An obscure early '70s American power trio that we'd never heard of until a bootleg cd recently crossed our path. Intrigued by the cover photo of three long-haired stoner dudes, we checked it out (hoping for something akin to Sabbath or Budgie but perfectly aware that we were more likely to discover something more like unsuccessful ... wannabes). Lo! Highway Robbery turned out to be bonafide heavy-hitters, playing proto-metal in the Led Zep vein, with moments recalling Sabbath and the Who. Huzzah! Double huzzah, 'cause we then discovered that this, their only album (originally released by Capitol in 1973) had serendipitously just been reissued by Collectables, and we could share our discovery with the lucky patrons of Aquarius. It's almost all super heavy and rockin, despite the obligatory misguided pop efforts made by all not-metal-yet hard rockers of the era, it's got a singing drummer, they've got the look, what more do you want! Fans of current or vintage "stoner rock" should jump on this. Wow, it's always nice to find that there's stuff out there remaining to surprise us.
We knew John Hill as producer of the stunning folk funk lps of Susan Christie and Margo Guryan, but this concept record is where his producing genius is on full display: an epic electronic space jazz composition featuring Susan Christie, Jimmy Valerio, Gerry Mulligan and Walter Sear. Based on a poem by Ian Michaels called "I Am The Storm of Dawn" that suggests life on Earth originated on one of the six moons of Jupiter, Europa (the only other place in the solar system with water and ice), the 6 Moons of Jupiter features Susan Christie reciting the poem with Moogy electronic drones, cellos,� delayed flutes, and percussion. While we're not always huge fans of spoken word, somehow it works here, adding some serious tripped out drugginess to the already pretty far out proceedings.�
According to the liner notes, this was the first part of a proposed 13 piece concept performance, with each piece written in a distinctly different style, somehow combining poetry, electronic technology, classical, jazz and of course 'space rock' (quotes required!) Not sure sure how that would have panned out had they stuck to the plan, especially since it seems that for this first volume they jammed all that stuff together, into one single awesomely mind melting sonic hodgepodge.�
The tracks range from shimmery free jazzscapes, all abstract percussion and buzzing raga like drones, haunting and mysterious, to full on groovy keyboard drenched space-y garage jams, complete with fluttering flute, wheezing organs, creepy chanted vocals, and wailing psych leads, to strange off kilter chamber music, heavy with reverb and long lonesome tones, to pounding sixties style stomp, but all twisted up around jazzy horns, and jaunty Springtime shuffles, to haunting solo strings, dour melancholic melodies over buried soft buzz, to total acid wah guitars, laced with creepy pizzicato strings and warbly rubbery funhouse melodies. Mix in Christie's deadpan spoken word and this becomes a serious jazzy groovy musical mindfuck. And you know what that means. BUY IT!
Recently we reviewed -- and have been selling hella copies of -- the debut album by Om, the band formed by two-thirds of local revered stoner rockers Sleep. Om are just two guys, just bass and drums, dealing out the pot-fueled heaviness. Well coincidentally (?) we also just got these, the absurdly-long-awaited reissue of the truly legendary Population II album by guitarist Randy Holden, recorded in 1969 shortly after his brief but fruitful stint in San Francisco's Blue Cheer, playing only on the killer side two of that band's third album, New, Improved!
The connection? Well, as you might guess from the album's title, Population II is also a two-piece effort, just Randy on guitar (bass also on the album) and Chris Lockheed on drums (and bass pedals live). Beyond some sort of spiritual bond of two-piece heaviness, though, there's of course one major, obvious difference: Om's got NO guitar, whereas Holden's album is ALL ABOUT guitar. Heck the first track is simply called "Guitar Song". And he's a self-proclaimed 'guitar god' for a reason. On "Guitar Song" the lyrics are basically all about how he's in love with electric guitar playing, and loud. And as much as we enjoyed the Om album, Population II definitely reminds us that WE love guitar too!
Randy, with his trusty guitar and an ominous array of amp-stacks, conjures up some of the heaviest rock n' roll sounds heard on Earth up to that point in time for sure. Blue Cheer of course are a close comparison ("Fruit & Iceburgs" from side two of New, Improved! is reprised here) as well as Hendrix and Iron Butterfly...and soon enough Black Sabbath would up the ante further. But in the history of heavy, this album deserves some major recognition.
It's super trippy, doomily plodding, Randy's reedy vibrato voice calling out over the wail of his guitar. This rocks in the sludgiest sorta way for the day. And speaking of loud, you want Sunn amps? Randy's got Sunn amps! Check out the live shot on the back cover, these two assuredly blowing the roof off some San Francisco ballroom.
Not just a reissue, but actually the record's first OFFICAL, Randy Holden-approved release. And they're hand numbered and autographed by the man himself in gold marker just to make it really, really offical. Limited to 2000, pressed on 180 gram wax, this is a holy grail (or facsimile edition of a holy grail anyway) for all of you for whom "heavy" is akin to religion.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Fifth in the series of archival releases from Lee Hazelwood Industries, this is the first reissue of the complete recordings of this storied pop-psych girl group, Honey Ltd, whose sole album goes for big bank these days on eBay, though it failed to chart upon its initial release. We first heard them on the Hazlewood 45 collection released for the Black Friday "Record Store Day" last year (there's still a copy of that in stock, btw). Four friends, two of them sisters from Detroit, fed on the Motown sound, never thought they would form a band, but after a college talent show where they silenced the room, they formed a a group called The Mama Cats and even performed with a young Bob Seger. Pretty soon with riots in Detroit, the girls hitchhiked to LA and landed an audition with Lee Hazlewood. Taken by their angelic four-part harmonies and fresh faces, he changes their name to Honey Ltd. and immediately got them in a studio with the Wrecking Crew. For a whirlwind year, they performed on all kind of TV shows and showcases, meanwhile never realizing the studio had released their record (they thought they were recording singles) and then the record failed to take off. Relatively unphased by the news, the band soldiered on and joined a USO sponsored tour with Bob Hope in Vietnam before moving on. One of the girls got married and the rest formed the country pop trio, Eve. Though Honey Ltd. were amazing singers and they had a great repertoire, the late sixties was not the best time for girl groups, and even if they touched on some current social themes (for example, the anti-war song "The Warrior"), the group were hardly countercultural. But they did have some really great songs, and incredible harmonies, plus the production is top notch!
