The Advancement • The Advancement (Philips, 1969)

The Doctor is sick...not only a fine book by Anthony Burgess, but a personal observation...remember faithful readers; if it's hot outside, eating pushcart chicken might not be such a good idea.....

So here I am, cooped up at home with not much to do. No way am I venturing out to see any colleges or patients. Then what better way to pass the time, then wax poetic about this fantastic LP...

The Advancement were the cream of two combs; Lou Kabok and Hal Gordon from Garbo Szabos band, and Lynn Blessing from Bill Plummers Cosmic Brotherhood. Rounding out the Advancement are a a few other players of note: Colin Bailey, Richie Thompson, Art Johnson, and David Kinzie. These members are a sort of B Wrecking Crew.

Jazz in the mid to late 60's was akin to a rudderless ship. There was no clear idea as where to go. The rock crowd was now accepting of longer song form. Odd meters and noise had been appropriated. What once seemed musically non conformist was now coming out of the tiny speakers of any teenager's stereo. But like any American art movement it did what it did best...amalgamate...

Beatles covers would sit next to reworking of Bop standards with new names. Records were packaged in the latest colors. Whole Jazz departments at major record labels were saved by having photos of the band members wearing Nehru Jackets...Predictably the results were often awful. Note for note readings of Robbie Krieger guitar solos, drained of all their inventiveness, were tacked onto the umpteenth reading of Light My Fire...but every once in a while something like The Advancement would come out. For something that was released in the dark days of 60's Jazz, there isn't a cover tune on the whole LP. At most, two tracks come a little too close to plagiarism; Fall Out is practically a Doors track, only without Morrison belching his way through the vocals. The other, Hobo Express, is reworking of Van Dyke Parks reading of Donovan's Colors.

Elsewhere on the LP the mood is generally laid back, and would not sound out of place in a Hollywood psychedelic movie. The opening track "Juliet", brought to mind immediately AIP's The Dunwitch Horror. It's wistful air undercut with melancholy... and in counter balance, Stone Folk is a sort of hip Gregorian chant, The guitar solo panned from speaker to speaker.

The playing is nimble throughout. Everyone is in their element. No embarrassing moments of playing the new sound without understanding it.

Fallout has added this to their continuing list of excellent reissues. Once again, it's another recording taken from an LP, but the sound is clear. Kudos also to them for taking care in packaging the music with it's moody cover intact.

Please click on the review title for selected track: Stone Folk

Cosmic Eye • Dream Sequence (EMI, 1972)

I remember once, when I was a young intern, after a night of chemical studies that I had stayed up so late that I saw the sun rise. Realizing that it was way past my bedtime, I bid my fellow students (ironically) a good evening and drifted home. After arriving home, I climbed the stairs and went to bed at 8 o' clock. A few minutes later my eyes popped open I saw that the clock hands had barely moved a inch...what a disappointment, my blasted insomnia had returned, and here I was in a false state of being awake. All I wanted was some rest. There the morning sun crept in the sky, another Summer day about to begin...and then it hit me, it wasn't 8:15 AM, but PM...I had slept twelve hours, and it only felt like five minutes...

Cosmic Eye's album has that same affect. I had somehow found this album, or at least a track, on line. This persons blog was full of Bollywood and Sitarpoitation tracks. For the life of me I can't recall how I got there. As I heard Sequence 9, I was struck how similar it was to George Harrison's Wonderwall Soundtrack. It was from that likeness, that I had conjectured the music had to be from the 60's.

As luck would have it, I found a CD of the album at Kim's St. Marks. Not too cheaply I might add, but that one track with it's running time of under two minutes was so intriguing. Like I had said, it reminded me of Wonderwall, with it's juxtapositions of jazz and Indian music.

Playing it immediately when I got home, the music was so intense I could do nothing else. I was listening to music that was in collage form, a melancholic Procol Harum like tune would give way to a restrained free jazz work out, from there that in turn that blended a spy music like theme with traditional Sitar music...How is it other Psych-Heads have not raved about this? And then I looked at the copyright date, disbelieving my eyes...it read 1972...that explained it all. Most Psych fans are forgiving of of certain musical styles coming from other countries at later dates, but not England. If this came from Germany, or even France lets say, high praise would be heaped on it. But it hails from England, when Sitars , flanging, and artistically treated echo, were well past their hip sell by date.

It seems that this album was the brain child of one Alan D'Silva. He was noted for playing jazz in a raga style, but much later than Garbor Szabo. D'Silvas first album is from 1969, and he recorded up until his death in 1976. Yet I cant help but think this was perhaps his first recorded work. In 1969 this would still sound relatively fresh, but by 1972, very much like yesterdays papers.

There's very little information about D'Silva online. I was able to find a pitifully uninformative web site run by his family. They mention there the CD issue, and it being a bootleg of poor quality. I've listened to this CD numerous times, and found nothing wrong with the sound. Unlike most legitimate reissues where you can tell the music was remastered from a vinyl copy, here everything is surprisingly clear. I'm not sure how easy it will be to get this CD, but it's well worth hunting down.

Please click on the review title for selected track: 4

Kawabata Makoto • Jellyfish Rising (Funfundvierzig, 2005)

Just as much as the lateness of the hour affects what I decide to listen to (The Madcap Laughs seems awkward at 3:00 pm, but brilliant at 12:30 am), weather can also play a part. Temperature rises and out goes the Minimalism, or anything with too many notes...so, what to play when everything is a bother? Somehow Jellyfish Rising is an amalgamation of those two styles and fits perfectly.

