetime of making music together, they stopped seeing eye to eye musically a few years ago and decided to call it quits, to preserve their friendship (at least, Dave Newhouse broke off from the other three).

 

Do you know where a person can get his hands on these? They were all extremely limited, and seemingly not available at this point. Dave has a presence on Bandcamp, but only has "Man Out of Time (2021)" available as a download. He has many other titles under his "New House Records" profile, but those first 3 Manna/Mirage records aren't there. I should have accumulated these as they came out, but my money was being funneled into a failing business during this period.

 

Here's a few more contemporary bands:

Alco Frisbass (France), a couple of albums, both very good.
Moogg (italy), maybe a bit closer to jazz-fusion, but still quite a bit Canterbury in the mix.
Beyond-O-Matic (USA), mix of Canterbury and space rock.
Antique Seeking Nuns (UK), a few releases from the last 20 years. They are more kind of laid back, but it creates a cool mood.
Amoeba Split (Spain), instrumental jazz/Canterbury. Very good.
Inner Ear Brigade (USA), great band from Oakland with female vocals.

 

Love Canterbury Scene. This is one of my favorites, and while I don't think it's too representative of the whole sound, it's certainly iconic (and one of my favorites).



I've never been to Canterbury, but I like to think it's all grey and pink there.

 

Looks like Wayside Music has a couple titles.

WaysideMusic.com - Wayside Music

 

National Health: The Bryden 2-Step


Now where's all my Facelift magazines...

 

When you’ve been, it all becomes clear. It’s a wonderful place, even after Richard Sinclair’s defection to Puglia!

 

I love this Hatfield & The North song -

 

Yes, I also like that one.

 

Robert Wyatt's "Little Red Riding Hood Hit The Road" is positively hypnotic:

 

Camel
The Snow Goose

the whole record. More connection to Canterbury than is generally known.

 

Thank you Simoon. In the last 45 minutes, I emailed Dave Newhouse, asking about the availability of those titles on Bandcamp. He's already answered me, saying that, yes, in the next year or so he plans to have those up on Bandcamp. Delightful person. Not the first interaction I've had with him or the other Muffin men. Paul Sears is also extremely friendly and conversational.

 

Kevin Ayers - Colores Para Delores

 

I'm not sure what marks a song as "Canterbury", but I have a couple of Caravan LPs and The Show of Our Lives is my favourite song off them, based on what little I've heard. And Lover / No Backstage Pass deserves a mention.

If Camel qualify (as one poster suggested above), La Princesse Perdue is right in there too.

 

Surely you know that the debut album of Dave Newhouse's new band called Moon X, is announced on Bandcamp: ZAP!, by MOON X Excellent jazz-rock indeed.

 

HUGE thumbs up. Wyatt's lyrics and vocals on the BBC version are perfect dry Canterbury humor.

Speaking of humor ...

 

Well, I'm embarrassed. I mentioned Hugh Hopper's Memories in an earlier post and completely forgot about this great version by Bill Laswell's Material with Archie Shepp on sax and a teenaged Whitney Houston on vocals:

 

My all time favorite may be As Long As He Lies Perfectly Still by the Soft Machine (1969). mind-altering jazzy psych from their Vol. 2 Lp. I love the Kevin Ayers tracks in this thread btw. (This song is actually about him....)

 

A huge fan here. As a kid I bought L upon its release and it still to be one of my favourite progressive rock albums of all time. Well, here I wanted to post something by Steve Hillage as one of the members of the original Canterbury scene, something that I love, but also something that is not very common to see that people mention on the forums, and my choice is this song that dates back to the era of Kevin Ayers' short-lived band Decadence in which Steve Hillage participated, just before he joined Gong in France. Decadence as a band has unfortunately not released any albums, but the song of the same name has found its place on Kevin Ayers' Bananamour album. That's the song where Kevin Ayers paid tribute to his good friend Nico, the former Velvet Underground singer, nicknamed ''Marlene'' here, and where Mr Hillage's spacey-guitar tone can be heard in all of its splendor:


Kevin Ayers Decadence (from Bananamour, 1973)

 

Is "Place of My Own" by Caravan considered Canterbury? That one's a classic.

I really love this one by Kevin Ayers. Youtube link says its on Joy of a Toy but it isn't I believe it's a non-LP A-Side:



There's an alternate take out there with Syd Barrett on it. But this is the proper single version to my ears.

 

Hatfield and the North's Calyx is a short one but quintessentially Canterbury song that deserves an honorable mention.


Hatfield and the North Calyx (from Hatfield and the North, 1974)