This remastered reissue includes comprehensive liner notes and interviews with all four members and never before seen photos. The vinyl version is 180 gram & includes a fold-out poster.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
The Numero Group label starts 2007 on the softer side of things with this obscure British gem from singer Catherine Howe. For those of you who enjoyed the Wayfaring Strangers: Ladies Of The Canyon compilation, that the Numero Group released last year, then this might just be up your alley. Mellow and melancholic, Howe has a soulful voice that's similar to Dusty Springfield or Bobbie Gentry, underscored by soft orchestral jazz arrangements (courtesy of Bobby Scott) that remind us of early A&M records or John Cameron soundtracks like Kes. In fact this seems more like the kind of soft British album Trunk records would have re-issued, but that goes to show what an unpredictable label Numero Group really is. Recorded for Reflection Records in 1971, What A Beautiful Place sank into obscurity when the label folded shortly thereafter. While we have never heard of her before this, Howe recorded two more albums after this one and has recently started recording again. This is a perfect record for a rainy day or Sunday morning with a nice hot cup of tea.
Heavy-ish prog/psych power trio action outta Edinburgh, Scotland circa 1969, here's the sole album by this obscure but well-regarded band. This is its first fully official cd reissue, done with the help of the band members themselves, and boasts a 16 page booklet full of vintage photos, lyrics and reminiscences. This moody Beast was apparently much heavier in live performance than on this comparatively tame studio recording (a common problem for bands back then, lamented in the liner notes by bassist Ed Jones, who claims that only about 45 seconds of the record really reflects their earbleeding live sound). Even then, Volume One isn't without, well, volume. And power. Explosive electric guitar breaks and urgent rhythms, alternating with plodding and poetic dreamscapes. Wah-wah'd chicka chicka chicka guitar with Eastern-inflected melodies wending around and around. The first song is called "Mystic Man" and indeed the entirety of The Human Beast's album evokes a mystic, almost creepy feeling, accentuated by cryptic lyrics, lines like "We celebrate the feel of human meat" and "Mind escapes you, flies to freedom / Leaves your hollow gargoyle kingdom". There's certainly a special weirdness to The Human Beast, a peculiar, pagan freakiness. Their cover of The Incredible String Band's "Maybe Someday" fits right in. Very effective.
And while the production never lets them get quite as Beastly as they wanted to be, for 1969 this is still pretty badass. These guys probably never heard Randy Holden's Population II, but they probably would have liked it. And they'd certainly heard their share of Jimi Hendrix and Iron Butterfly... While more '60s psych than '70s proto-metal (at their heaviest here, closer to Cream than Sabbath), we'd certainly rank 'em in alongside the likes of High Tide, Sam Gopal, NSU, The Dark, Arzachel, and Andromeda...
MISSISSIPPI ALERT!!!!
It seems like most "never-made-it" bands of the psychedelic era have a similar story. One seemingly trivial missed opportunity ended up having grave consequences for the band's future. LA's Human Expression offered the same gritty trippy vibe as The Seeds and Thirteen Floor Elevators, and in hindsight, they may even seem like a Seeds rip-off, but they were seemingly headed for bigger things than The Seeds with a more mature sound and song-writing. But they slept on a chance to record "Born To Be Wild" for their third single, before it was given to Steppenwolf who turned it into a mega-hit. The band never recovered and they were lost to the dustbin of history, which is too bad, because they had some awesome catchy songs with interesting psychedelic electronic effects. This records captures most of their entire output including a single by the singer who tried to pursue a solo career. This album has been reissued before on cd by the Cicadelic reissue label, but it's nice to have an affordable vinyl version. Hope Mississippi does some other cool psych lp reissues in the near future!
So as soon as we dove into the extensive liner notes of this seriously awesome reissue of New Zealand's heaviest (and only??) psych band Human Instinct, we realized that despite their failed commercial success, these dudes were really way ahead of their time. After relocating to the UK in the late sixties and undergoing a handful of line-up changes, Human Instinct hit the local bar circuit with an original formula of heavy ripping psych played at blistering, amp melting volumes. Inspired by Hendrix and other dudes pushing the limits of the newly evolved electric guitar, Human Instinct developed a sound that was completely unique and possibly influential on the heavy bands that followed. While we wouldn't exactly call this stuff proto-metal, more like heavy psych, it definitely was a major step in reaching the heavy blackened riffage that bands like Sabbath and Pentagram would later perfect. That said, the album definitely has songs worth listening to over and over and over, buuuuuut there are a few tracks ya might just want to skip over. Oh and did we mention these dudes were known for having a lead singer who ALSO plays drums standing up!!?? Yes its true, Maurice Greer not only has a wicked sweet voice, but his drumming style is truly unique!!
Track number one kicks things off with an awesome version of Dennis Wilson's "Black Sally". Definitely a track you can headbang to, it's easy to hear how their slow grooving heaviness could one day become the essence of doom. Needless to say, these guys were way ahead of their time, I mean according to the liner notes, they starting playing together in '58!! Crazy! "The Jugg-A-Jugg Song", our second favorite track on Stoned Guitar, starts off with a wall of psychedelic fury, blaring, amp frying guitar, rampant drum chaos, destroying eardrums and anything else that stands in the way! So good!! "Midnight Sun" follows with stoney (obviously), repetitive riffs layered with atmospheric fuzz solos that seem to launch into the sky, really kraut-like and hypnotic, not unlike Parson Sound or Wooden Shjips, sorta.
So this is basically the complete package, four bonus tracks, killer liner notes with photos and basically the entire history of this underappreciated heavy psych gem! Stoned Guitar is fried out, in-the-red type blues perfection for fans of the recently reviewed Jerusalem, Bedemon, or even Flower Travelin' Band. We even hear some similarities to new psychedelic jammers Magic Lantern or Eternal Tapestry too. Take our advice and don't miss out on this super influential piece of psych glory!! And maybe Rockadrome/Vintage will follow up with reissues of the other two Human Instinct albums, we used to have all three as imports but they've been AWOL lately.
This trio of Danish freaks delved into the psychedelic, progressive styles of the day (1971) to produce this underground hard rock artifact, now reissued via Akarma in one of their trademark gatefold cd sleeves, like a minature version of the original vinyl packaging. Hurdy Gurdy were a "heavy" band, in the '60s sense -- there's more Hendrix than Black Sabbath here. Their repertoire is quite varied/inconsistent, from catchy vocal numbers to convoluted hard rockin' instrumentals. One track is a great, folky sitar-driven rock raga a la the Incredible String Band, but others are Cream-y electric blues numbers. All boast suitably far-out lyrix. File with Captain Beyond, Toad, High Tide, and similar hard rock obscurities of the era.
Wow, we've been waiting for someone to tell the definitive story behind one of Korea's most influential but sadly obscure guitarists and bandleaders. How influential? Well, Fender Guitars has recently made the 72 year old psych-rock veteran his own Custom Shop Tribute Series Guitar - the sixth one ever, after Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimi Hendrix and Eddie Van Halen. How obscure?
