05 June 2006

American Metaphysics

I love the Fanfare - Carnival Of Souls - Independence Day - Disney - Tape Loop - Electric Birdbrain - Revolution No. 9 - Syd Barret-tics - Leslie Crowther - Strawberry Alarm Clocking - Stereo Panning - Whorl Of Sound - Happy Hesseisms - Anti Warming - early Airplanes - Merry Pranksterisations of this album and it goes perfectly with the anecdote that somebody told me about being sick on Timothy Leary's deathbed after a pound of magic mushrooms (this person may, after all, be the reason Leary insisted on being jettisoned into Space).

I've never met any of the countercultural icons from the 60s/70s (unless you count David Soul) but I'd probably have found it hard not to regurguatiate just a little social/chemical history myself.

Happy thoughts.

The exciting thing here is that these guys have slipped almost unnoticed. I mean, this stuff is pre-Krautrock, pre almost everything and Kosmiche in all but name, even if there are also strong echoes of how you always wanted Jefferson Airplane to sound. They've also dispensed with the guitar, which must have seemed radical step at the time (far out, even) because the guitar was the pulsing heart of rock, the fuzz the inexplicable heart of psychedelia. Here the guitar fuzztones are replaced by oddly placed electronics, the kind that seem to have their guts wrenched out; misfiring, sweeping, whoosing and crackling all over the stereo.

The United States Of America - The American Metaphysical Circus

A Yousendit Geetarless Wonder

3 comments:

Molly Bloom said...

Excellent music. Excellent taste.

I've just read your Salo piece again...it really is very powerful. I shall probably read it again....

Each time..it leaves me speechless.

N.E. said...

Yeah, great record that. Haven't played it for eons...must dig it out again...

Anonymous said...

Yes, a fantastic album...

It provided the template for a large proportion of the sound of the group Broadcast (Warp Records)...

Incidentally, Joseph Byrd is playing his first concert for many years in Manchester on June 24...check the Sonic Arts Network site for details...

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