Thinking Plague - Upon Both of Your Houses
This CD was recorded at the only NEARFest I attended before travel mishaps, monetary influences and progscene politics made me lose my enthusiasm for trekking cross country for events of this sort. And it was the second time I’d seen the band after Progday less than a year before this and maybe because it was the first time I’d seen them that I preferred the Progday gig over this one. Thinking Plague, as is well known, clear proghouses of most of the fans I have little in common with much to the amusement of the remaining fans who find this band to be one of the best and most on-the-box progressive rock groups of the modern crop. Their Art Bears and other avant-rock inspired sounds both challenge and impress and I find them one of the closest to my heart from this area of music in that they have the same penchant as This Heat for creating excellent atmospheres and drones with their style, while still being forward thinking and compositionally complex as well. In retrospect this disc shows that the concert was probably even better than my experience of it, possibly due to post-show treatment sound upgrades (and lack of hangover), even if seeing Kerman’s barbie doll act adds immeasurably to the experience.
Lamp of the Universe - Echo in Light
New Zealanders Lamp of the Universe still seem to be effortless putting out far out and krautrock inspired psychedelic albums with all the attendant sitars and exotica, and it’s a shame we can’t augment their reputation by zipping them back to 1973 and signing them up on the Kosmische label. In an era where rather common if energetic space rock seems to be the overt face of psychedelia, it’s acts like Lamp, Titan and others that really get my blood moving, reminding one that there’s still a lot of territory to be mined here. Certainly there’s a shtickyness to it that will remind one of flower power and pictures of beatnicks with sitars on nice Persian rugs, but it’s a shtick I happen to be rather enamored with, that sort of naivete and ambition that makes guys without any training pick up instruments with a skill level rather less than Ravi Shankar’s and still make me feel I’ve been transported to another world.
Mu - End of an Era (aka The Last Album)
I missed this album upon its original Reckless release when that label was one of the few companies putting out a number of unusual releases alongside their slew of Bevis Frond albums, stuff like the second Crazy World of Arthur Band album, Rustic Hinge and this strange singer/songwriter outfit led by Merrell Fankhauser and joined by Beefheart guitarist Jeff Cotton. The music is definitely song oriented and unlike the other two examples, closer to some of Frond’s music. It’s a bit early for me to compare the songwriting between the two, but the music Mu recorded (and didn’t release until the late 80s) has some unusual quirks and tangents to it that made it quite an interesting listen. Overall, though, it wouldn’t be easy to say more about this without further absorption.