Well, every past review in which we've ever mentioned him, his name has had a slightly different spelling. We couldn't find much written about him except that he was considered the "Godfather of Korean Rock". His signature song, the 18 minute epic, "Beautiful Rivers And Mountains" has been featured on two other releases we reviewed but with different titles and lengths. An edited version closed the Asian installment of the Love, Peace and Poetry series under the title, "Korean Title A2" by Jung Hyun and The Men, and the Shin Jung Hyun and The Men cd we listed in the past, credits the song as "Beautiful Country", at least that one had the full length version.
The edited 10 minute version is featured here too, but it's understandable given that this is a compilation that highlights how multifaceted his career has been through this fertile 16-year period, often playing behind singers who got top billing (Kim Sun, Kim Jung Mi, Jang Hyun and Lee Jung Hwa) or in a variety of Ga-yo (pop-rock) groups (Golden Grapes. ADD4, Bloozetet, Club Date, The Donkeys, etc.), But Shin Joong Hyun's signature guitar style, moody and soulful, but with a fuzzy, distorted grooviness, is evident throughout. What's even more amazing is Hyun's arranging skills, often augmenting his guitar sound with trippy psych organ and big booming drum tones (check out the opening break on "The Man Who Must Leave" to see what we mean).
Hyun got his start in the late fifties when he found lucrative work playing on American army bases after the Korean War. The opening track "Moon Watching" is from that period. It also afforded him the opportunity to stretch out stylistically away from the Korean traditional pop sound, into more western influenced pop, R&B and psychedelic styles. But while Hyun's songwriting and arranging is often hook-inflected and groovy, there is a serious soulfulness to the songs that give them a powerful melancholic quality. For instance, Kim Jung Mi's "The Sun" sounds like a song Galaxie 500 might have ripped off and made their own (maybe they did?). Jang Hyun's "Sunset" could have easily been featured on that Forge Your Own Chains comp of Heavy Dirges we raved about recently too. As Hyun's career hit the seventies, he was more interested in expanding his guitar sound with his band and moving away from the shorter poppier numbers of his sixties past. "'J' Blues 72" is the longest track on here at 15 minutes and it's all just fuzzy acid-groove freakout.
But it's the title track here that takes the prize for most amazing song. One of our favorite Asian psych tracks ever, it's really interesting to hear the incredible story behind it, as it was sadly the song that led to Hyun's professional undoing and to the beginning of a seven year forced musical exile. It turns out a representative of the corrupt leader of South Korea, Park Jung-hee, called upon Hyun to write a song about him, but he refused. The leader than asked him to write a song about the government and Hyun refused again. So perplexed and understandably, a bit paranoid about the exchange, Hyun retreated and wrote his own song about his feelings toward his country and brought it to his band to record. Since it was an eighteen minute song recorded live, the process of recording was unusually grueling, because if any mistakes were made, the band had to start over. Getting it onto a release was difficult as well because of its length but was eventually added to the B side of the singer Jang Hyun's album, originally called Jang Hyun and The Men which Shin Hyun later renamed Shin Jung Hyun and The Men (which is why we figure there have been many different names of the song and credits). Finally having it recorded, Hyun had the opportunity to perform it on TV. The song, with its simple depictions of how Korea is made up of beautiful nature and people, angered the leader and led to a subsequent country-wide musical ban, and years of interrogation, probation and oppression, until the leader's eventual assassination in 1979. Shin Joong Hyun's return to music after this period has been slow and much more low-key.
Light In The Attic has done a tremendous job compiling these tracks and doing the research into Hyun's topsy-turvy life and career, even getting the man himself to annotate all the recordings with his own personal stories of how they came to be made. With a 40 page full color booklet with photos of record covers and all of the great pop acts Hyun worked with over the period. This is not just a great document of an amazing musician, but a great view into the sixties and seventies pop-world of a little documented region of Asian music. Fans of other old and new Asian psych we love like He 6, San Ul Lim, Korean Black Eyes, Mops, Acid Mothers Temple, Up-Tight, Onna, and Satoshi Sonoda will find much to love here. Highest Recommendation!
A while back we made the Shin Joong Hyun anthology Beautiful Rivers And Mountains put out by the Light In The Attic label a Record Of The Week, and it was deservedly very popular. So hopefully you already know all about this legendary Korean rock n' roller, but if you don't, you could go read that lengthy review for a lot more information. He certainly has had an interesting life and career, with lots of ups and some serious downs; he began playing rock music back in the '50s for the G.I.'s on American military bases, saw a lot of success in the '60s writing hits for an assortment of singers, by the '70s his rebellious rock n' roll attitude landed him on the conservative South Korean government's shitlist, he wound up getting busted for pot and was tortured in an insane asylum and blacklisted, but eventually things changed for the better and his work resumed, though not the same as before, and he still makes music to this day.
What we have here is a 1974 album, the debut from a three-piece unit Shin formed called the Yup Juns ('brass coins'). None of the songs here appear on that Light In The Attic compilation except for one, there in an alternate recording that was used on a film soundtrack. But if you liked what we described in that review as the guitarist's signature style of being "moody and soulful, but with a fuzzy, distorted grooviness" then this album is full of that - awesome Korean '70s poppy psych action that's VERY GROOVY indeed, with an exotic, Asiatic flair. Halfway through the album, the track "I Love You" seems to channel some traditional Buddhist chant, with bells and percussion in lieu of Shin's guitar, a placid interlude amidst the other songs which look to get heads bopping and hips swivelling out on the dancefloor.
The compact disc version of this comes in a miniature-lp-style sleeve, and includes a thick 20 page booklet with extensive liner notes, lyrics and photos, which are also included with the 180 gram vinyl version. And it's an official release, in cooperation with Shin Joong Hyun himself. Nicely done, so happy to have this.
This week we happen to be listing another reissue from 1974 by another international psych guitar great, Erkin Koray. What Erkin Koray is to Turkey, we suppose you could say Shin Joong Hyun is to South Korea. We recommend getting both albums, while they draw from totally different cultures and traditions (well, except for rock n' roll), they're both great and it'd be tough to decide between the two...
