SUN RA & HIS ARKESTRA - 'FEATURING PHAROAH SANDERS & BLACK HAROLD'

Formats

• SV143C - LP

  855985006437

Details

*REPRESS ON LIMITED GREEN VINYL* “To understand the significance of the word ‘featuring’ on Featuring Pharoah Sanders And Black Harold, consider how infrequently Sun Ra used it and the exact way it had been used. “The October Revolution in Jazz, organized by Bill Dixon in the West Village in 1964, presented a vivid cross section of approaches to the new music, including a sextet led by Ra. For the October Revolution’s continuation, titled Four Days in December, held at nearby Judson Hall on the last days of 1964, the Arkestra performance presented Pharoah Sanders as well as a flautist (who was and remained obscure thereafter) named Harold Murray, nicknamed Black Harold. “It wasn’t until long after Sanders had achieved worldwide acclaim with John Coltrane that Ra and manager Alton Abraham decided to issue the music they’d recorded at Judson Hall. After its first release in plain or handdecorated covers in 1976, Featuring Pharoah Sanders And Black Harold remained an exceptionally rare item in the El Saturn discography, known to a few lucky collectors. “We’re lucky to have this glimpse of what Sanders sounded like in such a different context, galvanizing the large group and in turn being inspired to make his first significant contribution on record.” —John Corbett (excerpt from the liner notes)

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YOUNG GINNS - 'YOUNG GINNS'

Formats

• LG-4 - LP

  711574955619

Details

Young Ginns began in November 1991 when Unwound was staying at The Embassy house where Nation Of Ulysses guitarist Tim Green lived. Somehow around the coffee table, an idea was conceived to have a “jam band” in the vein of the instrumental songs of Black Flag and other SST artists. Brandt Sandeno stuck with the drums while Justin Trosper went back to his previous role as a bass player with Green on guitar. A couple fun sessions happened, that sometimes sounded like Black Flag but more like the guitar player from NOU and some Unwound dudes. A few days later Unwound went on their long way back home to Olympia, WA. After NOU broke up, Green packed up, went west and settled in Olympia where Sandeno and Trosper lived. Sandeno had since left Unwound but he and Trosper were always looking for an excuse to play together. Since there was so much free creativity and time bouncing around in 1993 Olympia, the Young Ginns idea was easily reborn in the Red House basement where Green lived and was building up his next studio. Teenaged San Diego transplant Brett Frost decided that the band needed a frontman after witnessing a few practices and wiggled his way into the fold. A couple of local shows and a recording session at the Red House led to a malt liquor and nyquil-fueled west coast tour with a 7-inch record fresh off the presses from Gravity records (release #3) of San Diego. The return to Olympia saw the band writing and rehearsing a couple more new tunes and a recording with Pat Maley at Yo-Yo studios in the Capitol Theater in Olympia. The band split up shortly after as everyone decided to pursue other endeavors. Ironically, the band started as a pretty casual tribute jam band but it burned hotter and brighter like a typical hardcore band with Frost as the wild frontman. What began as a math rock fantasy transformed into a punk rock nightmare. Unwound continued recording and touring throughout the ’90s and Green started several bands, most notably the Fucking Champs. He had a successful recording career with his own studio in Northern California that is still going strong. Frost moved on and around, ending up in Brooklyn, NY. Sadly, he died in 2023. Honeybear released a compilation of all the recordings on CD in 1998. This batch was freshly remixed and mastered by Tim Green at Louder Studios in the winter of 2023

Tracks

1. Score 2. Cemetery
3. Waste Basket Kid
4. Time 5. Parallels
6. We Are Buildings
7. Question 8. Lucky Seven
9. Half Twist 10. Well Directed Violence
11. Time To Die
12. The Ironic Flag 13. Backline

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VARIOUS - 'BROWN ACID: THE EIGHTEENTH TRIP'

Formats

• EZRDR183X - LP (COLOURED)

