If it wasn't for the appalling sound that regularly seems to escape this label's quality control department, it would be difficult to describe Out of the Cage into the Vault as anything but a masterpiece. Partially reprising the earlier Heavier Than Air collection, four CDs essentially serve up... [+] Expand

If it wasn't for the appalling sound that regularly seems to escape this label's quality control department, it would be difficult to describe Out of the Cage into the Vault as anything but a masterpiece. Partially reprising the earlier Heavier Than Air collection, four CDs essentially serve up the alternate history of the Greatest Living Welsh Band, capturing Budgie in concert and in session at various key junctures between 1972 (a John Peel radio session and a BBC In Concert broadcast) and 1982 (when they blew away all contenders at that summer's Reading Festival) via the Friday Rock Show, and gigs in London in 1974, L.A. in 1978, and Reading again in 1980. Here, too, every key Budgie number is given a steamrolling workout, with such stone cold classics as "Nude Disintegrating Parachutist Woman," "Hot as a Docker's Armpit," and "Napoleon Bona Part 1 & 2" not only equaling, but sometimes eclipsing their studio-bound counterparts. Ah, but the sound lets the side down again and again. The BBC material is superb, but the live recordings are "listenable" at best, and abysmal by the time you get to the festival dates -- there is a market for hiss-heavy cassette tapes, recorded from the far end of a windy field, but a none-too-cheap CD box set may not be it. At the same time, however, when the box is good, it's as amazing as only Budgie could be, and if the preponderance of later (post-Bandolier) recordings maybe puts you off, don't let it. Unlike a lot of the older bands reinvigorated by the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, Budgie remained impeccable. ~ Dave Thompson, All Music Guide [-] Collapse

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