4 For 4 at Black and Read
Last night after work I ducked into what is rapidly becoming my favorite record store in the area for what is rapidly becoming a weekly look-see. Sometimes I’m just absolutely amazed at the gems I’ve discovered here…(like Psychedelic Underground--the first Amon Duul record, or Gary Wilson’s super-rare and equally weird 1977 private press You Think You Really Know Me, both had, I believe, for a mere five bones a piece). And last night was no exception.
I took a chance on four records and damned if every last one of them isn’t one of the greatest things I’ve heard in this life.
First up: Earmark’s typically beautiful 180 gram virgin vinyl reissue of the 1971 record Mice and Rats in the Loft by Jan Dukes de Grey. This had been on my list to check out for awhile now, but I wasn’t sure just what to expect. Current 93’s David Tibet penned the liner notes…a truly good sign, as the man has generally irreproachable taste in the more obscure lines of 1970s freeform acid folk (See: Finn, Simon. Pass the Distance). This record is unbelievably great and hardly comparable to anything….but it seems to capture the same wild pagan spirit that colored Comus’ mighty First Utterance. So fucking ahead of its time. Tibet calls it "beautifully poisonous" and notes that he has been unable to trace the whereabouts of the members of this European trio, making them all the more mysterious.
The cover of Sandy Bull’s Fantasias for Guitar and Banjo portends a fairly straight-laced listening experience, like, say, an early ‘60s Doc Watson effort or something. It’s not. Like the more heralded (and rightfully so) John Fahey, Bull elegantly weaves influences from Arabic and Indian music into the tapestry of American roots music. "Blend" takes up the entire first side of this record: it is mesmerizing. It’s pretty unbelievable to me that Bull has not gotten his due, for bands like Six Organs of Admittance would not exist without this record. Check out this piece, an article on Bull originally from 1970.
Lastly, two lost masterpieces which cover the dark side of late sixties’ psychedelia. Both Mad River and CA Quintet seem to have dropped more than the recommended dosage of brown acid, but the defining moment for these cats was not Woodstock, it was Altamont. Mad River's self-titled excursion into psycho-delia and CA Quintet's aptly titled Trip Thru Hell are both highly recommended.
I took a chance on four records and damned if every last one of them isn’t one of the greatest things I’ve heard in this life.
First up: Earmark’s typically beautiful 180 gram virgin vinyl reissue of the 1971 record Mice and Rats in the Loft by Jan Dukes de Grey. This had been on my list to check out for awhile now, but I wasn’t sure just what to expect. Current 93’s David Tibet penned the liner notes…a truly good sign, as the man has generally irreproachable taste in the more obscure lines of 1970s freeform acid folk (See: Finn, Simon. Pass the Distance). This record is unbelievably great and hardly comparable to anything….but it seems to capture the same wild pagan spirit that colored Comus’ mighty First Utterance. So fucking ahead of its time. Tibet calls it "beautifully poisonous" and notes that he has been unable to trace the whereabouts of the members of this European trio, making them all the more mysterious.
The cover of Sandy Bull’s Fantasias for Guitar and Banjo portends a fairly straight-laced listening experience, like, say, an early ‘60s Doc Watson effort or something. It’s not. Like the more heralded (and rightfully so) John Fahey, Bull elegantly weaves influences from Arabic and Indian music into the tapestry of American roots music. "Blend" takes up the entire first side of this record: it is mesmerizing. It’s pretty unbelievable to me that Bull has not gotten his due, for bands like Six Organs of Admittance would not exist without this record. Check out this piece, an article on Bull originally from 1970.
Lastly, two lost masterpieces which cover the dark side of late sixties’ psychedelia. Both Mad River and CA Quintet seem to have dropped more than the recommended dosage of brown acid, but the defining moment for these cats was not Woodstock, it was Altamont. Mad River's self-titled excursion into psycho-delia and CA Quintet's aptly titled Trip Thru Hell are both highly recommended.
posted by Jonathan Wright at 11:09 AM EMAIL POST