Another one for everybody who loved the groovy HE 6 album we listed not long ago! Guitar player Shin Jung Hyun was a big deal in the South Korean rock n' roll scene, going as far back as the '50s, when he played for the GIs on American military bases. His music even was apparently the subject of a tribute album a few years ago. In the late sixties/early seventies psychedelia took hold, and Shin Jung Hyun did it as well or better than anyone... totally funky, tripped-out, acid-rock freakdom. Lots and lots of acid-fuzz guitar jamming with bass, drums, organ and some flute too. Maybe for that reason this reminds us a bit of Dungen, actually. The material on this album (which may actually be entited It's A Lie, we're not sure) dates around 1972 or so. Though 44 minutes long, there's just three songs here, "Beautiful Country", "It's A Lie" and "Woman In The Mist", all consequently long and meandering (yet rhythmically tight, believe it), and mostly instrumental. It seems that these three might have originally been the extended flip-sides to shorter, more commerical cuts, compiled onto this disc for the benefit of anyone into far-out psych jamming as wedded to Asian pop of the era. Not so much heavy as it is simply seriously groovy and right-on, Shin Jung and The Men blend garage rock/surf/Frisco ballroom styles into a head-nodding, toe-tapping, mind-blowing, utterly dazzling unravelling of whatever "song" it seems they started off playing. That means: the singer does some nice kinda soft psych pop crooning to start things off, but he soon disappears and the band just takes off into outer realms, doing their thing and stretching out without care for commerical (radio play) considerations. Eventually the singer shows up again, but it's as if he left the room and then came back in some minutes later to finish the song, utterly unaware of what his band had been up to in the interim! We can only imagine what their live shows were like, must have been killer -- as this disc is, killer.
New age. Pretty much the ultimate diss when you want to put down someone's musical taste. Or harsh on some band, or record. Tough to think of a more purely musical putdown. Sellout? Maybe. Poser? Definitely, but not necessarily musical. But New Age. Oof. Moms and Grandmas listen to new age. Yanni ferchrissakes! And with all the ambient music we love so much here at AQ, we're extra conscious of negative New Age connotations, cuz it's always a fine line between shimmery droney dreaminess and whooshy New Age schmaltz. But c'mon, trust us, trust the folks at EM Records, and take our word that if you're only ever gonna buy one unabashed actual New Age album (and Andee hasn't already forced you to get some George Winston or Kitaro), then this should absolutely be the one.
Iasos was born in Greece and moved to America when he was 4, began playing piano at 8, then flute at 10. In the late sixties, he began to hear a 'new' music in his head and moved to California to try and realize this "heavenly music". And finally in 1975, he did it! Iasos 'invented' new age music with the release of 1975's Inter-Dimensional Music Through IASOS, which has now been reissued by the fine folks at EM, and has stood the test of time pretty darn well.
It's all here, tinkling piano, swooshing synthesizers, running water sounds, bird calls, maudlin melodies, fluttering flutes, crickets chirping, lots of nature sounds, thunderstorms, strange sound effects, gentle keening drones, whirling sonic washes and sweet swirls of soft focus sound. Even the song titles: "The Bubble Massage", "Rainbow Canyon", "Crystal Petals", "Clouds Prayer", Libra Sunrise." Yep, this is definitely New Age, there's no two ways about it, but if you can look past that 'stigma', this record is actually quite beautiful. And mysterious. And delicately lovely. It has lots of elements that plenty of AQ faves share, strange production, lots of fuzzy airy drones, plenty of insect sounds, bird calls, all wrapped into sweet expanses of dreamy sound. In fact if we listed this as some super limited cd-r on some upstart microlabel in Tasmania, and it had some murky forest photo on the cover, we'd sell tons, and no one would be the wiser. It's easy to forget that the modern crop of drifting ambient experimentalists owe quite a bit to new age pioneers. And let's not forget about all the pretty cool bands who either WERE new age, became new age, or incorporated elements of new age into their sound: Popol Vuh, Ashra, Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, Deuter, Jean-Michel Jarre, and Vangelis.
But Inter-Dimensional Music, regardless of pedigree, or genre classification, is just a dang good record. A little cheesy in places maybe but so what, hasn't stopped us from listening to this practically every day!!
Like all EM releases, the packaging is amazing. But the Iasos has a truly striking cover, even by the already impossibly high EM Records standards. Metallic gold embossed printing on glossy white paper. the cover image a man's torso, emerging from a cloud, arm upraised holding a flute, which is being struck by lightning. Some of you may recognize the image as it was stolen for a record cover many years back by Canadian noiserock guitarmy Superconductor. And of course there's also gold and white obi, as well as a massive booklet full of liner notes (all in Japanese, sorry) and loads of photos. As with all EM releases, SO RECOMMENDED!!!!
I (Allan) once came across this band in one of those encyclopedic psychedelic record collector reference works (Scented Gardens of the Mind, I think it was) and was intrigued by the description: an *Icelandic* hard rock band from 1971, comparable to Black
Gruesome/frosty looking logo, very metal-sounding name, morbid b&w cover art. looks like proto-metal... maybe even proto-BLACK-metal?! Icecross has intrigued us for years. Long ago, we read about 'em in one of those encyclopedic psychedelic record collector reference works (Scented Gardens Of The Mind, most likely) and were struck by the description. An ICELANDIC hard rock band from 1972, comparable to Black Sabbath, supposedly! Man we wanted to hear that. Certainly the scary album cover and song titles ("Jesus Freaks", "Nightmare", "Scared", "The End") suggested they played some sort of heavy, Satanic psych-metal. Of course, the book said the record was super rare and impossible to find. Oh the despair. Then, some years ago, a bootleg cd edition surfaced, and we got to hear it. Was it everything we were hoping for? Yes and no - no, it didn't sound much like Black Sabbath, not nearly as heavy as that, or metallic. But, yes, it was pretty darn cool, and weird. Once past the relatively normal first track "Wandering Around" (a standard bluesy boogie with lyrics about "looking for my baby"), then things get hella freaky. Icecross definitely deliver the dark and twisted psych, with songs full of sharp slashing tangles of dissonant guitar, total primal-prog power trio action, playing hard and fast on cuts like "Scared", with wailing psych leads. The vocals remind us a bit of the drama of Van Der Graaf Generator - or on downer-ballad "A Sad Man's Story", of uber-mopey krautrockers Paternoster. Lyrically, the anti-Christian "Jesus Freaks" stands out, with the line "They believe in Jesus, we believe in ourselves" - though the liner notes to this new, at long last legit cd release, indicate that one of the former members of the band did later become religious. This new edition also states the original lp was released in '73 by the way.
So, while not exactly an early Icelandic example of heavy metal as described in that reference book, these demented Viking hippies maybe do belong somewhere far back in the lineage of Scandinavian blackness, yeah.
Thanks to Vintage/Rockadrome for reissuing this, complete with a booklet full of vintage photos and firsthand accounts of the band's history. And, they're doing a vinyl version too, upcoming in a few months.
