Lettuce Prey - "Blood From A Stoner Witch"
(Best Kept Secret 1999, LIE 012, Cassette)

From Aural Innovations #11 (July 2000)

Lettuce Prey is a solo effort but it doesn't say who the musician is. These are mostly acoustic guitar songs with the occasional synth embellishment. Some of the songs like "Kamloops" and "6x6x6 Feet" have a 60's San Francisco folk-psych feel. "Canyon Sunrise" has a more melancholy Nick Drake sound. "Mammoth Steppe" and "Planet Of The 8's" reminded me of those old acoustic solo tunes Jorma Kaukonan did with Jefferson Airplane.

Two of my favorite tracks on the cassette are "Much Bigger Than Me" and "Taxonomy". "Much Bigger Than Me" is a simple, but very pleasant acoustic guitar solo piece with floating vocals introduced later. It may be just acoustic guitar and vocals (some brief synth bits too) but the song has a very full sound. I can tell a band version would be very powerful. Likewise, "Taxonomy" is just an acoustic vocal tune but Lettuce Prey manage to give it a very full sound. "Born To" is another 60's folky tune that's get freakily aggressive and embellished by brief weird synth sounds. And finally, "Mind Garden" is a cover of a David Crosby song I don't know, but enjoyed the wild efx Lettuce Prey utilized. An interesting collection of homemade songs. Be careful to look past the lo-fi nature of the recording or you'll miss some really well written songs.

Lettuce Prey's cassette is distributed by Best Kept Secret, a cassette-only label in Italy that focuses on homemade musicians. For more information you can visit the Best Kept Secret web site.
Contact via snail mail c/o Alessandro Crestani, Via Biron di Sotto, 101 36100 Vincenza, Italy
You can email Lettuce Prey at elevlev@mail.montana.com.

Reviewed by Jerry Kranitz