Secret Saucer have at various times included members of Quarkspace, Architectural Metaphor, Star Nation, Sun Machine and others, being a collective of musicians from some of best Space Rock bands in the northeastern U.S. Nachvollziehens is their latest album and compiles remixed tracks from earlier albums, live in the studio tracks, and a previously unreleased song.

Evade is the unreleased tune and is a smokin’ hot Space Rock ‘n Roller with punky guitar that brings to mind early Farflung. But it’s also got tense, high pitched keys that give the music a sci-fi TV theme feel. Mix in some President Obama and newscast samples and we’ve got us a shit kickin’ Politico Space Rock song. A Sublime Metaphor is one of the live in the studio tracks, being a steady paced jam with a Psychedelic soulful feel, and led by wailing, melodic, trippy angst guitar combined with lots of threatening alien electronic efx action. Liftoff is the other live tune and another song that has a catchy soundtrack styled melody, along with Prog keys, killer rocking guitar and an onslaught of effects. Lunar Pull is a remix of a track from the Four On The Floor album, with all new guitar from Steve Bemand, whose resume includes a brief stint with Hawkwind, Technicians Of Spaceship Hawkwind, The Starfighters, The Glissando Guitar Orchestra, and most recently The Timelords, who released the excellent Convergence album earlier this year. The keys inject a powerful early 80s Neo-Prog feel, but the rhythm guitar is all Hawkwind, though Bemand switches to melodic Prog mode for the beautifully tasty solo. And I think the heavily efx’d robot vocals provide a nice contrast.

The other four remix tracks include Steve Taylor, Greg Kozlowski from Architectural Metaphor, and Paul Williams and Jay Swanson from Quarkspace in the lineup. I’ve always loved Jay’s keyboards. I’d know his playing anywhere. On Light Years Away he provides the flowing, melodic Quarkspace feel and plays pied piper to the legion of electronics that scramble around him. We’ve also got dual guitars, one tripping out in space and the other ripping off killer rocking solos. I love the combination of meditative stream and genuine edge of your seat tension. Desert of Existence has a cosmically soaring Pink Floyd infused Architectural Metaphor feel. Greg’s guitar licks are like some kind of space shaman on Mind Mechanics, which sounds cool along with the frantically off-kilter synth pattern that soon eases into Jay’s jamming piano. Tension never felt so good as we groove along steadily in space. Finally, the 15+ minute Atom Smasher is fully double the length of the original version on the Element 115 album. It’s all atmosphere and journey through the cosmic countryside, with a strange but alluring combination of spaced out Pink Floyd Wish You Were Here drift and miscellaneous sounds, like machines, birds, and lots of carefully incorporated effects. Then after the 9 minute mark the band launch into a steady but power rocking jam that has a strong Quarkspace feel, embellished with ripping guitar solos and wildly swarming electronics.

In summary, Nachvollziehens is a potent set of (mostly) instrumental Space Rock. There’s enough that’s different here for those with the entire catalog to want to pick it up, and is the ideal place to start for newcomers.

Purchase the Nachvollziehens CD or digital version at: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/secretsaucer4
Other Secret Saucer albums are available there as well.

Reviewed by Jerry Kranitz

If Syd Barrett were an 80s Goth he would be Edward Ka-Spel of the Legendary Pink Dots. At first the album did not strike me as anything great, but after several spins the album both nods toward the 25 year old Legendary Pink Dots classic LP The Maria Dimension (which is getting a 5LP box treatment from the Soleilmoon label very soon) and 80s Edward Ka-Spel albums like his China Doll series of LPs from the 80s. The vocals are cryptic and dark and gothic, a strange piano, odd finger drums and the intro to the first song called Limburgia has a Indian raga like beat. All the 8 tracks flow like a single sequence of interworked songs, though they are all different and separate tracks. Here we do not have the Noise sculpture and abstract Industrial splatter like on Dream Loops or Ghost Logik from a few years ago, nor the electronic madness of Edward’s Dream Logik trilogy. The third track, The Border Beyond, has ominous police sirens in the distance closing in and leaving again, fading in and out again like a spectre on the “force”. Edward sings very low key. It takes either great concentration to follow his lyrics, or you can do like me, imagine the darkwave ramblings of a 80s Goth Syd Barrett, though as a lyricist Edward and Syd do not share any similarity, just the voice and the beatnik whimsy style. I ordered the double disc Deluxe set and got a second CD with two tracks, one song is etched as vinyl on the CDR and plays perfectly on my turntable while the other song is there next to it as a digital track, and they both share the same side of the disc. Those two tracks are very analogue and Victorian style forms of musics, maybe after a little Opium and Absinthe…

