Billed as home studio recordings from 1965-1975, this set is a pretty monumental collection of Townsend's demos. The nature of the material makes it impossible to tell how comprehensive it is, but a quick glance imparts that this collection very nicely supercedes a series of releases, both underground and sanctioned.
As any Who fan knows, Townsend's home demos make for fascinating listening -- many of the arrangements, licks, and even vocal phrasing is already present on these rougher takes. Add to that a sort of home-made funkiness (think a more pissed-off, English version of the Band), and you have a set of recordings that stack up very well against their more familiar later, full-band versions.
Townsend has leaked out this sort of stuff on the SCOOP collections for some time, but those have always been piecemeal affairs -- one track from here, another from ten years later, synth instrumentals next to unreleased songs. This collection is wonderfully focused, chronological, and in pretty strong fidelity. The three Who benchmarks, TOMMY, WHO'S NEXT, and QUADROPHENIA, are well represented, as are a host of popular album and singles tracks in sketchbook form. The thrill of having these cuts in one place and in a reasonable order is indescribable.
The drawbacks to this set are few -- sound quality is pretty consistant, the material is endlessly engaging. My one complaint is the packaging. A cool mini-poster of rare foreign EP sleeves is killer, but there are no notes to put the cuts into context. That being said, it's pretty obvious where this stuff comes from, and it should be of major interest to Who buffs the world over. Pete's demo of "Empty Glass" might be the most intense thing he ever laid down...