Originally released in 1975, this is one serious slab of mind blowing Japanese improvised kosmiche drone music, featuring legendary composer / performer Toshi Ichiyanagi (a student of John Cage who was once married to Yoko Ono!), Takehisa Kosugi, the mastermind behind one of our favorite bands ever, the Taj Mahal Travellers, here teamed up with Stockhausen percussionist Michael Ranta, for two extended free drone workouts.
The trio employ reverbed ring modulators, threaded vocals, melodicas, pianos, violins, gongs and Japanese biwas and shamisens, and weave an elaborate and lush tapestry of sound, one that is really not that far removed from Taj Mahal Travellers. Brooding, shimmering expanses of muted tones, of layered rumbles, dreamlike melodies, peppered with strange electronics, haunting and otherworldly, with a distinctly krautrock vibe, or krautdrone, all of the current practitioners of spaced out kraut inspired dronemusic, as good as they may be, can't even touch this.
The music is alive, a living thing, that the players breathe life into and guide, letting the sounds love and drift and fluctuate, creating something organic and expansive and breathtaking. The percussion adds a unique element, not really adding any propulsion, but instead, contributing texture, and a framework that the players often let collapse, before bringing it right back. The second track begins with a cool skeletal groove, all clank and clatter and thump, the space around the sounds as much a part of the overall sound, eventually slipping back into something more murky and subterranean sounding, the percussion switching to something more tabla-like, draped over an oozing sea of rumbles and growls, scrapes and whirrs.
This is one of those rare pieces of music that manages to be two things at once, a gorgeously dreamlike, relaxing bit of sonic ambience, but also something elaborate and dense, opening up the listener to dual experiences, drifting off on the surface, or strapping on the headphones, letting that extra weight carry you down into the swirling blackness at the heart of this recording.
Incredible. And essential. About the closest we'll ever get to a lost Taj Mahal Travellers record...
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Awesome reissue of this late sixties beat gem. Didn't know too much about The Id, other than the guitar player was none other than Jerry Cole, one of the original Champs, who recorded "Tequila", as well as being a serious mover and shaker in the music industry having performed with and/or composed/arranged for Glenn Campbell, the Beach Boys, Merle Haggard, Steely Dan, James Taylor, Blood, Sweat And Tears, Aretha Franklin, Little Richard, Chicago, the Byrds, Greg Allman, the Righteous Brothers, Jerry Lee Lewis, Nelson Riddle, Henry Mancini, Kenny Rogers, Hank Williams Jr. and loads more. The rest of the band stack up pretty well too, with CV's heavy in music as well as movies and television.
None of which has anything to do with why this record is so weird and wonderful and totally kick ass. On first listen, the sound is what you might expect, a mix of the Beatles, the Beach Boys, the Monkees and especially the Monks. That sort of fuzzy psych pop, a shuffling beat, jangling guitars, harmony vocals and a lead singer with a sort of raspy croon, a bit like Alex Chilton in the Boxtops or Gary Burger of the Monks. But this is way more far out. Just check out the first track, "The Rake" a super tripped out psychedelic beat shuffle, with EXTREME stereo panning, heavily reverbed guitars, creepy whispered vocals, some strange falsetto harmonies, muted rhythmic breakdowns, very druggy and bizarre, but pretty seriously stomping as well. The record shifts gears back into more traditional psychfuzzpop, but only for a moment. What's that buzzing, it sounds like a... it is! Sitar. Fuck yeah, Cole also plays sitar, adding a gloriously buzzy Eastern drone element to lots of the tracks, pushing all of our Turkish Delights buttons. Guitar leads are replaced by slippery sitars and the whole thing sounds just that much more psychedelic. The highlight though is the ten minute "The Inner Sound Of The Id", an acid-soaked psychedelic freak out title track, drifting buzzing sitar, creeping spoken vocal incantations, simple martial drumming, everything wrapped in thick reverb, more extreme panning, so druggy and awesomely wigged out.
And if you're not sold already, check out the original liner notes, and tell us you don't need to check this out:
"The primitive rhythms brought back to popular music. Before Civilization reared its crew-cut head and the world stifled a yawn that has lasted a thousand years, man danced at frantic festivals until he fell down foaming at the mouth. Not any more. Why? Because the beat became ironed out, flattened, regularized. Now, for the FIRST TIME in the Western world since pagan gods were worshipped, the primitive rhythms have been brought back to popular music. A group of four young and talented musicians came together to create this musical madness, a kind of "asymmetrical-contrapuntal chromaticism." Non-experienced listeners would call it instant Delirium! Freud discovered the Id, and on this album it was set to music, it is the unshape of things to come." Asymmetrical-contrapuntal chromaticism? Hell yeah!
Includes extensive liner notes about each band member (sadly not much about the band itself), lots of photos and TEN bonus tracks!
A fantastic collection of rarities from this Chicago pop combo formed in the years of the British Invasion... and it definitely shows. Full of wonderful vocal harmonies and jangling guitars this is very much in the vein of the Hollies or the Kinks. All 18 tracks included here were recorded between 1965 and 1968.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
"Anachronistic Belgrade prog/psych record from 1979. Heavily influenced by Pink Floyd, Can Hawkwind and Herman Hesse."
If you have never heard of Rikki Ililonga or his influential band, Musi-O-Tunya, you are not alone. As it goes in the rediscovery of important music especially outside North America, the true innovators of a sound and a scene are often the last to be rediscovered, and Rikki Ililonga is a case in point. Followers of the aQ list have no doubt been aware of the recent spate of "ZamRock" reissues, most lately, from Witch, and Tirogo, and farther back, gems from Ngozi Family, Chrissy Zebby Tembo, The Peace, and Amanaz, that really have shown the influence of Jimi Hendrix and heavy psych on this part of Southern Africa. Well, Rikki Ililonga through his band Musi-O-Tunya and subsequent solo records were there from the beginning, releasing the very first pop and rock records after Zambia gained its independence, thus pioneering the birth of "ZamRock".
The Now-Again label has done an incredible job of compiling two discs of recordings from the years 1973 through 1976, one disc devoted to Musi-O-Tunya, and the second disc to Ililonga's solo recordings. The first disc traces the band's roots from its Afro-beat beginnings with bass and horn funk rhythms to more lo-fi fuzzy garage rock singles band then to a heavier psych powerhouse singing full on in English. The centerpiece single being the title track, "Dark Sunrise", should get any heavy seventies I-rock head salivating. The second disc compiling Ililonga's first two solo records is a more varied affair as he goes through many seventies styles and tropes. There's still plenty of heavy psych with searing guitar leads, but there's also some Thin Lizzyish power rock, baroque rock balladry, heavy sexy blues and even some rhythmic Afro-pop.