  603111763811

• EZRDR183 - LP

  603111763811

• EZRDR183CD - CD

  603111763828

Details

EIGHTEEN AND I LIKE IT… (MISC. COLOURED VINYL))if you survived trips 1-17 with one tiny speck of psychedelic sunshine intact, Brown Acid The 18th Trip will be your coming of age nightmare. Vintage underground '70s hard rock, coming at you from bizarre angles, local scene wasteland America when everybody was out for themselves and the drugs went bleak. The guitars kill, the attitude is twisted, even the sex is headed down the wrong road. Real people, no compromise, pure and potent. Get stoked, take the 18th Trip and know that the artists will get paid for pulverizing your soul! "People… are you ready?, 'cause the music now is getting so heavy"… Back Jack out of St. Louis, Missouri in 1974 launch our trip with "Bridge Waters Dynamite". It's an invocation to rock flashing on Mark Farner whooping up a Grand Funk crowd, then getting to the point quickly with berserk guitar assaults. Heavy riff with power chord stalks beneath as you take their advice… get loose and blow up the past. Smokin' Buku Band dropped my jaw with the audacious track "Hot Love" coming on like some fractured fever dream burlesque of Led Zep moves out of Hollywood in 1980. Swooping elongated vocals above, a total Zep chord move at the end of each verse. Writer/producer Steve Shauger aka Shag Stevens gets a brilliantly messed up sound quality here, the ideal polar opposite of slick. The extended guitar break is an epitome of serendipitously crude virtuosity, simply outrageous! Coming at you from way outta left field is "Moby Shark" by Atlantis, a hilarious and strange Baltimore pre-punk vibed dose of D.I.Y. meets hard rock. Lon Talbot is the mastermind, the flip side of this impossibly rare Mekon Records label single was featured in an obscure 1978 B-movie titled "The Alien Factor". Follow the lyrics closely, when the ominous jaws jaws jaws start coming after you you you… the song's big hook is so preposterously catchy the shark attack feels like good news. Inquiring minds should know that the band formerly known as Atlantis can now be found by searching for the Lon Talbot Group! Tommy Stuart and the Rubberband's "Peeking Through Your Window" from 1970 opens with a spooky organ riff, slips into a gushy fuzz/organ groove akin to "Mustache In Your Face” by Pretty. The singer creates downright creepy vibes, a stalker peeking through the girl's mind like a peeping Tom at the window up to no good. The lyrics evoke a disturbing scenario. Tommy Stuart also made a strange LP titled Hound Dog Man in 1977 and some terrific rare garage singles under the names Magnificent Seven and The Omen & Their Love in the mid '60s. Nothing better than an angry two chord guitar attack with cowbell to set the stage for this rant about getting "Ripped Off" by love. Taken from their rare 1977 LP on Dynamite Records, Chicago Triangle was Marvey Esparza, Dave Guereca, Jose 'Tarr' Perez and Robert Aguilera. They unleash such strong brain-scrubbing wah wah frenzy in the guitar break here that it seems to perversely mock it's own intensity! Like I said, Brown Acid the 18th Trip comes at you from all kinds of uncanny angles. Damnation of Adam Blessing out of Cleveland, Ohio unleashed a stone killer psychedelic hard rock classic "Cookbook" in the late '60s, this track "Nightmare" from 1973 has them cooking again at full power. A different singer, name change to Damnation and then Glory, unleashing a deadly dose of dark progressive heavy rock drama peaking when spooky 'oooo-wa-oooo' background vocals emerge during a bizarre spoken bit. It unfolds like a mini-epic and includes some remarkably brutal guitar and turbulent organ, too. "Swing your sword, all aboard… bid farewell to the dreamer" Dalquist exclaims. Cynical view of human nature, idealism is over, war is coming, it always does. Opens with a cold menacing riff and atmosphere reminiscent of "Synthezoid Heartbreak" by Maya. Mournful despondent vocals ride an insistent churning groove, gnarly guitar break moves into free noise territory. This rare track is from a local various artists benefit album titled Kangaroo Jam issued for the Waco Family Abuse Center in Texas circa 1980. The Pawnbrokers "Realize" is prime proto heavy rock emerging out of psychedelic garage roots in 1968 Fargo, North Dakota. Unusual arrangement, terrific sustain guitar tones like on the first Blue Cheer LP, even a rip on Hendrix "Manic Depression" with unison voice and guitar ascent near the end. They made three 45s and were active from '65 to '69. Hats off to Blake English, Kent Richey, Paul Rogne and Steve Harrison, you nailed it in just a hair over two minutes! As pure and creative as the original psychedelic garage hard rock gets. Parchment Farm from Union, Missouri gigged with the likes of ZZ Top and Foghat back in the day and unleashed the amazing "Songs Of The Dead" in 1971. Primitive riff/chord pattern dosed with some funky prog moves, sky turning black, 'is this heaven or hell' type disoriented confusion… may as well grab your guitar and sing songs to the dead. Robert 'Ace' Williams on bass, Paul Cockrum on guitar, Gary Reed on keys and Micky Waterman on drums, replacing Mike Dulany (R.I.P.) Cool that they use the Blue Cheer misspelling from Vincebus Eruptum for the band name! Ominous organ, thick minimalist fuzz riff, funky psychedelic wah wah flashes and freaky sex combine in one twisted dance titled "Rockin' Chair" by Brothers Of The Ghetto. Out of Chicago in 1975 with some Santana atmospherics and a delicious fuzz wah screamin' guitar break, the groove is highlighted by an off the wall vocal which sounds eerily detached in a subtly sleazy way. Rene Maxwell is the writer of this hard-rock boogie-down hybrid straight out of the twilight zone. It was issued on Ghetto, a subsidiary of the peculiar Kiderian label that released the Creme Soda LP. Now that your head is totally skewered, go Back Jack and play side one again! (Words by Paul Major)

