The Far Cry • The Far Cry (Vanguard/Apostolic, 1969)

As the year comes to a close, and I look back at the various excavations that I have been lucky enough to benefit from; The Czalak Minor Temple wall paintings proving the Empire of Alzatho was a contemporary, or the left foot of that fearsome beast washed ashore twenty million years after it's extinction on Long Island Sound, none come close to my discovery of The Far Cry's lone LP.

How this inventive a band has escaped the books is beyond me! Even though there are some musical reference points; The dreaded Grateful Dead, or Paul Butterfield Blues Band, it's the crazed vocals of Jere Whiting that almost steal the show. To the untrained ear, you would think him a poor Van Vliet, but where the Captain's voice is a organic part of the sound of the Magic Band, Whiting's is a shrill non put on insanity, contrary to the polish of the band. I could not imagine anyone else fronting the group. A lesser visionary would no doubt be tempted to slick up the singing, and turn this into a B level Blood, Sweat, & Tears. Thank God for Jere. He shrieks, yells, misses cues, and even gives the Sax player a run for his money, and it works. On the one track he doesn't emote on, the instrumental Earthlight, The Far Cry employ the same loping back beat that the Dead use. Yet where the Dead go on full snooze, emulating a muzak version of Take Five for the hippies, The Far Cry it's an aggressive affair. Tight playing and a heavy Sax way up front. Best of all, in 1969 when most musicians overstayed their welcome the moment they tuned up, the whole thing is done under four minutes.

Please click on the review title for selected track: Midnight Juice

Ultimate Spinach • Ultimate Spinach (MGM, 1968)

Visiting old friends. Every one has done it, and more often than not you walk away remembering why you stopped talking to them...such was the case with an old associate, Dr. Hajro. We were friendly rivals in Medical School. He was forever peering into his microscope trying to look further and further into the heart of the small. After a while his perception of the world was based on the micro cosmos. As best as I could, I tried to keep the friendship alive, but to no avail. Afternoons were spent in the day room of the Mental Institution, he looking furtively at the corners of the room, mumbling "we must get there, they wont be able to see us a that angle!"
Eventually he would have fits, the shrieking getting the other patients worked up, and poor Hajro would have to be removed.

In the same vein, but altogether far more pleasant is my rediscovery of the first Ultimate Spinach's LP, on CD. I hadn't heard this record in about 20 years, and my memories were not good. From the muddy mix, which seems to be the calling card of the producer Alan Lorber, to the ear splitting high pitch organ, after a few listens I had given it away to someone.
Now, finding a cheep used copy on CD, I can hear what was going on under the sonic mud. Big Beat Records must have had the original master tapes, for now one hears the Theremin wail away on (Ballad Of A) Hip Death Goddess. Small aside: Nico auditioned for The United States Of America. Nothing came of it and no tapes are said to exist, but with this song one can get the idea what that must have sounded like. The rest of the album is pretty inventive, while much of it owes to The Doors, The Mothers Of Invention, and even the above mentioned United States Of America. Perhaps the lingering shill that was the "Bosstown Sound" will someday be forgotten, and this band will get it's due...

Please click on the review title for sample track: (Ballad Of) The Hip Death Goddess

Andrew Chalk • Crescent (Robot Records, 1999)

Outside, behind the whistling of the wind are the sounds of my local church bell ringing 5pm. Or is that more discreet sounds coming from Andrew Chalk's CD Crescent? It's hard to tell. I don't wish to stop the music, for fear that the new iTunes wont start again. There seems to be some problems with the latest upgrade...such is science. I remember when the removal of the Margolis parasite caused paralysis in over 90 percent of those afflicted. In our quest to save the patients life we had thought it wise to remove all of the creature. Being that the thing was using parts of the host for it's own body mass, you would just spend time in the operating room cutting away...eventually hitting nerves where the worms tendrils had wrapped around...that sometimes is the problems of progress. We know now that if we just held back and waited, the worm would come out by itself, with just the slightest of scarring to the host.
Progress is not the problem here on this CD. This is perhaps near perfect melding of ambient sounds with that of melody. While there is in operation here Chance Music, nothing sounds haphazard. Little melodies come forward, only to be layered underneath ambient sound. At moments it seems like your listening to a movie, and then without warning you're in the movie. Even though it was predated by Eno's Ambient 4: On Land, and as is often the case the first of an idea is the best. Chalk has improved on the notion of Ambient music, by bringing in the sounds of outside life. Also present on this recording is David Jackman and Christoph Heemann, who's own unique takes on sound are felt. Jackman contributes his Japanese flute playing, and Heemann remixes.