The cds are housed in a 32 page full color hardback book compiling photos and interviews, liner notes and ephemera, and the triple lp vinyl version is even fancier, a massive boxset containing 12 page booklet, and individual, exact reproductions of Ililonga's original 3 albums (thus tracklist of the vinyl format is somewhat different than the way the cds are organized, as described above). Whooo yeah!
Lovely lovely lovely. Originally released way back in the magical musical year of 1971, on the French label Flamophone, the sole album by the youthful hippie duo of Bernard Ilous and Patrice Decuyper is just that, lovely. And pretty darn obscure. Amazing how reissue labels like Lion can dig up such things, as good as this elegant piece of psych-tinged, pastoral pop, replete with lush vocal harmonies, careful arrangements, and gorgeous melodies! So who were Ilous & Decuyper? Beatles-fan Ilous was already an accomplished professional composer, with a desire to at last sing his own songs rather than just write for the French pop stars of the day. He teamed up with likeminded folk guitarist Patrice Decuyper, and via a "confrontational" collaborative song-writing process that highlighted the emotional content of their music, this album was created. Doubtless the symphonic, sophisticated sound of Ilous & Decuyper's record wouldn't have been possible, except that luckily they had off-hours access to a big league, 16-track recording studio -- and spent, like, a year making this album, playing almost everything themselves and finding creative ways to do so.
We can't conclude this review without mentioning their amazing cover of "Eleonor [sic] Rigby", a wonderful, almost-hard-to-recognize-but-not-really reinterpretation of that famous Lennon/McCartney tune. Beatles fans Ilous & Decuyper were indeed, though for every part of this album that sounds Beatlesy, there's also parts that sound as much like CSN&Y, or Led Zeppelin, or Ennio Morricone, or the Bee Gees, or some sort of psychedelicized, Francophone variety of "yacht rock"!
As we've come to expect from reissues associated with Lion Productions, not only is this a pretty great, totally obscure treasure, but they've made sure to include copious liner notes and complete lyrics in the thick cd booklet. And there's also two bonus tracks from a post-album single. Quite nice indeed.
Proto-metal fiends, give praise to the fine folks at Rise Above Relics. They've been doing a great job lately reissuing some crucial obscurities from the early '70s - Necromandus, Steel Mill, that Bang box set - and now here's another one we were excited to get in. The one and only, and quite collectable, album from 1973 by a band of heavy rockers from England who went by the somewhat silly name of Incredible Hog (apparently a porcine variation on the Incredible Hulk??). There's been songs of theirs included on a few comps we've had (A Visit To The Spaceship Factory, The Electric Asylum Vol.4) but this is the first ever proper cd reissue of the full album, authorized and remastered and all.
The first track is called "Lame" but the 'Hog definitely ain't. If you like your psychedelic blues rock big and burly, raucous and rollicking, the 'Hog are the seventies heavies you're looking for. That lead-off cut, "Lame", is an excellent intro to the album in general; a stomping, distorted rocker with loads of swingin' riffage and wailing vox, that sounds a whole lot like Led Zeppelin mixed with a bit of glitter/glam a la Slade (with the hey hey hey's and handclaps). The next track, the dazed 'n' confused dirge "Wreck My Soul" is even more on the Zepped-out blooze rawk tip, with some blues harp blowin' showing up. They venture into folkier territory on the following cut, "Execution", one of a few quite affecting, mellower melodic compositions found on the record. But mostly they're about banging out the heavier stuff, and they're back at it with the next number, "Tadpole", an uptempo stormer laced with sound FX samples (crashing thunder, crying babies, crazy laughter) giving it a bit of a proggier vibe, which is followed by the cowbell-knockin', Eastern-tinged "Another Time"... and so it goes, Incredible Hog kicking ass all up and down this album, one that any fan of the Led Zeppier side to '70s heavy rock oughtta lay their ears upon pronto. So if you dig bands like Leaf Hound, Budgie, Granicus, Lucifer's Friend, Jerusalem, Possessed (UK), Tucky Buzzard, and Stray, then prepare to add Incredible Hog to that list of proto-metal awesomeness. Bands today can't compare (although, Rise Above's Gentlemans Pistols come close, and no doubt are big 'Hog fans).
As always, Rise Above Relics does a bang-up job with the cd packaging, it's ensconced in a slipcover with fat 40 page cd booklet full of detailed notes and vintage pics, all put together with the help of the original band members. They've also managed to dig up four long lost, unreleased bonus trax (hence the "+4" in this reissue's title), recorded back in the day, some of which were meant for a second 'Hog album that never happened. At least one of 'em, a rip snorter called "Burnout", is easily up there with anything on the album itself in terms of sheer proto-metal power, and the others are worthy bonus trackage too.
All hail the 'Hog! Incredible, indeed.
Here is the DVD release of "Be Glad For The Song Has No Ending", the film about the Incredible String Band. Hugely influential (the Stones tried to sign them, they played Woodstock, Van Morrison covered them), the band played a psychedelic folk music that
1969's "Changing Horses" sees the ISB stretch out with two of their longest compositions/jams to date, both songs around the quarter hour mark, along with a handful of shorter tracks. The exotic, barmy hippy folk of the sixteen minute album closer "Creation" should appeal to today's Terrastock psych-folk fans into Ghost and Six Organs of Admittance and the like! It also reminds us a bit of ISB's quirky contemporaries Twink and Tyranosaurus Rex, or even Comus and the Wicker Man soundtrack. Mystically over-the-top. This might not be an essential ISB album, but if you like this sort of thing you'll want it for that track alone. "I Looked Up" from 1970 is similarily a decent but not crucial ISB effort, meaning don't get it first, but do get it if you are or become a fan. From the trad country-folk stylings of opener "Black Jack Davy" to the many moods of the ten-minute plus folk-prog rocker "When You Find Out Who You Are", this visits all of the ISB's colorful bases...
This is a nice treat for fans of the freakiest of the sixties British acid-folk scene, Incredible String Band, as this two disc set covers rare and unreleased tracks from the band's golden era. Due to some amazing research and archival sleuthing, this compilation of tracks recorded between 1966 and 1972 unearths lost outtakes from various albums, alternate versions, live radio performances as well as an early rehearsal recording of a Leadbelly cover. Though all the tracks have merits on their own, the range of line-up changes and fidelities don't make for a completely consistent listen. But the highlights are pretty fantastic including "Secret Temple", a beautiful track sung by Licorice McKechnie that was only available as a BBC recording, a 13 minute live radio version of "Maya", complete with sitar(!), and a six minute multi-epic suite composed for a mime troupe performance ("Poetry Play #1"). Probably not the place to start for unfamiliar beginners, but for fans, there are jewels aplenty!