Overall this is a great grower of an album. It will take me a year to fully absorb all its layered and cryptic meaning, but the melody and song and moods are there. Get this CD if you like 80s The Legendary Pink Dots, and the Chyekk / AaAazhyd / Eyes! / Lyvv China Doll Ka-Spel LPs. They have been remastered by BLRR and sound very nice. Let Edward paint your soul Victorian and prepare yourself for a dose of Barretesque Steampunk Darkwave.

To purchase, stream and download visit the Legendary Pink Dots Bandcamp site at: http://legendarypinkdots1.bandcamp.com
Visit the the Legendary Pink Dots web site at: http://legendarypinkdots.org
Visit the Beta-lactam Ring Records web site at: http://www.blrrecords.com

Reviewed by Christian Mumford

The Dots in 2013 and 2014 have been on a good roll since being reduced to a trio with the core of Edward and Silverman, and adding Eric Drost on guitar. In 2013 they released 3 albums already, and in 2014 there is this, and the Chemical Playschool 16+18, as well as many free downloads from the archives. Edward Ka-Spel’s background for 10’9 is the conspiracy concept of a secret leadership in the world, where a handful of powerful world leaders meet in basements and offices in London, New York, Tokyo, Paris, etc. to decide the fate and doings of the world, from politics to stockmarkets. The two LPs were released the first part of last June on pink vinyl and the second part on Turquise vinyl in November, along with the CD which contains both parts.

Ten O’er Nine opens the CD and first LP and is quite melodic, yet with the noisy krish krash tinfoil digital subtle drum noise they have taken on, since the recent line up formed. One can take that as a complaint. Well, I tend to like the cleaner analogue synth sounds and rockier instruments, even drum machines are fine as long as they are not over treated to sound “industrial” like they do here. Primitivism is no obstacle to me. But it is a satisfying record from the Dots overall, and tracks like The Virgin Queen are really sweet with some really great lyrical waxing from Edward, his best and most emotional and political in a long while, serving with the Dots anyway, and brings out the “old” Dots fan in me, with Edward wailing lyrics about someone who might very well be Victorian era royalty yet… “this fine lady is no tramp”, and how “was it you who turned brother against brother”. Your Humble Servant is a bouncy synthy rock melodic track as the third song. Malice segueing into Freak Flag has a distorted cartoon vocal and a weird sample about someone turning into a Jesus freak or the snippet of spoken exclamation “wait til Jesus gets his hands on you, you little bastard!”. Feeding Time closes the first LP and has some Edward dramatic lyricism, “we are are here to please, and this hurts me more, the more I scream”… And yet, whereas the second LP (or starting on the 6th track on the CD) has the majestic track Olympus 2020 about our modern “secret” pantheon of leaders deciding our fate in shadow meetings around the world, the new world order, the remaining tracks continue to lumber on a bit unfocused. Alot of them are sprawling, psychedelic, melodic and obscurely created monuments of experimental industrial and ambient noise rock. Some, like the first part especially, stand out, yet alot is spread out as meat (or in Dots world, veggies) on the bone, which gets a bit “bad”, so to speak, psychedelic but ultimately a bit tiresome.

