Perfect music for your Dungeons'N'Dragons weekend! Third Ear Band's first album has medieval written all over it. Violin and oboe musical patterns repeated over and over again with a bit of tribal percussion to keep a beat. Hark! Is that a damsel in distress I hear in the background? Well, no! Alchemy might sound like castle music at first, but it's definitely not cheesy at all. There's a strong effort to keep the atmosphere dark and gloomy. In fact many of these songs reminded me of Comus' album First Utterance, but without the vocals. Other songs border on the experimental, like the subtle drones of Area Three. An interesting first effort which hints at the more experimental work of later efforts. This LP copy is a 1988 re-issue of the original 1969 release on Harvest. I plan on getting the import CD version in the future.