boris • boris at last -feedbacker- (Fangs Anal Satan, 2003)

Spring is barely here and there is a Mosquito buzzing about my bedroom...vicious little blood sucker, every time I set down to type, she comes in for the kill. If I look her way she flies off towards the curtains...The music on boris at last -feedbacker- is just the same way; steady and direct, then fading focus. Lulling feedback drones filling the air, movement implied rather than acted upon. At some point a song shows up, but even then it's more of an extension to the opening drone.

While often Boris play a stoner rock that is more in likeness with the Smashing Pumpkins (and I suspect where to the western ear Takeshi's vocal is exotic but in his native Japan he's just as whiny as Billy Corrigan), the real comparison is that of a Black Sabbath record played at 16 rpm. Add to that the melancholy of Sun Dial's Reflector, or even Ash Ra Temple's Schwingungen and you have a better understanding of this side of Boris.

Please click on the review title for selected track: Part 3

Mad River • Mad River (Capitol, 1968)

Re-entry to this Universe while relatively easy is not without the common malady of jet lag. Unlike my previous post on concerning a unpleasant headache and deciding what to listen to, here the body is merely affected. As such, all one has to do endure a small bother by putting on a CD and then sitting back down. What I have been listening to while the stitches to my skull heal (You didn't think the trip was made with this physical body did you? Oh no, the mind only need go. Anyhow, the human form is woefully inadequate there. Many more glands are needed) is Mad River's first LP.

While in a state of limited mobility that I could follow the brutal intricacy's of the band. Musically they are not unlike The Magic Band; lurching start stop rhythms played by guitars that seem at odds with each other. It's Lawrence Hammond's vocal approach that adds just the right touch of oddness. He has a quivering tone as close to a Banshee as any man could get. Mournful pleading with occasional hints of outrage.

Over all the LP's a heavy affair. Even though it came out during the height of Psychedelia, the end result is closer to Noh theater music than Black Sabbath. There's no reliance of simple blues based minor chord riffing here to get the point across. Even the final song with it's simple acoustic guitar melody doesn't give you a sense of closure, just that merely the album has stopped.

After this there was a second LP: "Paradise Bar and Grill (1969). Overall it's a more mellow and professional affair. The songs have a discernible middle eight / guitar solo structure. This may be due to the general country feel of the album. There are a few freaky tracks that recall the greatness of the previous LP, but you would swear it's a different band. Not a bad album to have, but not as essential.

There are a few reissues of this LP on CD. One came out on Edsel records in the 80's. This is taken from an slightly crackly vinyl copy. After that I assume Capitol put out a reissue, as they has reissued the second (and final) LP, but I haven not seen this version. Most recently, Collectors Choice put both LP's on one CD, but left out the EP done by the band before they signed to capitol. I haven't heard the Collectors Choice edition, since I have both albums on two different CD's. It's a safe guess that the sound quality is better then the Edsel or Capitol reissues since they are becoming a noted quality reissue label.

Please click on the review title for selected track: Amphetamine Gazelle

Bobby Callender • Rainbow (MGM, 1968)

Greetings friends, I have returned from a much needed vacation in the Sub Universe. There of all places I had a chance meeting with a old Professor, El Hombre Mysterioso. It was in his class "Obscurity: Introduction, advance unseen" that I had learned the practice of "seeing everyone before they see you".

In the decades before the Internet, slipping between the cracks was a tad more feasible. Now almost everyone has their Biography at the ready. In 10 minutes anyone can become a noted expert on anybody, but Bobby Callender's story has somehow remained untold. What little information I have been able to gather was the recollection of a recording studio engineer who paints Bobby as a white turbaned phony. Someone who sent in one from his Harem of girls to check out the studio. If the vibes weren't right, he wasn't going in. I have forgotten where I read this, but it wasn't that long ago on line.

After Callender got comfortable, it seems that he let his guard down and reviled some of his past to the engineer; he was a former tattooed gang member from the Bronx who turned D.J., and after a while realized there was a lot of action in being a Hippie singer.

So how does Bobby fare? Blessed with a voice that when eyes closed you would swear was coming from the Jungle Book's Snake, he near tunelessly croons his was through the album. The crack session players provide third world instrumentation (koto, sitar, tabla's, et al.) and rock backing. At times neo Classical orchestra is hijacked, but nothing can disguise, that Callender almost willfully ignores meter. If his inspired lyrics are too long, throw in another bar of music, or just speed up the delivery...either way it'll fit!

They lyrics here are obsessed with sex, but so encased in purple prose it takes a few listens to get it. Rainbow had come out on MGM, I guess before mike Curb did his purge of the label. If he was having conniption fits over The Velvet Underground and The Mothers of invention, what was his take on Bobby's limp wrist of a voice and its tales of "Sade Masoch, was a handsome young man who taught history at the local High School. Though he never enjoyed the stuff himself, to be sociable he'd always try. " and also from Sade Masoch: "No one in the town knew this very much about his personal life. But mostly everyone agreed he was very good looking and always acted polite. His classes were very popular amongst all the birds in school. The syob (?) kidded that he was queer, but they really thought he was cool"...or how about the lilting tale of Mother Superior? A older woman who is a Lesbian, done in by the end of the song by her lawyer. By the end of the album, in it's last track he proclaims weekly "Black Power" , and wonders who was Jesus Christ.