In the case of the CD I ordered the deluxe “bag” set which comes with a second CD and a badge and some post cards in a velvet bag. The best of the 2 tracks on the bonus disc (which lasts about 25 minutes) is the second track, Divine Resignation Part 5 which has a sinister monologue from Edward and is quite long. Overall 10 To The Power Of 9 is a very good effort and I give it just about a 9/10 rating, barely a solid 8. So, as they say, “Sing While You May…”

To purchase, stream and download visit the Legendary Pink Dots Bandcamp site at: http://legendarypinkdots1.bandcamp.com
Visit the the Legendary Pink Dots web site at: http://legendarypinkdots.org
Visit the Rustblade label web site at: http://www.rustblade.com

Reviewed by Christian Mumford

I was going to tackle the recent Legendary Pink Dots and Ka-Spel solo CDs, like 10 To The Power Of 9 and Victoria Dimension albums, first, but now this collaboration came in the mail yesterday from The Silverman (AKA Phil, the Dots synth player) in Nijmegen, @ The Terminal Kaleidoscope, being Dots HQ for mail order in Holland. As much as I think The Dots are better and more coherent now than the past 12 years have been for them, I find this LP to hit me smack over my head to be the ultimate recent LPDs related album as regards vintage synthesizers and Sci-Fi lyricism combined, since the 80s and 90s LPDs material in particular. Edward Ka-Spel does all vocals and some synth (I asked him if that was a Moog on the track Needles IV like I thought was used on Film Of The Book AKA Astrid by the early 80s Dots) he replied it was not, as he could never afford a Moog, and that it was a soft treated synth instead. And he informed me that on Film Of The Book indeed was not a Moog but a Juno 6. I blame my synth expert friend I played the track for for the error! So Philippe Petit does the instrumentation like guitars and drums and keyboards as well. But lyrically it seems its all Ka-Spellian futurism. Lots of parts of the album come across as the early Dots mixed with The Black Corridor by Hawkwind (the deep space poetry!) and early Tangerine Dream between the early Electronic Meditation and Phaedra LPs somewhere.

Side A opens with the track Subterranean, Homesick which is pretty good for an opener, and is sung by Edward about alien signals and orders “sent from up on high”. Most of the LP contains some spoken lyrics (there are four tracks on the LP and the download has a 5th shorter track as a bonus), like the second track, Giant Steps Post which is pretty funny, with Edward as a lone astronaut calling Earth that life has finally been encountered on the far outer fringes of the galaxy. In fact, the life forms are small furry creatures cuddling with no apparent intelligence, yet the astronaut says to Earth that maybe we should teach them Human Mercy and civilization. “There are millions of them! We have found life…!!! We are not alone!!!” – yippie ya YAY! The third track is the majestic synth track I first mentioned, called Needles IV. It is about 10 minutes long and is like a serious drag on a joint full of black India hash and a Chrome track from the early 80s maybe. The synth sounds very analogue, vintage and stretches out with some serious rhythmic analogue thrashing keys. The 4th track is a very short filler, if you have the download or CD. However the final track, Where Does The Sound Go, is very spacey, with Edward saying his voice is travelling into endless space like on “a butterfly flapping its wings”, referring to Quantum physics and “The Butterfly Effect” and that somewhere far away all the sounds from the poets, screaming babies to cursing drunken sailors, through the ages, all intersect like on, at a far off edge of the universe…. during between stations static tuning of an analogue AM radio, as noise. “With these few words I make a mark, that never can be eradicated, it does not matter that so few of you hear them… what is important is that my voice will travel the ever vastness of space, far beyond when I have ceased to exist, at least in this form…”, is Edward’s opening recital that lasts for over 10 minutes.

What a mindblowing end to this record of vintage style Spacerock! I think Edward and Phillippe have created a masterwork here, and one should definetly go grab a download or an LP, as the CD is sold out by now. The LP is ltd. to 299 copies space fans! Go get this album now. It is sublime psychedelic spacerock, and comes so very highly recommended.

To purchase, stream and download visit the Legendary Pink Dots Bandcamp site at: http://legendarypinkdots1.bandcamp.com
Visit the the Legendary Pink Dots web site at: http://legendarypinkdots.org
Visit the Philippe Petit web site at: http://philippepetit.info
Visit the Rustblade label web site at: http://www.rustblade.com

Reviewed by Christian Mumford

Welsh spacemen Sendelica kick off the new year with something that’s a little different for them. (I’m posting this review at the tail end of 2014 but it’s officially a 2015 release as the physical copies won’t ship until January.) The band consists of Pete Bingham on guitars and electronics, Glenda Pescado on bass, Colin Consterdine on synths, Lee Relfe on sax, Lord Sealand on Theremin, and Jack Jackson on drums, plus guests.