Tracks

SIDE A

Back Jack - Bridge Waters Dynamite
St. Louis, Missouri 1974

The Smokin' Buku Band - Hot Love
Hollywood, California 1980

Atlantis - Moby Shark
Baltimore, Maryland 1975

Tommy Stuart & The Rubberband - Peeking Through Your Window
Tuscaloosa, Alabama 1970

The Chicago Triangle - Ripped Off
Chicago, Illinois 1977

SIDE B

Parchment Farm - Songs Of The Dead
Union, Missouri 1971

Glory (Damnation of Adam Blessing) - Nightmare
Cleveland, Ohio 1973

Dalquist - Farewell To The Dreamer
Waco, Texas 1980

The Pawnbrokers - Realize
Fargo, North Dakota 1968

Brothers Of The Ghetto ? Rockin' Chair
Chicago, Illinois 1975

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DR SURE'S UNUSUAL PRACTICE - 'TOTAL REALITY'

Formats

• ETT-110 - LP

Details

Total Reality is the sound of a group in constant forward motion, finding new sounds and new ways to express their joy and catharsis in making music together. On album opener 'Slug' the band sing ‘I’m feeling like a slug so I gotta visit the doctor’, and though reliably tongue-in-cheek you get the feeling they mean it - the members using Dr Sure’s Unusual Practice as a vessel to lift each other up while unpacking the collective fatigue of life in late-capitalist society. “A mood like that, you're apt to stay in it, not dial your way out. Despair like that, about total reality, is self-perpetuating." - Philip K Dick On their third LP Total Reality - a title ripped from the classic sci-fi novel ‘Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?’ - Dr Sure's Unusual Practice tackle lofty issues through a hopeful lense, avoiding the often cynical pastiche of modern punk music. Total Reality touches on varied influences - proto-punk to post-punk, new wave to no wave, krautrock to trip-hop - to concieve something fresh and inspired. Beginning in 2018 as a solo project, here Dougal Shaw is joined by an ever-expanding collective. In addition to a core band (Jake Suriano, Miranda Holt, Tali Harding-Hone, Mathias Dowle) the new record features contributions from Jack McCullagh (Cracodile), Stu Patterson (The Empty Threats/Placement), Alannah Sawyer (Babyccino/Mouseatouille), as well as Shaw’s partner Alivia Lester, and baby Blue - who also adorns the album cover. An almost polar approach to the band’s acclaimed second LP ‘Remember The Future? Vol. 2 & 1’, which was tracked live in a recording studio, Shaw refers to Total Reality as a ‘collage album’. There are pieces of pandemic-era demo’s; drum machines coexisting with a live-tracked rhythm section; fresh collaborations; layers of guitars, synths, horns and percussion; collected field recordings and samples - all cut and glued in Shaw’s home studio to realise an expansive and colourful record.

Tracks

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