For the most part, live albums by rock bands are issued after a band has established themselves for a period of time and built up a repertoire that their audiences has become familiar with. In other words, few capture a band just as they had begun to find their identity and sound, such as the 2006 Deep Purple entry from their "Official Archive Collection" titled Live in Montreux 1969. While Montreux would later prove an important locale to the band a few years later (it would serve as the basis for their biggest hit, "Smoke on the Water"), when the group played there in 1969, they were just entering their "hard rock and only hard rock" period, which they would eventually maintain as their trademark style. Although their now-classic album, Deep Purple in Rock wouldn't be released until the middle of the following year, a few of the album's eventual standouts are included as early versions, such as "Speed King" (one of the group's most intense compositions), and the epic "Child in Time." But like most live releases from Purple's MK II-MK IV lineups, several far-too-long jams are included -- the chief culprits here being not one, but two tracks that stretch over the 20-minute mark each ("Wring That Neck" and "Mandrake Root"). Still, points of Live in Montreux 1969 provide an interesting glimpse into a time when Deep Purple decided to stop horsing around, and became one heck of a hard rocking band. ~ Greg Prato, All Music Guide