The fun begins with The Craeft Worker, an electro pulse driven tune with an underlying Kraftwerky, but also space-jazz feel, and a simple yet oh so beautiful guitar, bass and sax melody. The groove goes Motorik on Master Benjamin Warned Young Albert Not To Step On the Uninsulated Air, sounding like a spaced out Neu!, with robotic blazing guitar chords and jazzy saxophone. But as this 12 minute piece progresses the guitar and sax start to dominate, with the guitar ripping off wild Psych solos and chunky metallic blasts, and the sax swinging away. Eventually it all starts to gel and we’re grooving along in heavy Space-Kraut-Jazz rocking heaven. Really killer tune. The Pillar Of Delhi is another song with a simple yet seductive melody, being a lusciously floating deep space dream sequence. I love the mélange of guitar and synth effects and from beginning to end it feels like I’m being gently swept along and at the same time gradually dissolving. Note that Gregory Curvey from The Luck Of Eden Hall contributes “extra guitar” to this track. Azoic continues the melodic dreamland motif, imbuing the music with a majestic, cosmically symphonic sensation. Sendelica get much heavier on Baalbek Stones, which starts off as an aggressive slab of Psychedelic-Metal, and then eases into an electro-funky, alien efx’d, swinging Space-Jazz groover. The Breyr, The Taeogion, and The Caethion also starts off in a Metal realm, with the chunky steamroller guitar and rhythms accompanied by zany effects and a Hard-Psych-Metal guitar solo, which sounds even more cool when joined by the wailing sax, and then morphs into a Space-Psych-Dub-Jazz sorta mash for the finale. Lots of interesting instrumental combinations and stylistic transitions in less than 6 minutes. And speaking of interesting combinations, Searohwit is a deep space floating and grooving tune with impressions that are lightly Arabesque, a wee bit Dub, and incorporates dark yet meditative atmospherics and bubbling electronica. The flute from guest Virginia Tate is a nice touch too (she also contributes keyboards). Finally, The Hedge Witch sounds like an 80s piano and synth driven electronic Pop tune, but Sendelica add freaky effects and drones and even a bit of dreamy smooth Space-Jazz.

In summary, Anima Mundi was a surprise, and a pleasant one because it further highlights Sendelica’s ability to cover all manner of territory without going completely off into left field. Those who have been following the band will be pleased. Note that the album is available in several flavors: CD, black, blue and clear vinyl LP, a DVD of the album as video, and an already sold out box set with vinyl, CD, demos CD, t-shirt and other goodies.

To stream, download and order visit: http://sendelica.bandcamp.com

Reviewed by Jerry Kranitz

The latest from German Kosmiche guitar veteran Ax Genrich is a 6 track, 70 minute set titled In A World Of Dinosaurs. In addition to Ax on guitar, banjo and vocals we have the rhythm section that has been on his last couple albums – Mario Fadani on bass, upright bass and tuba, and Steff Bollack on drums.

In a nutshell, this is an album for lovers of imaginatively exploratory Kosmiche Rock guitar. The music covers the gamut from Hard Psych Rock and Space Rock, with Prog and Jazz influences, but this is also an outstanding all around ROCK album, chock full of varied rhythmic and compositional gymnastics, and all manner of thematic twists and turns.