Here Makoto is in full Gamelan music mode. Shifting tones from the guitar cascade over repetitive figures. It never really goes anywhere, but there is a feeling of sonic rushing around. Think of this as a more gentile version of The Monkey Chant, and you'll have a beginning.

On the occasions I was subjected to The Grateful Dead, or read various band members name dropping composers, I could never figure out what the big deal was. I'm sure Garcia must have had a voracious ear, but it never seemed to inform his fingers. And with Kawabata, it's the complete opposite. He wears his influence on his sleeve. When he's not destroying his guitar a'la numerous guitar Gods, or thumbing his nose at sainted rock albums with Acid Mother's Temple, there is a serious side that comes out. It's in these albums where he shines brightest. Yes, he's playing here like Steven Reich filtered through Jerry Garcia, and the cover is a hideous throw back to New Age album graphics, but the playing so beautifully becomes a oxymoron - simple complexity. The two tracks on the CD never get mired in flashy playing. It's all pulsing and flanging, no real guitar solos. Repetition is the key here, and it's in that you find yourself with room to think. Where albums like this tend to get bland in their desire to be cosmic or even worse, soothing, here there is no down side.

Please click on the review title for selected track: Astral Aurelia Aurita Laavarek

The Alan Lorber Orchestra • The Lotus Palace (Verve, 1967)

A fellow Doctor once passed along some sagely advice: "Set and setting", and this afternoon I found myself in full experience. July is in full swing, the streets are hot but thankfully humidity free, reminding me of old Calcutta. Everywhere you look people are coping with the heat, free from the indignity of sweat stains. It is in this environment I find my self listening to The Lotus Palace. Just a few days before, I was in Springfield MA, surrounded by trees, and for some reason the music didn't fit. I'm not exactly sure why, but the glass and concrete buildings were a perfect visual accompaniment.

Is it because the music that Lorber is presenting reeks of the sophisticated? True he's playing what was the hits of the day, filtered through sitars and Indonesian percussion...you haven't lived until you've heard Up Up And Away done with sitars.

I've never been able to figure out why, but every production by Alan Lorber has this muddy quality. Most of his recorded work is in stereo, but you would be hard pressed to tell. From the varied productions that I have had, everything has that sort of near bootleg recording quality. Was he reusing tape, or bouncing too many tracks? Either way it's the sonic thickness that adds to the charm. Where most producers raise the EQ on tambouras to the point where the drone is bone shattering, he'll make them so muffled that they caress the ear.

The choice of covers among his originals are interesting. Tim Harding's Hang On To A Dream, along with Flute Thing by The Blues Project sit next to a couple of Beatles numbers. As you most likely know, the Beatles were too idiosyncratic to lend to covering, and here Lorber bravely takes on two of the more difficult songs; Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds, and Within You Without You. It's on the second that he succeeds. Nearly covering the song note for note, it sounds more like a backing track than a hip cash in.

Lorber's originals are in the vein of Aloha Lounge background music, Martin Denny's Mai Tai spiked with STP. Tremolo, heavy reverb...all forms of audio psychedelia are used, stopping short of backwards tape and flanging. Don't want to freak out the Lounge Lizards too much.

The Big Beat reissue (long out of print) includes 3 bonus tracks. The third is a track that would appear to be a pared down take of Purple, from Bobby Calenders LP, here it's called "I Heard The Rain And..." hearing it without Bobby's serpentine vocals, you really get the idea that he was just making the lyrics up on the spot.

Please click on the review title for selected track: Echo Of The Night

Samurai • Samurai (Greenwich, 1971)

In light of the two previous posts, I felt that I had better write about music, lest this becomes an obituary column.

Is there anything more despicable than Jazz Rock? Perhaps Adult Contemporary Western, but for me it's the later that somehow gets under my skin like a case of chem trail Morgellos. These days I find myself listening to bands that insist on using poly rhythms without a clear understanding of how. The results can either be brilliant, like the Hampton Grease Band, or unpleasant like The Web. It is from The Web's demise that Samurai formed. Shone of their terrible vocalist who must have had aspirations to be the next Engelbert Humperdink, the band adopted a Steely Dan / Hot Rats approach. While they don't get anywhere near the complexity of that type playing, the lack of break neck smarty pants musicianship becomes all the more rewarding.

Arrangements are allowed to breathe. The songs don't seemed composed to a state of still born. Best of all, just two tracks break the above five minute barrier. Most bands when they have a lengthy track, seem to forget how to end it. There's usually the pattern of funny time signature, followed by an amateurishly insightful lyric framing solos of epic proportions. Proving that just because you had taken music lessons, that everyone understands how a composition works. It's here that Samurai excel. having come from a pop band aggregation, the idea of song craft is up front. For all of their Prog leanings, you can actually hum a few tunes.

Esoteric Recordings have reissued this, their sole LP, along with the three previous recordings as The Web. Reading in the liner notes that the original vocalist left after the second Web LP, I may at some point buy it. I'd say avoid the first LP, based from the second LP. Yes, his voice is that bad...

Please click on the review title for selected track: Saving It Up For So Long