Customer Reviews

Need for Not

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The "Shame It's Out-of-Print" File grows. Founded in 1990 by former House of Love guitarist Terry Bickers, Levitation only lasted four years before first Bickers left and then the band broke up. Bickers may be a total whack-job (stories of his idiosyncracies abound), but there's no denying that he and Levitation carved out a unique sound in their brief career.

There's really no one with whom Levitation can be compared. It's rock, certainly, and fairly heavy rock at that. Bickers liked to call them progressive, but that tends to evoke images of Genesis and Rush and Yes and Pink Floyd in most people's minds. Levitation sounded nothing like those bands, nor did they particularly resemble modern proggers like Dream Theater. There was something more cut-loose about Levitation, less tied to song structure. Every time you thought one of their songs was going to cozy up to a melody, all hell would break loose in a psychedelic swirl of spazzing guitars and frantic drumming. It would've been an annoying mess if there hadn't been underlying genuis at work. As it was, the talent showed through and there was more method than madness (though there was more than enough of the latter).

I'm probably failing to communicate why you should make the effort to find this album (and their other full-length release "Coterie," which is more of a hodge-podge but still great). Perhaps that's a testament to Levitation's singularity. Perhaps they represented what Porcupine Tree would sound like if Steven Wilson was very angry and did enough acid. Hard to say. One thing that's easy to say is that "Need For Not" is an unpolished and undiscovered gem. Levitation came, they saw, they conquered themselves. They did leave behind a trail of wonderful debris, though.

Oh, how I love this album! I bought it on complete impulse, mainly based on the awesomeness of its whacked-out album cover. However, I quickly realised that there's an awful lot more to Levitation than mindbending collage. The band was fatefully and unfortunately shortlived - they had some pretty weighty aspirations, according to what I've read, but never came through on them. Regardless, Need For Not should logically make a mark in the history of psychedelic/progressive rock. "Arcs of Light and Dew" is a beautiful gem of shifting sounds and lovely lyrics. "Smile" is a magically powerful rock song, both visceral and vivid. "Embedded" and "Coterie" shimmer with pseudo-shoegaze flourish. Sadly, the production values aren't quite on par with what this band/album required, and that's really my only complaint! Highly recommended to anyone who appreciates intelligent music.

Stunning psychedelic guitar with EXTREMELY heavy guitar, hippy ambience, heavy riffs beautiful walls of sound. I CANNOT RECOMMEND LEVITATION ENOUGH! Buy 'Coterie' as well cos they both are vital to show how good they were, how varied.....oh ill shut up now just BUY it!

I remember getting this at the college radio station. Simply put one of the most dynamic and complex recordings I have ever heard. Every track from beginning to the incredible end builds twists and hynotizes. This band should have been taking off when the Stone Roses hit. If you like Pink Floyd, The Stone Roses or other hynotic, yet driving psychadelic rock check this out for a paltry $. ...PS the internal cover art is neato too!

When I first heard this album, the last three songs instantly stood out for me. I proceeded to listen to only those songs for from there after. "Embedded" and "Coterie" are very atmospheric rock - something roughly akin to the Cocteau Twins with subdued male vocals. "Embedded" is meandering and dreamy, perfectly capturing the feeling of "forever" in the chorus with an evolutionary trance-guitar passage. "Smile" is basically a powerful rock song that takes off and really soars. But lately I've revisited the rest of the songs and, while they tend to be more straight-forward alternative rock, found them worth checking out. If you like "Shoegazer" (excuse the dreaded term) you'll definately dig the last three.

Wot can i say that i havent written in review for the import......nothing except the import has an xtra track...

Terry Vickers left The House of Love after its earliest and best albums, taking his chiming guitar sound and evidently his ability to create textured depth on record with him into Levitation, which issued this album and an e.p., Coterie, whose title track ends the US version of this l.p. from 1992. Certainly fans of HoL will want this spin-off album, and others who favor more introspective, slightly psychedelic influences mixed into guitar-based "indie" rock would like this. It does not leap out at you; a more meditative, if insistent, aura permeates these tracks.

It holds up respectably for most of the tracks, although his voice lacks any resonance, merely filling in space behind music that does not differ much from his previous band. What works best are tracks 5-6-7. Here, the sound thickens as Vickers explores hints of Middle Eastern modalities that enrich these meandering, jangling songs greatly. While the album itself is uneven--too many songs sound too similar--these three songs at its core make this a record that fans of Britpop's gloomier early 90s/late 80s post-Smiths atmospheric, drifting melodies will enjoy.