1970's sprawling "U", almost two hours long, was the ISB's soundtrack to a stage show -- a "surreal parable in song and dance" according to ISB's Robin Williamson -- that combined the String Band's musicians with the performance of underground dance/happening group Stone Monkey. Must have been pretty wild, based on this psychedelic music, and the photos crammed into the disc's tiny booklet. It's a bit much to get a handle on -- possibly why this is apparently one of the ISB's more obscure releases. But there's great songs on here, hitting all of the prime String Band motifs: the folk, the raga, the rock, the country... Essential for fans, and recommended to newcomers too, if unafraid of ISB overkill.
This two-fer 2cd is consistent with these albums' original UK release in 1968, as both "Wee Tam" and "The Big Huge" were issued together as a 2LP set. Again the ISB mix their Celtic and Appalachian folkie roots with "world" influences, and although this is quite mellow and gentle, they also brought in some electric amplification at this point. With female vocals n' whistles n' fiddles n' sitar etc. this is quite pretty stuff, great summer morning sitting in a sunny meadow music. Both records are ISB fan favorites, with gorgeous four-part vocal harmonies, whimsical but sometimes dark moods, and of course lots of Incredible String-ed instrument playing.
Back in print!
Remastered with new liner notes, in a swank digipak with all the elements of the original packaging, these look heaps better than the Collector's Choice twofers that were the last reissued incarnation of these classic albums. The 5,000 Spirits and The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter have been released separately this time around, while Wee Tam and The Big Huge are still bundled together as a 2cd set.
Here's what we said about them previously:
England's Incredible String Band were a late sixties/early seventies outfit who blended folk rock, psychedelia, and Eastern ethnic musics. Very sixties, very hippy - they played at Woodstock, in fact. With their folky male and female vocals and expertise with a plethora of exotic stringed instruments, a shorthand description might be that ISB was kinda like Fairport Convention with sitars, and crazy costumes. Perhaps less truly traditional than Fairport, they made a bigger splash with the LSD crowd of The UFO Club where they played often with the likes of early Pink Floyd, Tomorrow, and Procol Harum. Their music encompassed British folk, Indian ragas, Dylan, blues, country, hoedowns, etc. - an eclectic stew indeed. Sometimes ISB can come off as a little *too* varied: you might be digging some Eastern drone track and find an abrupt switch to, say, music-hall country a bit jarrring. But that just means there's plenty of different things on these discs to like.
5000 Spirits Or The Layers Of The Onion dates from 1967 - it's their second album, featuring only the core duo of Robin Williamson and Mike Heron (Clive Palmer left after the first record to form his own band, C.O.B.) - and was the first solid fulfillment of their Brit folk + Middle Eastern + Indian raga equation, as they added the ouds an' sitars to their original Anglo-American folk interpretations with some wonderfully moody results.
We're always mentioning ISB in reviews of other folk-psych albums past and present, from Forest and Trees to P.G. Six and Tower Recordings, so it's nice to finally get these listed in our catalog once again...definitely if you're into that British folk-psych vibe you need to investigate this band if you haven't already!
Back in print!
Remastered with new liner notes, in a swank digipak with all the elements of the original packaging, these look heaps better than the Collector's Choice twofers that were the last reissued incarnation of these classic albums. The 5,000 Spirits and The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter have been released separately this time around, while Wee Tam and The Big Huge are still bundled together as a 2cd set.
Here's what we said about them previously:
England's Incredible String Band were a late sixties/early seventies outfit who blended folk rock, psychedelia, and Eastern ethnic musics. Very sixties, very hippy - they played at Woodstock, in fact. With their folky male and female vocals and expertise with a plethora of exotic stringed instruments, a shorthand description might be that ISB was kinda like Fairport Convention with sitars, and crazy costumes. Perhaps less truly traditional than Fairport, they made a bigger splash with the LSD crowd of The UFO Club where they played often with the likes of early Pink Floyd, Tomorrow, and Procol Harum. Their music encompassed British folk, Indian ragas, Dylan, blues, country, hoedowns, etc. - an eclectic stew indeed. Sometimes ISB can come off as a little *too* varied: you might be digging some Eastern drone track and find an abrupt switch to, say, music-hall country a bit jarrring. But that just means there's plenty of different things on these discs to like.
Their 1968 follow-up to The 5,000 Spirits, The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter is one of the ISB's best-regarded efforts, taking the sound of their previous effort to more free-form extremes. Dolly Collins (sister of Shirley) helps out on this one. One of the pinnacle acid-folk records to inspire the likes of many modern bands from Current 93 to Devendra Banhart.
We're always mentioning ISB in reviews of other folk-psych albums past and present, from Forest and Trees to P.G. Six and Tower Recordings, so it's nice to finally get these listed in our catalog once again...definitely if you're into that British folk-psych vibe you need to investigate this band if you haven't already!
Back in print!
Remastered with new liner notes, in a swank digipak with all the elements of the original packaging, these look heaps better than the Collector's Choice twofers that were the last reissued incarnation of these classic albums. The 5,000 Spirits and The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter have been released separately this time around, while Wee Tam and The Big Huge are still bundled together as a 2cd set.
Here's what we said about them previously:
England's Incredible String Band were a late sixties/early seventies outfit who blended folk rock, psychedelia, and Eastern ethnic musics. Very sixties, very hippy - they played at Woodstock, in fact. With their folky male and female vocals and expertise with a plethora of exotic stringed instruments, a shorthand description might be that ISB was kinda like Fairport Convention with sitars, and crazy costumes. Perhaps less truly traditional than Fairport, they made a bigger splash with the LSD crowd of The UFO Club where they played often with the likes of early Pink Floyd, Tomorrow, and Procol Harum. Their music encompassed British folk, Indian ragas, Dylan, blues, country, hoedowns, etc. - an eclectic stew indeed. Sometimes ISB can come off as a little *too* varied: you might be digging some Eastern drone track and find an abrupt switch to, say, music-hall country a bit jarrring. But that just means there's plenty of different things on these discs to like.
This two-fer 2cd is consistent with these albums' original UK release in 1968, as both Wee Tam and The Big Huge were issued together as a 2lp set. Again the ISB mix their Celtic and Appalachian folkie roots with "world" influences, and although this is quite mellow and gentle, they also brought in some electric amplification at this point. With female vocals n' whistles n' fiddles n' sitar etc. this is quite pretty stuff, great summer morning sitting in a sunny meadow music. Both records are ISB fan favorites, with gorgeous four-part vocal harmonies, whimsical but sometimes dark moods, and of course lots of Incredible String-ed instrument playing.
