With eerie vocals, disturbed lyrics, and a restless but pastoral musicality, Comus put the freak into freak folk decades before Devendra Barnhart. Formed in 1967 in Kent when singer-songwriters Roger Wootton and Glenn Goring bonded over their mutual loves of Bert Jansch and the Velvet Underground, the full line-up developed over the late '60s at a live residency booked by a young David Bowie. Their unique, intense sound incorporated mutating proto-prog movements in a haunting but entirely acoustic milieu of flutes, dark harmonies, and tense strings. They debuted on 1971's classic FIRST UTTERANCE and supported Bowie on a major tour. The band broke-up after 1974's TO KEEP FROM CRYING (which featured only a few original members), but reunited in 2008 as rightly acknowledged pioneers of psych-folk.