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VARIOUS ARTISTS – BROWN ACID - THE TWENTY-SECOND TRIP

(LP/CD/Digital from RisingEasy Records)

How do they do it?  How do the wizards at RidingEasy keep coming up with more of these proto-metal/hard psych, or as we simply called it back in the day, hard rock – gems from the late Sixties and Seventies by no-hit wonders?  Twenty-two bad acid trips in, hundreds of tracks, and it’s still rocking, dripping and oozing sleaze.  One of these days I’m going to get me onto one of those streaming playlists with the entire series and cavort to hours of long hair, beer, and motorcycle grease.

So what do you get for your money?  (And remember, RidingEasy goes to incredible lengths to try to track down the original artists and pay them).  The “trips” always lead off with a banger, and this is no exception.  Flint, Michigan’s Sounds Synonymous’s 1969 take on “Babylon” out-cheers the Blue Cheer original.  The strutting guitar riff with enough fuzz to blur your vision just cooks.  And I think my slow-on-the-uptake brain just figured out that their band’s name indicates they were a covers band.  Hey, give me a break, I’m on some brown acid here!  Next up, straight outta Seattle in 1969 is The Bumps and their track “Shining.”  This one’s sort of a hybrid song, combining hard rock distortion, shredding, and Hammond grooves with some smooth harmonies.  It works – phenomenally well.

The excellently-named Cincinnati Joe & Mad Lydia from, you guessed it, Cincinnati, tell us to “Get it Together.”  In the press release Lydia looks a lot like Cher and Joe like the Karate Kid.  But there’s no disputing the track boogies along to a mad dash of organ and wailing guitar.  Unfortunately, Straight Up’s cover of Arthur Brown’s “Fire” isn’t as burning hot as Sounds Synonymous above.  They can’t all be champions.  Meanwhile, we hear from Carteret, New Jersey’s Scrap Iron (Scrap Iron?  Yes, Scrap Iron) and “Poopsie” from 1973.  This isn’t just proto-metal but proto everything.  The melody is two chords and introduces the classic verse, “you’re my baby/don’t mean maybe.”  The poor singer is a bit fixated that Poopsie’s going to leave him stranded at the wedding altar.  Hopefully she remained steadfast for her man.

Oh my, where do I begin with L.A. band Lady’s “Live Show Tigers”?  With a chorus of “We’re live show tigers/We all dress in drag/We’re the meanest bunch of bitches and we’re all on the rag” how can you go wrong?  Another highlight is Warren, Michigan’s Good Humore and “Killer” from 1976.  This is just a tight rockin’ bar band anybody would enjoy, kind of a Thin Lizzy with just one guitar.  And that woman?  Watch out, she’s a Killah!

The set rounds out with Toronto band Sarawest’s “Space Rider” from 1974.  This is a story of aliens come to Earth to tell us how stupid we are for destroying ourselves; a timeless message from everything spanning The Day the Earth Stood Still to Plan 9 From Outer Space, and more.

So there it is, take another trip.  And if this is the first volume you’ve checked out, see Vols. 1-21, too.  It’s no bummer, man.

(Mark Feingold)

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THE TAPS OF THE HOLY TRINITY – CUSTOMS & RITUALS OF
(Digital/cassette available from Fenny Compton)

Australian quintet's debut album ticks all the right boxes for fans of experimental, improvisational acid folk, psychedelic drone, the hypnotic ecstasy of Anatolian folk, and Greek demotika. Terrastock fans of Magic Carpathians, Spacious Minds, Tanakh, Ghost, Kemialliset Ystävät, et. al. will feel right at home with their soothing, headswirling voyages through inner space, performed on a variety of ethnic instrumentation from the bouzouki-like tzoura, zurna (a double-reed wind instrument popular in Anatolia), djembe, stylophone, fez, and didgeridoo to lauta, gongs, and theremin (the latter from ex-pat Paul Rodgers - NOT the Bad Company/Free singer).

Both of their preceding singles are included and with titles like 'Anastenaria' (ecstatic barefoot firewalking from Northern Greece), 'The Magus' and the aforementioned singles, 2004's debut 'Most Of Them Were Ghosts' and 'Slow Ghosts' (March, 2006), you have a clear inkling where their music will take you. Opener 'The Magus' slithers through percussive effects, meandering string instruments, and ritualistic chanting from lautist (a sort of Greek lute) Dee Hannan introduces an almost shamanic vibe with Magic Carpathians, Lamp Of The Universe, and Incredible String Band overtones.

'Most Of Them Were Ghosts' introduced the band to an immediate legion of fans with its Eastern-tinged instrumentation, Michael Plater's "wild exclamations" of ecstatic possession, and more ritualistic percussive effects from Danny Martinov and Dave Bullock's shakers.

'Anastenaria' immediately sets us off-kilter with its unexpected burning coals intro and far-off guitar explorations that invite navel-gazing introspection in the listener before 'Slow Ghosts' come a-haunting via Platar's otherweirdly [sic] vocal utterances exorcising ghosts like some possessed shaman.

This all leads us to the album's 12-minute centrepiece 'The Passage' which may certainly invoke transport to another dimension. The band pull out all the stops with their arsenal of musical weapons to induce "total heaviosity" (with apologies to Woody Allen!) while managing to expand 12 minutes of Earth time into what feels  like hours of sensory deprivation-assisted self-assessment.

A welcome addition to the (generic) "acid folk" academy, The Taps of The Holy Trinity will anaesthetise, enthrall, and endeavour to help you ascend to another plane of existence, and we can't ask much more from music from another planet to expand your own psychedelic universe.

(Jeff Penczak)