We're always mentioning ISB in reviews of other folk-psych albums past and present, from Forest and Trees to P.G. Six and Tower Recordings, so it's nice to finally get these listed in our catalog once again...definitely if you're into that British folk-psych vibe you need to investigate this band if you haven't already!
Index was a band like thousands throughout the '60s, encouraged by the birth of rock 'n' roll a decade earlier and fueled by the waves of British bands that would hit the American shores. This quartet was born in the Detroit suburb of Grosse Pointe in 1967, at a time when the country was beginning to experience the pangs of turmoil and Detroit itself could be seen almost as a microcosm of the social unrest that was beginning to unfold. The heritage of Index is certainly notable, as the lead guitarist of the band was one John Ford. While the liner notes penned by drummer Jim Valice never overtly state that John's family was THE Ford family which spawned the automotive empire; the implication is quite clear that it is. While the affluence of John and fellow guitarist Gary Francis certainly helped in getting some great gear and recording equipment, the sound of Index is one of adolescence entering adulthood with an awakening disbelief that so much could be wrong in the world. At least on their first album, Index played with an urgency that sounded like the end of the world was near, as an underlying horror of bleakness lies beneath Index's punchy garage-pop beats and spring-reverb overloaded distortion. Their amateurish production that stumbled upon a cavernous sound certainly helps with this assessment. Think Jandek trying to mimic the sound of Martin Hannett's classic production sound for Joy Division.
The band drew from the '60s songbook, covering the Byrds' "Eight Miles High", The Supremes' hit single "You Keep Me Hanging On", and The Bee Gees "I Can't See Nobody", and the band claims Hendrix as a huge influence on their sound, with an incendiary feedback encroaching into their beat pop tunes, at times coming across like Davie Allan and at others looking forward to Ron Asheton's work on The Stooges' first album. All of this came to fruition on what would become known as The Black Album, which was recorded with a single microphone in a large empty ballroom, whose acoustics gave the album its unusual sound. The spring reverb drips upon the overdriven guitar leads and forceful rhythmic guitar jangle, which for 1967 would have been pretty damn heavy. The vocal duties of Index rotated from song to song, occasionally finding all of the members singing these emphatic, if monochordal harmonies that oozed with bittersweet energy and late-teen angst. This is typified on one of Index's best songs "Fire Eyes" and furthered along through their cover of "Eight Miles High". Another great highlight of note is the proto MC5 oil'n'motorcycle grind found on the instrumental track "Feedback".
When Index recorded their second album in 1968 later pegged as The Red Album, they had picked up a sound-on-sound cassette recorder, which seemed to be something of precursor to a 4-track. Unfortunately, in this technological jump, Index lost the cavernous murk of that single microphone recording in that ballroom, but they still managed some great songs dominated by Ford's spring-reverb soaked guitars, including a reprise of "Eight Miles High". "Paradise Beach" is a wonderfully downer, '60s pop number, and "Break Out" is a spry instrumental with a fine backbeat lifted from Booker T & The MGs. The band stumbles with the one boogie-rock blues number, but otherwise, The Red Album makes for a great listen.
The second disc of this set is a collection of tracks from an unreleased third album in 1970, recorded mostly by Ford and Vallice. A paisley-pop jangle settles into the mix with less of the expressive feedback that drove so much of The Black Album, and the songs show a maturation in the vocal harmonies as well. But the band broke up with the various members torn by their commitments with college, girls, and work. So the world turns.
A highly recommended find!
This is one of those records that we always thought we were just going to hear about, maybe hear a song or two on some compilation, but never actually get to hear in its entirety. So we're THRILLED to see this pre-CAN album, a soundtrack to a film that never came out (how come those are always the best?!), finally seeing the light of day. And what a tripped out, acid soaked, free-pop-jazz-rock odyssey it is!
Recorded in 1968 by a lineup that included Irmin Schmidt, Holger Czukay and Jaki Liebezeit who a year later would make their debut as Can with the release of Monster Movie, listening to these sounds one for sure can hear the seeds of what would become Can's distinctive krautrock sound, but this also displays a much more fried, disjointed and mind altering side to these way ahead of their time music makers. While mostly an instrumental affair that at times reminds us of the equally colorful and fucked up Jean Claude Vannier concept album L'Enfant Assassin Des Mouches, there are a few tracks which have vocals courtesy of Irmin Schmidt, but the true show stopper is when Rosy Rosy, a film actress in Germany at the time, takes the mic for "Kamerasong", a track we imagine folks like Broadcast and Stereolab have played on repeat a billion times (like we have now!). While plenty of the songs here hint at the more song based Can records to come, lots of Agilok & Blubbo is much more about sprawling, scrappy, tripped out and fucked up delight, the kind of sounds modern day colorful noise makers like Kemialliset Ystavat and Sunburned Hand Of The Man would bow down to. What makes the record so enjoyable is how its paced, just when things have gotten way deconstructed and abstract they snap into more of a catchy, driving melody and then continue on in more bizarre directions and into outer dimensions. Warped, damaged and engaging in all the right ways!
The late sixties Swedish musical aggregation that was Parson Sound / International Harvester / Harvester / Trad, Gras Och Stenar (really all one evolving band) was basically an example of the genre we've decided to call "international krautrock". Like a
Silence has added an incredible, lengthy (24 minute!) bonus track called "Skordetider" ("Harvest Times") that the band originally intended for an album B-side but never used. It's hypnotic, powerful jam that could have fit well on that Parson Sound release. In other words: wow! Additionally, this cd features extensive liner notes documenting the group's history (the same essay is also found in Silence's reissue of the Harvester album, but with different photos). Along with the Parson Sound double cd, this is definitely one of the reissues of the year for us.
Quite possibly the reason for Intersystem's being was to re-create John Cage's "Indeterminancy" but with a hell of a lot more drugs involved. "Peachy" is the first album from Intersystems and dates back to 1967. While the group had expanded throughout their brief career with the addition of several visual artists (such as the installation artist Michael Hayden), Intersystems' core members were poet / acid prohet Blake Parker and electronic knob twiddler John Mills-Cockrell. "Peachy" simply featured that core duo with Parker offering his best John Cage impression in the recitation of emphatically spoken vignettes of lysergically apocalyptic poetry, and Mills-Cockrell playing David Tudor with his surreal punctuations through electronic noise and musique concrete elements. The end result is very strange, even for Aquarius' tastes, and is certainly worth checking out if you're into Nurse With Wound.