Please click on the review title for sample track: Harvest

The Ceylibe People • Tanyet: By Lybuk Hyd (Vault, 1968)

Io! Io! I am without emergency trips to the Hospital - not to worry dear reader, I am usually the one standing over the operating table. So with this, and the weather delightfully normal (chill in the air, bluish hue cast on exposed extremities) I could not help but stay in for the evening, thus giving me time to fill in another review.

Last week was my Birthday. I know what you are thinking. That if you had your brain placed in a metal cylinder and transported to such far off places like Yougoth or even Mu, aging or birthdays become abstract notions, and you are correct. In my opinion, if everyone in old age homes could take a trip to any one of the celestial caverns that Dark Mater emanates from it would make them feel like infants. But I digress...Good fortune had showed itself to me in the for of an affordable copy of Tanyet, by The Ceylibe People. From just one look at the cartoon cover by Rick Griffin, to the song titles composed in words of some abandoned language, you know your in for a rewarding experience.

Sitar melodies lurch along with Delta Blues riffs. Mellotrons' go from menacing drones to faux minuets, while what sounds like a real violin joins in. Somewhere in this mix is the sound of a young boy announcing his name. If all this is not enough, perhaps the most intriguing is the mix. Replicating the musical equivalent of a Cut-Up, rarely are both speakers used at the same time. Either all the music is coming from just one speaker, or its layered on.

For the novice of all things difficult, this might be hard going, but the fact that its so tuneful more than compensates.

I am not sure if the Tanyet LP predates Strictly Personal By Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band, but there are similarities. The drumming on Tanyet has that same organic / rhythmic thumping, and there is the above mentioned Delta Blues here supplied Ry Cooder.

These sound workouts would show up again in the Performance soundtrack, perhaps the only reference point that could be sighted.

The only drawback to this heady mixture is it's running time. Both sides on the vinyl album clock in at roughly eleven minutes, making this more like an EP. Included here on CD as a bonus is a "reprocessed" mix, both tracks having the same running lengths as the LP mix. Is this reprocessed version a augmented mono mix? There are times where some instrumental passages seem to pan, while on the stereo version it would mean one speaker now has taken over for the other.

One further note, there was a non LP 45 released afterwards: Changes b/w Ceyladd Beyta. The a side was a reworking of the track Tygstl with a different name, however the b side is a mystery to me. There's a track called Ceyladd Beyta on the LP, so could Ceyladd Beyta also be a variant?

While digging around on the Internet for the Ceyladd Beyta track, I've found a poster from 1968 with them second to the bottom of bill. The headliner was Jefferson Airplane. As good as the Airplane was, this certainly is a case of saving the best for last!

Please click on the review title for sample track: Ceyladd Beyta

The Helpful Soul • The Helpful Soul First Album (Victor, 1970)

Doppelgangers', perhaps the most misunderstood of whatever deity runs this plane of existence. All they want is to use something original to pattern itself after, then prove that it's just as good - or even better. Sad things, never seem to get it right...A dogs front paws aren't turned inward, no mater how much of an improvement that would be over nature...humans have four fingers and a thumb, where three fingers would be more aesthetically pleasing...with that in mind, let us investigate tonight's LP "The Helpful Soul • First Album" 1970. Where most Japanese rock is colorful for it's taking a western art form and making it meld with a different sensibility, The Helpful are a bar band who just can't get it right. Plodding rhythms, a drummer who isn't paying attention, the bass and guitar not being introduced properly. But best of it is the vocalist. If you thought Lawrence Hammond of Mad River was singing his way through a hot foot, then Junio Nakahara is suffering from shaken front man syndrome. And how The Helpful solder on through what is basically a covers's album. The lone original song "Peace For Fools" starts out in the middle of When The Music's Over, and ends with the main riff from Ina Godda Davida being played over and over! What you get outside of that is over long blues songs, and 3 Hendrix covers. Hendrix, not unlike The Beatles, is so idiosyncratic that covers rarely work. Yet, because the band is so sub par, that saves the performances. There is something fun hearing "Virtuoso" music being knocked down to the masses. One would think from my above words that I don't like the band. Nothing could be further from the truth. It's incompetent, but great! The drums plod away, The guitar player is convinced that he's better than he is, and the bass isn't on speaking terms with the rest of the band. Oh, and that singer, quaking away at the mike! The overall effect if like Idiot Ambiance. I find when I put on the CD, I can't think about anything but what I'm doing at the moment. many an operation was performed quickly, saving the client money and their life...

