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