Well Oiled

Hash Jar Tempo | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 18, 2000)
• Original Release Date: March 18, 1997
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Drunken Fish Records
• ASIN: B000001QEH
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #152,291 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Recorded in a one day session, Well Oiled lives up to the Krautrock-inspired goof of the band name (think Ash Ra Tempel) without simply replicating the time. Instead, it very much is what is promised, a collaboration between Roy Montgomery and Bardo Pond that lives up to the experimental and exploratory heights both are easily capable of. All cuts are untitled, and given the improvisational nature of the disc, the feeling is that of just listening in on six fine players working together and seeing what can happen without prompting. Unlike the group's semi-namesake, Hash Jar Tempo doesn't punish and haunt so much as it does engagingly trip out, with the right head-nodding pace and echoing chimes that will attract both older stoners and younger shoegaze freaks. There are certainly some pretty intense moments, though -- the fourth track is one of the best, a subtly relentless freakout that feels like slow magma crushing everything before it, with some wild guitar work deep in the mix. Montgomery sometimes isn't as immediately apparent on the cuts, but at points he's clearly present -- if it isn't him doing the central guitar chime on the third track, it's definitely him with all the squalling noises deep in the mix around the core glazed flow. From there things build in slow intensity, never quite exploding at the end but with a constant sense that all the cascading feedback -- unaccompanied by any drumming -- will yet totally let loose. Another Montgomery standout is his majestic lead line that kicks things off on the fifth track, arcing up and down and up again with all the power and melancholy of his work on Temple IV. ~ Ned Raggett, All Music Guide

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Soooo soooothing, January 10, 2001

By 

Eric Schiller - See all my reviews

This review is from: Well Oiled (Audio CD)

This album is a beautiful collection of instrumental music from members of Bardo Pond and Roy Montgomery, who worked with Flying Saucer Attack. If ever you were looking for an album to fall asleep to, this is it, hands down. Not to give connotations dealing with the album being dull or boring, because it is not. It is just so soothing and easy to listen to. Give it a listen to on and/or off drugs and I'm sure you'll enjoy it thoroughly.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Someone Carved A Heavy, Dreamy Chunk Out Of This One, October 13, 2011

By 

kabalabonga - See all my reviews

This review is from: Well Oiled (Audio CD)

Sounding as if the barriers to horizontally aligned dimensional portals throughout this quadrant of the universe were opening to channel the wailing frequencies used as a higher order language by the ascended beings dwelling within the realms just behind the gateways , the heavily processed and infinite, echoing tone being channeled though the effects racks of each of the respective guitarists on "Well Oiled" `s seventh (and last) untitled track is just about the most opiated, hallucinogenic, and expansive droning that's ever been cranked out of Bardo Pond's amplifiers, but its fluidly dynamic tone is to me a definite hallmark signaling Roy Montgomery's participation in this project. Nothing but a sustained, explosive release for almost its entire duration, the cut is a perfect blend of the `Pond's searing, heavily narcotic riffs that sound like the aural equivalent of heavy particulates being levitated in rhythmic intervals and stretched out infinitely within a gigantic whirling funnel and Montgomery's sublime, vibrant, overlayered tonal shading. And did I mention that every track on Hash Jar Tempo's first release was the product of a one-day improvisational jam session?

Several other cuts are reflective of the unique chemistry between these masters of the heavy drone and that maestro of developing subtle changes within repetitive chord patterns, and not surprisingly, these are the ones that that exchange the most heavily-gauged tone for one that's more finely grained by dialing down the level of distortion to promote a cleaner sound that allows more wiggle room for exploration within the context of each track. "Number One", with its revolving, sinuous, purposefully meandering, slowly accreting ascent to an explosive crescendo from chiming intervals, stretches out for over thirteen minutes. "Number Five" is another cut that bears Montgomery's fluid stamp, lead guitar line sounding like an echoing carrier wave beamed out toward the deeper recesses of the universe and amplified upon its emergence from the wormhole through which it was conducted.

And even when the Brothers Gibbons take it back to the sap-heavy, murky, molassive, embedded-in-amber guitar tone, such as on "Number Four", Montgomery's harmonics keep it from becoming as dense and impenetrable as a black hole, pulling the listener back from the event horizon. He can also be heard widening the confines of the claustrophobic "Number Three", chiming intervals spacing out the creeping sense of menace created by the heavy granularity of the intermittent distortion.

As with most improvised tracks, there are times when one just needs to come to a conclusion rather than extending the same motif without refining it. "Well Oiled" doesn't entirely escape this pitfall; "Number Six" clearly exhausts its possibilities well before the 18+ minute mark that is its terminal point. But overall this is phenomenal release, and it's been in heavy rotation within my dashboard or home CD player since 1997. I can't recommend it enough.