Hash Jar Tempo - "Well Oiled" (Drunken Fish 1997, DFR-24)
Hash Jar Tempo - "Well Oiled"
(Drunken Fish 1997, DFR-24)
From Aural Innovations #7 (July 1999)
Scanning the used CD racks at a local campus establishment I couldn't help but have my attention drawn to a title called Hash Jar Tempo. Once I saw the cool cover of six people sitting seance style around a table I decided to grab it. On my first listen I was intrigued by the band's instrumental spacey psychedelia. Pretty much in the drone realm but the instruments are very clear making this a good head trip disc. LOTS of great guitar sounds (there may be up to three of them) much of which plays a role that synths usually do.
So I get on the internet to look for info on Hash Jar Tempo and find out that this is actually Bardo Pond! Which is very interesting because on most of the Bardo Pond music I've heard the instruments are not very clear. Just a big wall of drone noise that I can't seem to make heads or tails of. Therefore, I'm glad I knew nothing about this when I picked it up or I would have missed out on some tasty, if not mind blowing, instrumental psychedelia. Actually Hash Jar Tempo is a collaboration between the Bardos and New Zealand guitarist Roy Montgomery.
As I said, it's not a mind blower, but damn good relative to a lot of what comes out of the school of droning spacerock. There's a full 78 minutes of music here which is great, but as is so often the case they would have had a more solid release if they had cut out the stuff that's goes beyond the point of interest and kept the 45-50 minutes of stronger material.
For more information you can visit the Drunken Fish Records web site.
Reviewed by Jerry Kranitz