This music comes form a time when technological advancement, cultural open-mindedness and abstract expression were all at their halcyon and musical boundaries became virtually non-existent leaving the gates wide open for exciting new forms of sonic experimentation and genre fusions. The discerning cosmic-music enthusiast of early 1970's would witness an unwaining influx of mind-bending sub-genres flood through the record racks on a daily basis as rock mutated beyond palletable recognition overnight, providing new challenges and breaking boundries at every turn. This was the birth of musical sport before the Olympics - but to refer to previous months groundbreaking jazz-rock-symphonic-marathon as 'progressive' when it has already been lapped twice by yesterdays freeform-electronic-space-commune-rock combo would throw the whole inadequate genre naming-game into disarray. Prog rock in its truest form was not a 'restrictive' genre - it was a movement that unified ALL genres.

In this vibrant minute Monday morning's progressive breakfast would become pie and mash by teatime. By 1975 the success of progressive rocks flamboyant cover stars such as Genesis, Yes and ELP would influence a generation of trendy imitation bands who laid down a lubricated commercial blueprint of Prog which in turn rendered the genre anything but 'Progressive' thus resulting in 'the aforementioned Prog-pop bands becoming nothing but embarrassing self parodies drowned in a misguided media cesspit.

So what of the truly progressive international rock musicians who started their own hybrid-hurricanes outside the rectangular iris of Prog's media storm? What about the unintentionally progressive musicians from the far reaches of the globe who were forced to create their own brand of psychedelic rock in a country shielded from the influence of the western world? And why don't we spare a thought (and some needle time), for the culturally progressive crusaders carrying the rock-music flag in the face of political adversity risking social ostrasization or even death?

Even though most of the 13 tracks on this compilation were recorded over 30 years ago they still, individually embody a wide range of challenging progressive musical ideas which are as relevant today as they were when the vinyl first came off the press in each of their scattered countries of origin.