Added to the Grey area reissue on Akarma, are two tracks - the Glow Within Thee. and Raga Man. No information is given to where they are from. The only other piece of information on Callender Ive found is that he had two tracks on Tom Wilson's promo LP (released prior to Rainbow), "The Music Factory". Could these be from there?

With the above mentioned compilation, there was a very good pre LP 45, and then two further records. Regretfully these are diminishing affairs. The follow up record is the libretto for an Alan Lorber conceived stage production with Krishna / Jesus Christ Superstar overtones. While his last is a Funk suite about the Impressionist movement...not as fun as it sounds, and only released in Holland...

Add it all to the pile of Bobby Callender; Bronx tough, D.J., effete Sri Donovan. Maybe dead, maybe alive.

Please click on the review title for selected track: Nature

The Sound Of Feeling • Spleen (Limelight, 1969)

Oh my aching head...I have spent the previous evening at my associate Dr. Sulkow's home. He was entertaining his Nephew, Marty. Remarkable young man, and like all youth, he has an ear open for what's new, and also just like youth, knows a reference point but couldn't tell you what the reference was...It seems that all new bands have become either Fleetwood Mac, or Jackson Brown fronting The Eagles...but how have I come to have discomfort of the skull, you may ask? To allow myself to accept the possible blandness of the sonic future, I had imbibed many skillfully made Screwdrivers by Prof. Sulkow. Yes they did help, and were easy going down, but waking up, that's a different process...

It is at times like these that I can turn away from music, and prefer the low key ambiance of the world. But yet, I had this reissue to listen to...what to do...would my condition take president and spoil the mood of discovering something new? With trepidation, I slipped in the CD, and sat back. How glad I was that I did not wait any longer! As the music of The Sound Of Feeling's LP filled the air, I found my mind soothed, but not in a sleepy way. Microtonal singing often sounds like shouting, but the Andrece sisters pull it of in a post Bop performance. The Spleen album never sets on one tone, often parts are in conflict; hip songs of the day are given a jazz treatment. While using the stabbing phrasing of McCoy Tyner's piano, it all still some how mood of calm prevails. The middle eight of "The Time Has Come For Silence" for instance, has shrieking mixed way down. Every track on the album has an off kilter feel, but somehow there is a grace, that in the hands of the merely average would have turned this into either an academic snooze fest, or contrived free jazz.

Even the cover of the LP is a study in contrast; The sisters are photographed with a creepy wide eyed doll stare, only to be complimented by a smaller photo of them holding the hand of Gary David - third voice, and composer. This shot is not unlike the graphics of an "I Love You" Hallmark card.

Included in the reissue on Sunbeam Records is the Sound Of Feelings side of Leonard Feather presents The Sound Of Feeling and the sound of Oliver Nelson (Verve, 1968), and tracks recorded after Spleen. On the Verve album the approach to the music is wilder. Not unlike free jazz at the time, subtlety is not an issue. Start blowing from the top and everyone else will catch up. It is the last few tracks that the Spleen album takes embryonic shape. Some studio treatment, and what sounds like a Koto creeps in.

As for the music recorded in 1971, a more contemporary sound is approached. While anything adding this groups small cannon is welcome, it was obvious that it was over. Not exactly comfortable using rock, jazz was dead again for the second time, and Limelight's history of almost everyone on the label record only one record were all nails in the coffin.

Please click on the review title for sample track: Hex

Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O. • original motion picture sound track album: Ivan Piskov's Wild Gals A Go-Go (AMTCD,1999)

My second office was located in Queens, truly an abysmal place. If the Earth is located in a dusty corner of the Galaxy, then Queens is the Universe known as New York's sub basement...but I bitterly digress...I was doing my internship at the time, mental and physical afflictions. Long days were spent reassuring the patents that the place they found themselves in was not a clever studio set, and after that getting the patients settled in for a (hopefully) full evening sleep , I would need to unwind. It was not the screaming, or even the frequent urination, but the dread of watching someone, resort back to being an infant...and not all babies are cute.

To soothe my mind, I had put on this little CD. And as it wafted from my speakers, out the office window, into the night air, on to the court yard below. It is from there, my friend Prof. Sulkow called up to me, asking if I wanted to have a few drinks. How could I say no.

As he bounded the stairs to my tiny cramped office / living space (this was located above the asylum) Reverse Of Universe.1 was playing (track one) with its metallic rattling and electronic bed of Dream Music. The good Professor exclaimed, "What is this? I can't tell is it's old or new". How right he is. That is the beauty of the Acid Mothers Temple, while they carefully study the past and all it's trappings, extended song forms, cosmic echoing synths, feedback, etc. at no point does it come across like dress up. They are not wearing Daddy's shoes, they like style and have bought their own pair.

Ever the pranksters The Temple call this a original motion picture sound track to Ivan Piskov's: Wild Gals A Go-Go. I've never come across the movie or the director for that mater, and can only wonder how sex scenes would go to the sonic onslaught of Mammary Intercourse. Are the grinding synth figures made to match breast groping? What about the jack rabbit drumming, surely you would break the most supple of snatches trying to keep up.

Yet elsewhere there are bliss out moments of cosmic beauty. A soft female voice talks about something, in some language. Drones of two textures combine to form a third sound, vocalist Cotton Cassino sings her Mothora tones.

This release was the first in a continuing long line of limited editions. The good folk at Swordfish have seen fit to reissue it. There are no extra tracks, but how often do you orgasm for a 7th time?

Please click on the review title for sample track: Space Bambino ~ Interstellar Over Dope

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