Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Cold Sun shines, April 15, 2009
I'm not sure it's even possible to do this album justice by describing it. If you haven't heard it, you'll think I'm exaggerating. If you have heard it, and really listened to it, you'll know I haven't even scratched the surface of it. However, I will do what I can here. Imagine a box in the closet of a musician. The box holds tapes not heard for many years. The musician in this case is Bill Miller, who played with Roky Erickson in the Aliens. Electric autoharp is the instrument he plays. The tapes in the box are from before the time Miller spent in the Aliens. Some have indicated that Bill Miller did not want the tapes to be heard. However, Mark Migliore of Rockadelic records heard about the Cold Sun, tracked the album down, and subsequently released it to the world. Out of the closet and into the minds of... several hundred people. The Rockadelic issue was excellent, but was limited, and became very valuable quite quickly, fetching several hundred dollars easily prior to this reissue. I was one of the fortunate ones: I was given a copy in 1994 as I was fortunate to know and work with the Rockadelic label. Other people I know also had this record, and we are all record collectors. We talk about psych records all the time. However, when the subject of the Cold Sun record ever came up, it was spoken of in a wholly different way. Listening to this album is like entering the temple of psychedelia. Many times I heard the record played for somebody who had not heard it before. Often they would freak out just a bit. It takes a while to realize what's going on with this record. I'm not sure I know yet! But, from listening, it becomes apparent that one of the elements is a reverence for the music of the 13th Floor Elevators. This element is deep and wide. But there is other stuff going on here. When you first put the record on, you hear these strange chords. Blocks of sound. Sounds like a guitar, but not like a guitar. That's the electric autoharp. Not a gimmick, oh no, but a new approach to rock music. There is a primitive element which comes through, and one might expect this to be the way the record is going to sound all the way through. Well, yes and no. Every song has its surprises. I hear now not just Elevators' influence, but maybe some Velvet Underground too. Vocally and musically, although this may be totally unintentional, a result of like minds on different paths. The music is intense, driven, mystical, enlightening, baffling and awe inspiring if you're into it. It's not everybody's cup of tea for sure. Speaking of tea, what is the flower referred to in the song Twisted Flower? Could it be left-handed cigs, jazz smokes, weed, reefer? Possibly. Maybe not. It's hard to tell. The record sure sound stony to me. This reissue has liner notes by Jello Biafra (!) which indicate that he thinks it's the best psychedelic album he knows of. Hey Jello, you may be right! It's sure way up there. Audiophile freaks might run scared from it though. Might fear for their speakers! This is not the product of a big studio in New York or LA. It does not sound like it was produced by George Martin. It sounds like it was recorded in the dark, in a cave, in a studio in the sky, in the far future or the very distant past. Like it was recorded on Mars, or a sub-oceanic echo chamber. This record wasn't made because somebody wanted to. It was made because it had to be. It had to BE! And it is! The musicianship is excellent. The drums and bass hold everything together. Excellent. The autoharp... it's great. The guitars are excellent too, alternately rocking and melodic. Sometimes clean, sometimes rather fuzzed out. Or is that just my brain? The vocals, the lyrics, I don't know what to say. The singing is serious. It's like an odd cross between Roky Erickson and Lou Reed. There is a tone of desperation which really makes some of these songs. The lyrics seem very mystical and intense. Existential, philosophical perhaps. But what do they say? I do not know. But I keep listening, and I think that little by little, it will come to me. And, when I think I've got a grip it will slip away and I will begin again. Now, it's available again from World In Sound with two added tracks. Good news to fans of psychedelic music, no doubt. The cd sounds great, mastered just fine. Bill Miller, wherever you may be, you did some amazing work here, with all of your cohorts. I hope that some day, you will go to that closet, open another box, and send the tapes to the mystical pressing plant in the sky... or get out your 'harp, call the guys and.....
|
|
|
|
~ Big Star
~ Golden Dawn
~ The Rationals
~ Porcupine Tree
by Cold Sun 