Thanks must be made to Julian Cope for coming up with a little more information about the band. See his website WWW.japrocksampler.com

Please click on the review title for sample track: Peace For Fools

George Stavis • Labyrinths: Occult Improvisational Compositions for 5+string banjo and "percussion" (Vanguard, 1969)

Not too long ago my office had a visit from two distraught parents. Their little girl had died a few days previous and were convinced that she was becoming a zombie so they held off burial. Sadly it was not transformation that was taking place, but that of common rigor mortise. Sooner than appreciate what they had, no matter how simple, her passing was blown well out of proportion.

And that brings us to this evenings album: Labyrinths • Occult Improvisational Compositions for 5-string banjo and "percussion". A fine wonderful work it is, just banjo and "percussion" stretched out over 5 tracks. If there was any overdubbing, I could not tell. The improvisations didn't come across as self indulgent, giving the impression that there was more composition involved.

The playing is in the John Fahey style, a little Raga, a lot of Jump Blues. This hybrid of styles comes together beautifully on the albums lone cover, "My favorite things". Perhaps the only alchemy that is taking place is the melding of Western style with Eastern playing, as at times Stavis's banjo sounds more like a koto. But surely this isn't a art learned from the occult as professed on the back cover. Then where is the Magick? There is nothing here that suggests anything of the unspoken arts. A good album, one of down home, be it either Virginia or Kobe. Like the above mentioned parents, accept it for what it is, not what it seems to be.

Please click on the reviews title for sample track: Firelight

composed and realized by Ruth White • Flowers Of Evil: An electronic setting of the poems of Charles Baudelaire (Limelight, 1969)

There are many things that one wish would remain buried. The Greater Hairy Clawed Yamutho comes to mind, with it's ability to come back seemingly to life after one severs the head. Of course it's the parasitic male, much smaller than the female, nestled in the females armpit pouch that really controls the body. Then there are others that the injustice of obscurity is being performed on. The album "Flowers Of Evil: composed and realized by Ruth White • An electronic setting of the poem of Charles Baudelaire" falls into this category.

Over a bed of electronics that go from serious to exploitation in the same track, Mrs. White reads the poems of Baudelaire not unlike a dispassionate Dalek. One could do this after all, it was the 60's where anythings possible. It's hard to imagine something like this being released today on a major label, or major label's subsidiary without either the lack of originality style dropping as a healthy tribute or trying to make a ironic joke out of the whole thing.

But I digress from the actual sounds...there are nine tracks where either her voice is the primary instrument (double tracked, with minimal Moog back round) or full, thick electronic workouts. A reference point would be the Fifty Foot Hose song "Cauldron". The Hose were also on Limelight, a label who released a whole slew of avant garde albums, that regretfully have to see the light of legitimate release. Yes, this is a bootleg, but it was made with care. From the accurate reproduction of the record cover, to the mastering off an LP. There may be a few pops and clicks here and there (lightly noticeable when listening through headphones) but you ignore these things.

And what about Ruth White? From what I could find online, she makes children's educational records, not unlike Bruce Haack did. But where he excelled at a sort of Kiddie Concret, she is very much of the Radiophonic Workshop school. There is plenty of 12 tone scale construction, and dentist drill sounds to keep this firmly rooted in spooky atmosphere.

Please click on review title for sample track: Spleen.

From the desk of Dr Lovecraft.

Dear friends,

I bid you a warm greeting.

Many a time I have found myself looking up at the cosmos, with it's planets spinning in chaotic orbit. Their movements perceived as order, but the hinges of the machine built by others who have long left and taken the instructions (if any were ever written) back with them. And at these moments I would look through my collection of music to play, only to come back more confused than when I started my query.

It is at these times I would wish for some sort of guide. Just as one has for what wine to serve with wood louse. Taking the problem in my hands, I have decided to give aid to those who are at a loss as how to add to their sonic experience. You will find in this blog, what I hope will be helpful in sifting through some the music that is available to our terrestrial ears.

There will be links added to the reviews, this will consist of one track for I feel unethical if I give away a whole album. Hopefully the one cut I select will intrigue you enough to search for it's respective sides. All you will have to do is click on the reviews title, and the track will be available.

I remain,

Dr. Lovecraft.