TRACTOR: Self titled

Released in 1972 on John Peel’s Dandelion Records, Tractor is the second album from Rochdale duo Jim Milne and Steve Clayton, having previously recorded as The Way We Live.

Despite the rather agricultural name, there’s considerably more going on here than you might expect. Milne handles the guitars and vocals while Clayton takes care of drums, bass, keyboards and assorted percussion, with the pair creating the album almost entirely themselves through a remarkably ambitious multi-tracked recording process.

The result is an eccentric mix of psychedelic rock, blues, folk and early progressive sounds, without ever sounding particularly concerned about genre boundaries.

It wasn’t a commercial success at the time, but has since picked up the sort of cult following that makes original copies rather less easy to find than they perhaps ought to be.

A wonderfully odd little piece of early-70s British underground rock, and proof that you didn't necessarily need a full band, a major label or a sensible career plan to make a very interesting record.