At A Point Between Fate & Destiny: Complete Recordings

WOW!! this is a 6 disc clam shell box set of eveything that happened after THE ACTION was finished and a few members went on to form mighty baby, anyway unlike the mod/pop and solid songs the action did in the 60s mighty baby took on a whole psyche approach to there music as was very common back in the late 60s when the band formed. as it is well documented 4 members converted to islam during this era wich kind of made them re think there rock n roll lifestyles as it did not fit there new found religion to well but for the few years they lasted they did two great records and they are both here in this great box set with bonus tracks as well as single editis and some in mono originally heard in stereo way back in the day. you also get on disc three the jug of love album rehearsals that sound quite raw and disc four is a real treat as we get the abandoned 1970 album DAY OF SOUP wich has been around as a boot for years but this dusted up refreshed version by grapefruit sounds far better, disc five is live at the malvern & disc six is the classic legendary glastonbury show from 1971 wich opens with virgin spring, this package comes in a hard sturdy thick clam shell box and all 6 discs are remastered to sound there best!!! this comes with a fantastic booklet as well and i would call this a typical grapefruit release as it is pure quality!!!!! personally i liked the ACTION much better but these guys did really good with mighty baby for a few years to and it is all here in a nice sturdy high quality box for you to enjoy almost 50 years on!! i just wish there was a disc of there set when they closed the first isle of wight festival in 1969 included here.... that is the only thing missing as far as i can see.

Mighty Baby was a band straddling the turn of the 1970s. For years, the band’s recorded legacy on vinyl comprised a handful of 45s, two albums and one track, captured live, included on the much sought-after Glastonbury Fayre compilation (Revelation, 1972). Both their eponymous first album and ‘A Jug of Love’ have been reissued on CD before and there has also been a slow trickle of demo recordings and live performances issued on CD. Grapefruit Records have now compiled a six CD box set of all extant Mighty Baby recordings, consisting of the two studio albums and associated singles, demos, alternative takes and live recordings captured at Malvern, Lanchester University and Glastonbury. The 16 minute cut on the Glastonbury Fayre set now turns out to have been the closing section of an extended 36 minute performance, presented here for the first time.The period when Mighty Baby was active was a time when there were a number of ‘jamming bands’ such as the Grateful Dead and the Allman Brothers Band in the USA, and Man, Help Yourself and Quintessence in the UK. I think that one of the aims of this box set is an attempt to place Mighty Baby in this pantheon by demonstrating how their live set lists consisted of the same material but played differently each time. Are we being encouraged to see Mighty Baby’s improvisations on John Coltrane’s ‘India’ as being the equivalent of ‘Dark Star’ or ‘Mountain Jam’? The problem is that whereas the studio sessions are transferred to CD with excellent audio fidelity, the source materials for the live portion of this collection tend to be audience recordings caught in mono using cassette machines with much accompanying wow & flutter and distortion. These are not sound board recordings taken via PA mixing desks. There simply isn’t enough for sound engineers to work on to improve audio fidelity. However, for all their shortcomings, these recordings are not the worst bootleg quality live recordings in the public domain. They are nowhere as awful as Soft Machine’s ‘Breda Reactor’ (Voiceprint, 2011) for example but neither are they as good as the large number of live recordings by bands made at a similar time. Consequently, these supplementary discs are of historical interest and are nice to have but I doubt that I shall be listening to them as regularly as I do the studio albums.One interesting aspect of the Mighty Baby story is the early involvement of the auteur/record producer Guy Stevens. The booklet included with this set suggests that the band had a poor working relationship with the volatile Stevens. However, listeners with an acute ear combined with working knowledge of another of Stevens’ bands Mott the Hoople will detect the producer’s fingerprints all over Mighty Baby’s first album. Consider, for instance, the way in which Stevens encouraged a particular composition and performance style where the band would play a song running through the chord changes and then conclude it with a long jam based on a riff-laden coda. Think of ‘Thunderbuck Ram’ on ‘Mad Shadows’ (Island, 1970). It even makes an appearance on ‘Clampdown’ and ‘Four Horsemen’ by The Clash on ‘London Calling’ (CBS, 1979). Many of the songs on ‘Mighty Baby’ follow a similar format - more than half of ‘I’ve been down so long …’ consists of coda, and the same is true of ‘Same way from the sun’. Lots of opportunities for organ- and guitar-based psychedelic wig-outs!This box set comes handsomely dressed. The clam-shell box contains the compact discs in replica sleeves. The first album is presented in a miniature version of the original gatefold sleeve (from whence the title of this review is taken). There is also an informative booklet which includes an excellent extended essay on the band by David Wells. The music, as I have indicated above, is of variable sound quality but the performances are generally good. Although the band generally played their own compositions, there is an intriguing excursion into country rock with a cover of Gram Parsons’ ‘Lazy Days’. Mostly, however, this collection will appeal to those listeners with a taste for that golden moment when psychedelia was turning into prog rock.

This is basically everything that Mighty Baby ever recorded, or in some cases had recorded, probably without their knowing. As with any comprehensive compilation of this type there is some stuff of variable quality recording wise on the latter discs and some of this will be of interest mainly to completists. However at the price available this is more than worth the money for the awesome psychedelic rock first album, the Grateful Dead inspired second and two discs of extremely interesting outtakes and unreleased material from that time. The live discs demonstrate they were an accomplished live act but are less essential. If like me you have only heard a couple of MB tracks before and were intrigued this is worth the investment.

How can i put this......?Ok.... i was a Mod, I loved the Jam, but never liked Weller solo stuff?I loved The Action, but years ago (around 14) i bought "Egyptian Tomb" album by Mighty BabyI never liked it. Fast forward to this year i thought, a bit pricey for this box set but it's their entire recordings...My opinion? a very few decent tracks , but overall boring and not worth the money....easy to see what a genius Reg Kind was

Only 4 stars because I've only had this for a day and it's a LOT of information! The highlight up to now is disc 4. Reminds me of a British Greatful Dead. Brilliant!

Thorough and well-documented