Satanic Hippies, Psychedelic Germans & Electronic Moroccans
Flipping through some very influential – to my musical upbringing – rock tomes (Richie Unterberger‘s Unknown Legends of Rock ‘n’ Roll, The Secret History of Rock by Roni Sarig and Turn on Your Mind by Jim DeRogatis – as well as Michael Moynihan and Didrik Soderlind‘s Lords of Chaos) inspired me to finally pick up some music that I’d been meaning to hear for quite a while (over ten years in some cases).
Can – Ege Bamyasi (Mute)
I’ve long been a huge fan of Malcolm Mooney-era Can, to the point where I didn’t want to hear another singer. While I still don’t care much for Damo Suzuki‘s vocals, especially in comparison to Mooney’s, this album comes closest to that trippy psychedelic groove on Monster Movie and Delay 1968. It kinda reminds me of Alain Goraguer‘s soundtrack to Fantastic Planet.
Coven – Witchcraft (Destroys Minds and Reaps Souls) (Mercury)
This album’s a real curiosity. When it was released in 1969, it was probably one of the first overtly Satanic-themed albums to be released in the “mainstream” rock world. Needless to say, it’s pretty much forgotten. Despite the Satan shtick, though, the music is actually quite good, recalling the more far-out parts of Jefferson Airplane‘s After Bathing at Baxter’s and Crown of Creation with some shades of early Curved Air. Unfortunately, the two albums after this were just plain horrible, sounding like bad Carly Simon.
Ash Ra Tempel – Ash Ra Tempel (Spalax)
My dad raised me on The Beatles and Led Zeppelin, but also on a lot of German electronic music from the ’70s, like Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze. I remembered that Schulze came out of this band, so I decided to check them out. WOW!!! It’s Acid Mother’s Temple in 1971, only better!
Tangerine Dream – Electronic Meditation (Castle/Old Numbers)
Before they were known for pulsing electronica, Edgar Froese and company were a psychedelic freakout band, much in the vein of Ash Ra Tempel or Organisation (pre-Kraftwerk). This is some truly head-y music, almost free jazz played with rock instruments. Klaus Schulze drummed on this album before joining Ash Ra Tempel and then finally embarking on his brilliant solo career.
Can – Tago Mago (Mute)
Heresy, I know, but I actually think this album is highly overrated. It has some great moments, like the first three songs and the last track, but then it gets a bit tedious, with “Halleluhwah,” an 18+ minute track that proves that Damo Suzuki ain’t no Malcom Mooney. Then the following noise/musique concrete are just plain tedious – and I like noise.
Black Widow – Sacrifice (Repertoire)
In 1970, when psychedelia was morphing into prog rock, this English band came forth with overtly Satanic imagery and, like Coven, were banished to obscurity. It’s a real shame because this is another forgotten gem, kinda Manfred Mann Chapter III combined with early Genesis. Certainly beats the hell out of Yes.
Aisha Kandisha’s Jarring Effects – El Buya (Barraka El Farnatshi)
This is a truly unique blend of traditional Moroccan music, hip-hop and electronic music, like a modernized version of The Master Musicians of Jajouka. Very Burroughs.
Anton LaVey – The Satanic Mass (Adversary)
Okay, LaVey wasn’t exactly a hippy (he was known to extremely dislike rock’n‘roll) but his establishment of the Church of Satan in San Francisco in 1966 marked his place as a counterculture icon. After a 20-minute recording of one of his masses, he reads from his Satanic Bible accompanied by dramatic classical music. Makes me giggle.
Klaus Schulze – Irrilicht (Inside Out)
Schulze’s first solo album isn’t the pulsing, sequenced music that he had firmly established by the time he recorded Body Love. Rather it’s a droning minimalist electronic composition. It’s certainly not bad, but it’s something I really have to be in the mood for.
Can – Future Days (Mute)
Damo Suzuki’s final album with Can probably should have been the final Can album. To me, the band sounds tired here – “Moonshake” sounds like The Rolling Stones in their mediocre late ’70s period. I guess that initial creative spark finally died out.