The title track features Hard Psychedelic rock that is stoned, spaced out, and includes lots of killer guitar. We’ve got classic Ax guitar that recalls his Guru Guru days, but he also takes off into space, creating soaring waves of Psychedelic soundscapes and pure cosmic ooze. Ax’s vocals muse on the days of the dinosaurs 200 million years ago, noting their many qualities (and even gives a mention to their bad breath). On Elektro Bordell the guitar goes into a deep space trippy, dreamy exploration against an evolving rhythmic theme, starting off with a tribal rocking pulse, going off into a fierce drum solo and a frenzied Jazz-Rock finale. The Sound Of No Return is a frantic and schizophrenic roller coaster ride that zig zags between heavy Psych rock with monster guitar, ass kicking old time Rock ‘n’ Roll, Jazz tinged Hard Rock, Space Rock ‘n’ Roll, plus oodles of rhythmic acrobatics and cool and strange effects. I love the interplay between Ax’s guitar and guest Roland Schaeffer’s Jazz Rocking nadaswaram (an Indian wind instrument) on the 16 minute jam rocking The Nomad. (Schaeffer was a later member of Guru Guru.) Livin’ in Germany is a heavy Psych rocking song with Ax cranking out a banquet of freakouts against a funky Jazz-Rock rhythmic pulse. And guest vocalist Matz Kraus sounds like he could be the singer in a Captain Beefheart tribute band. Finally, I first heard Zaragoza on Ax’s 2011 released live set A Trip To Paradise, and here we have it titled Zaragoza /On Route to Spain. It starts off whimsically atmospheric, and I like the steadily tribal drumming against the trippy, spacey guitar that is simultaneously atmospheric, funky and cosmic Bluesy as Ax playfully shares a parade of ideas. Roland Schaeffer is back on saxophone and Guru Guru founding member Mani Neumeier guests on drums during the later On Route to Spain section, which features smooth and sassy Psychedelic Jazz with swingin’ sax and guitar that is both jazzy and stoned.

In summary, In A World Of Dinosaurs ranks among the best guitar albums I’ve heard this year. It warms my heart to hear old masters like Ax still creating music that draws on the inspirations of the past, but doing so in imaginative and, dare I say, inventive ways. But don’t think this is all non-stop guitar flash. Ax incorporates his guitar work into the larger body of music, which is reliant on solid compositions and arrangements and the crack musicians who accompany him. Check it out.

Order the CD from Ax Genrich for 15 Euros + shipping. Email Ax at: axgenrich@t-online.de

Reviewed by Jerry Kranitz

As most stoner / doom / desert bands that aren’t technical or complex like Mastodon and not all out glam like Monster Magnet had for a period, and their ilk, drawing more inspiration from psychedelia, spacerock and more modern doom bands like Cathedral (in particular), Orange Goblin debuted on Cathedral man Lee Dorrian’s “Rise Above” label in the late 90s with the album Frequencies From Planet Ten which was a stellar progressive spacerock debut. I witnessed Orange Goblin, indeed, open for Cathedral at a show at the John Dee venue in Oslo in 1999 where it looked like everyone was bummed out, drunk or on a bad trip! Their second album Time Travelling Blues was more of the organ laden biker stoned blues of the debut as well. But after that, Orange Goblin was a band that could not hold my attention. They seemed to serve straight up booze life bar metal rock and ditch the psych outs on the 00’s albums, and I only cared for those very first first two CDs, as much as I thought they had success anyway, I just thought “good luck to them hard drinkin’ rockers” rather than wanting to hang with “stoned acid freaks”. Well, the latest album Back From The Abyss manages to hold my attention span for most of the album, as little variation as there is. Songs like Heavy Lies The Crown in particular recalls NWOBHM style symphonic-ness and the opener, Sabbath Hex, could very well be a slow number from a death/grind band like Bolt Thrower in their mid 90s era, to my ears. The 12 tracks on this album are more memorable than anything i heard from this band on the last 3-4 albums, and at least thats good. Maybe it is just my mood but they seem to be tracking a bit more “on the path” as it may be to outer space Goblin enlightenment… well the song Mythical Knives is pretty stonking on its own, with cool inventive and catchy riffs, but I give this album a 7 / 10 because there is little variation from song to song, but its not badly played or anything, the whole thing is just not my kind of regression to alcoholism and bar fights with bikers. I kind of left that scene when I left NJ twenty years ago… on that note it comes recommended to all hard drinking stoners!

