Paralyzed Mind of the Archangel Void was performed live at the
Rhinecliff Hotel by Harmony Rockets - AKA Mercury Rev. It was recorded on a
hand-held Arrivox-Tandberg 183 analog cassette recorder [you copied this from discogs - Ed.] (STFU - FT3). If you find the time - and let's not kid ourselves, it's easy to lose these days - you may well experience an out-of-body experience when the music finally lifts off toward the end of the forty minutes. You won't actually need an exotic pharmaceutical cocktail to get there - this is genuine trance music.It gets an extraordinary four-and-a-half stars on the normally nose-picky Allmusic, where our pan-fried reviewer describes it as brain-searing and a shape-shifting aural world almost alien in its dementia.
It's all improvised, mostly instrumental. If you like free jazz, atonal sheets of sound, you may not like this. This is smarter than free jazz. It doesn't beat you up. It's focused with a laser-like intensity. It sounds like Gas Music From Jupiter. It would have made the perfect soundtrack for the third-act trip sequence of 2001 A Space Odyssey. I can think of no higher praise.
Because we go the extra mile here for you, Mr. Sketchy Random Internet Grifter, we include at no extra cost their later exercise in stretched-out improv, Inner Autumn Outer Space, at no extra cost. This is very different - chill-out music with some piano stylings. Pleasant, but it doesn't twist your brain into a Neon Sour Möbius strip like Paralyzed Mind.
This is not a test. Write on one side of the strip only.
ReplyDeleteNow you really are twisting my melon maaaan. I can't seem to write on one side of the Möbius strip only, what's happening. I am interested to hear this though, please.
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ReplyDeleteVenture boldly into a brain-searing and shape-shifting aural world almost alien in its dementia!!!! (Stealth Link)
That dash was hard to find ...
ReplyDeleteNo, it was right before "Riprock"...
ReplyDeleteCool beans! I can definitely get down with this. Love that you keep surprising us with these unexpected treasures (though I guess the unexpected should now be expected). Thanks!
ReplyDeleteNever forget that when it comes to surprises, around here you should expect it when you least expectorate it.
ReplyDeleteI for one am constantly in a state of surprise by what I find here ...
DeleteThanks Farq, I only just got round to listening to these 2 extended tracks, and I rather enjoyed Inner Autumn, Archangel Void was a bit slow for me, but omg, those last few minutes were a real mindblast. I've seen Mercury Rev a few times, they were nothing like this. You're keeping us freeloading bums on out toes.
ReplyDeleteYup, those last few minutes of Archangel Void are payback time!
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