Reviewed by Christian Mumford

Rebellion, modern times, smart phones, apps, and Anomymous. Protest and Occupy. Old pothead pixie Daevid Allen serves up a wonderful farewell Gong record as he is folding the band due to ill health, yet on a vibrant, living, modern and youthful Gong way – family as one might expect, his son Orlando Allen and former wife Gilli Smyth contributing on this punky stew of Gongness called I See You, released October 2014. I have had quite some time to listen to it, but it from the get go had me rocking and bopping along to its rocky songwriting and Allen’s scatting. Most of the rest of the Gong crew this time are people unknown to me, but boy do they create a sublime Gong sound, from Teapot Trilogy madness and beyond. It sounds very true, its also very raw and heavy, much guitars and saxes, definitely, in spirit. Encased in a digibook full of lyrics and Daevid’s drawings it seems to even top the previous star studded Gong efford 2032 which to me was a fairly forgettable affair. This on the other hand is fresh. On the first song, it kicks off immediately, Daevid saying he is an old man… “not cool”! Occupy, Syllabub and Zion My T-Shirt are all protest anarchic Gongness – a shot of modern Here & Now style energy unheard of from Gong since Floating Anarchy and New York Gong when Allen was experimenting with Punk in the late 70’s. Old and new fans will adore this great album that carries the hippie/punk/anarcho sentiments in a format we all can relate to – the Gong way of freeform protest. The CD closes with Shakti Yoni & Dingo Virgin with Daevid and Gilli, the essence of the core Gong. Gong Est Mort, Vive Gong! Buy this album and never regret it, its the last call for Gong as we know it!

Reviewed by Christian Mumford

The crew of former Hawkwind members called The Hawklords, loosely knit to the original 70s Calvert/Brock led project carry on with a third outing called Censored and it is a delightful fun punky Hawk album. The CD opens with the upbeat rocker State Of Emergency which is standard from the first album, sounding very much like any old Hawklords. One track is a Michael Moorcock poem penned especially for the CD called Induction, which is a bit noodling and grim to my ears, Sonic Seven Kiss is a pseudo psychedelic punk track, while songs like the upbeat punky Catwalk Chic and the mystical Upside Down Man on the latter half of the album are stellar songs in Hawkwind style format. The bonus track You What is a delirious nightmare of a Grateful Dead LSD nightmare, very psychedelic and a little disturbing, all the snippets of conversation of “…Goodbye Sweetie”, “see ya later Mom!”, “Good morning professor Austin how are you DOING TODAY???”, “This is my friend Ema!!!”, and the repeaded Jerry Richards voice going “Do you believe… that your Father never loved you….” , but I love it. It’s a tribute to Deadheads and LSD from what I gather… hehe. The concept of the album is loosely about media manipulation and censorship we seem to have with social media and in politics. We live in revolutionary times and Hawklords are definitely part of it. Here Adrian Shaw has departed on bass, after recording of the album, and Harvey Bainbridge being the only last “Hawklord” remaining. Also Jerry Richards is onboard with Ron Tree on vocals. I adored Ron’s era with Hawkwind so its nice to follow the Hawklords punky brand of music. Being the best of the three albums from these guys yet, it means anyone with a clue in Hawkwind should head out and purchase NOW!

Reviewed by Christian Mumford

From 1982-1986, Walls Of Genius (WOG) represented everything that was totally twisted and creatively cool about that era’s homemade music cassette culture underground. These guys were all over the map, recording songs, acid rock, spaced out excursions, avant-Prog, sound collage and abstract experimentations. And nobody did cover songs like WOG. Their lovingly art damaged assault on songs by Steppenwolf, Creedence Clearwater Revival, the Beach Boys, Captain Beefheart, Chuck Berry, The Beatles, and plenty more was akin to The Residents’ treatment of the Stones’ Satisfaction. Now Not Then consists of the first WOG reunion of Ed Fowler, Evan Cantor and Little Fyodor since 1986, and across two discs offers up heaping doses of pent up creative muscle flexing that has been lying dormant in the intervening years.

Disc 1 launches with the 16 minute Oh Yeah, a funky rocker that’s like a marriage of sci-fi New Wave and Krautrock. We’ve got a B-52s gone Goth keyboard, quirky Funk, wildly soloing acid-fried Industrial-Psych guitar, jack-in-the-box popping alien electronics, and Fyodor’s distinctive loony bin vocalizations (Ed. Note: Turns out the vocals are Evan Cantor. Had me fooled). The music chugs along at a funky robotic pace, being strangely dance grooving and interstellar exploratory. Next up is a cover of the 1970 Temptations song Ball Of Confusion. WOG succeed in maintaining the song’s Soul/R&B core, while injecting it with a raw rocking, good time Blues-Psych rock ‘n roll edge. The covers continue with WOG’s rendition of the 1970 Chairmen Of The Board song Give Me Just A Little More Time, which is faithful to the original but done totally carnival asylum WOG style. We’re treated to soloing guitar in heaps on Geezers On Steroids… or is that some kind of Mike Ratledge Soft Machine keyboard? In any event, it’s a crazed combination of screaming acid-Psych mind-fuckery and two left footed dance grooves. A Flying Cluck follows and is like an atmospheric but still completely weirded out wind down to Geezers. Warning System Test is a humorously whimsical mock on old emergency broadcast system tests. I like how the guitar strums along while the freaked out Psych guitar (or keyboard) blazes and a slide whistle loop-de-loo flitters as a voice chants the warnings. And Beer Beer Beer is a totally raw yet shit kickin’, roadhouse stompin’, good time Blues rocker that closes Disc 1.

Disc 2 draws heavily on late 60s/early 70s Hard Psych Rock influences, though with WOG there is nothing straightforward about the results. I like the raucous Psychedelic Country Boogie-Woogie with killer freakout guitar and a stern message for America on New Amerika Futura. The monster guitar continues on All Hail Great Cthulhu, which is like a dirty Psychedelic garage version of Santana. Telescopic Array features jazzy, soulful rock and Psych guitar jamming with a zany and endurance challenging slide whistle leading the way. WOG go hard Psych Rock on Indecent Compulsion, a heavy 70s styled rocker with yet more ripping guitar solos and a propulsive rhythm section. Unrestrained By Discipline travels a similar path as Great Cthulhu but blasts off into space, being a freeform jamming rocker with a Krautrock meets Woodstock experimental edge. And more awesome guitar! It’s really nuts, coming across like Jorma Kaukonen, Helios Creed and Snakefinger all rolled into one, if you can imagine that. WOG continue warming to this theme on the appropriately titled Brainfracking, which once again has a strong 60s west coast feel, but blends it with the type of spaced out jamming excursion that Krautrockers like Guru Guru were known for, plus some good ‘ol trademark WOG zaniness. Wow, heavy heavy stuff. These two are my favorite tracks on Disc 2. And how do WOG follow these and close the set? They do a ukulele strumming cover of The Beatles’ All My Loving.

In summary, this will be completely recognizable to anyone who heard WOG in the 80s, but is a step beyond anything they did back in the day. Chock it up to all those years of individual experience. BUT… there’s more!

Along with the reunion album, homemade music veteran and energetic make-things-happen guy Hal McGee has put a tremendous amount of work into constructing a WOG tribute site that is accurately labeled, A Comprehensive Online Archive: 1982-1986. This is no cursory overview but a seriously detailed history. There’s lots of biographical info, interviews, reproductions of old WOG catalogs, flyers, posters, and loads of photos. There’s a 37 minute live performance video from 1985 with detailed notes. AND… joy of joys… all the old WOG cassettes digitalized and available to hear online, including detailed notes for all albums. It’s a model of what the web should be about. No stinkin’ Flash or any of that crap. Just INFORMATION driven and lots of it, with the goal being to paint a comprehensive picture utilizing the simple ingredients of words, photos and sound. Check it out.

For more information visit the HalTapes web site at: http://www.haltapes.com
CLICK HERE to purchase Now Not Then
The web site is a goldmine of information for Hal McGee history and projects but be sure and click the Walls Of Genius link at the top of the screen for the information and music packed tribute to WOG.

Reviewed by Jerry Kranitz