As fate would have it, today is the release date of The Philistines‘ full-length debut. Out on The Record Machine, the nine-track The Backbone of Night finds the Kansas City six-piece careening around a wide swath of heavy psychedelia, garage, desert and other assorted rocks. It’s the kind of record you might put on and wonder where the hell the band comes from, at times nodding toward the more cohesive end of West Coast bliss-outs, but also offering more driving moments like “A Twitch of the Death Nerve” or delving into classic-style, cane-sugar-coated pop on “A Heart Like Candy” such that each time the listener thinks they have The Backbone of Night figured out, The Philistines — the lineup of Kimmie Queen (vocals), Cody Wyoming (guitar/vocals), Michelle Bacon (bass/vocals), Steve Gardels (drums), Rod Peal (guitar) and Josh Mobley (keys) — hang a louie and the context for the record as a whole expands once again.

The key distinction to make here is that between amorphousness and nebulousness. It’s not that The Philistines are flailing, like they don’t know where they want their material to go. Granted, they might let it wander, as on jammed-out eight-minute centerpiece “The Accretion Disco,” but they always seem to have a direction at the root for each track and the flow of the album in general, which between the fact that there are six people in the band and that they work with a variety of acoustic and electric guitars, keyboard textures, vocal arrangements and so on, makes The Backbone of Night an all the more impressive first outing.

One of two similarly extended cuts along with the hypnotic dream-echo wash of the earlier “Radiation Drive” — credit to The Philistines for not ending the album with either of them — “The Accretion Disco” is obviously a focal point, but that consideration shouldn’t come at the expense of the other stylistic leaps the band makes, whether it’s from the Western garage psych of “Steep” to the shuffling “1971,” which is the shortest cut here at a buzzing 2:31 propelled by tambourine shake and an upbeat hook as it rushes into the more laid back “Radiation Drive,” an acoustic guitar figure adding earthy substance to what’s otherwise an ethereal rhythmic and melodic push outward. Only a single track separates “Radiation Drive” and “The Accretion Disco,” and that’s “A Twitch of the Death Nerve,” an also-under-three-minute, guitar-led, (relatively) straightforward heavy rocker that sets up a back and forth from the interstellar as though the band wanted to remind their listeners that, yes, there was still somebody steering the ship.

It’s a difficult swap to make, but The Philistines do it simply by doing it, and the fuzz-rocking “A Twitch of the Death Nerve” maintains an effects-prone undercurrent behind the lead guitar sizzle, so when “The Accretion Disco” kicks in, it’s not by any means out of place. Backwards swirl and cymbal wash tap ’60s psych and Beatlesian harmonies only reinforce the vibe, peaceful, ready for meditation of one sort or another. The already-noted jam portion is acoustic-led and takes flight after three minutes in, joined by electric leads after a few minutes as the song subtly heads back to the chorus, fading out quiet into wind/static and an emergent line of foreboding synth, from which “Arecibo” bursts to life.

To go with the album’s most insistent rhythm, strummed out on forward-in-the-mix (on purpose) acoustic guitar, “Arecibo” makes its mark with gorgeous duet vocal croons, and that would seem to be the element that most ties it to “A Heart Like Candy,” which is so unabashedly poppy it almost feels like a faster version of something that would’ve appeared on Twin Peaks — so dripping with sweetness it borders on unsettling, like something from a musical. Enough so that I Googled the title to see if it was a cover, but no, The Philistines seem to have just buried this milkshake-at-the-pharmacy-counter-turned-reverb-tripout in the second half of their album between “Arecibo” and the subsequent “Stygia,” which one might be tempted to call brooding but for the doubled-timed hi-hat keeping a somewhat frenetic sense of motion to it.

A shift back to something more straightforward is in itself jarring, one has to sort of peek around the corner of the song to make sure there isn’t something lurking, but “Stygia” winds up as the first of a two-part bookend with closer “Get Inside,” which follows, answering back to the heavy garage style that “Steep” and “1971” proffered while, particularly in the case of the finale, maintaining a psychedelic thrust as well. That capstone symmetry reinforces the notion that The Philistines have had an idea of what they wanted to do all long throughout The Backbone of Night, and given the significant amount of ground they cover, that’s reassuring. At least partially as a result of that stylistic breadth, I wouldn’t dare to make a prediction where The Philistines might go from here, but it seems to me that they have a foundation of psych, garage and desert-style rock that they can shape as they please, and the control they demonstrate over that process in these tracks bodes remarkably well.

The Philistines website

The Philistines at The Record Machine

The Philistines on Thee Facebooks

A sense of drama is nothing new in Merlin‘s sound. It’s been there since their 2013 self-titled debut from which came the single Execution (review here) and it certainly took a step forward on 2014’s Christkiller LP (review here). Their theatrics have come to be a part of what defines them and sets them apart from some of the modern and classic influences they distill in their material, some of it frontman Jordan Knorr‘s mastery of the ceremonies at hand, but Electric Children meets him head-on with more patient songwriting and an expanded palette.

While cuts like opener “Bad Trip” (premiered here), the shuffling “Electric Children” and more aggressive “Night Creep” are in line with what Merlin have offered to-date, two interludes, “Interlude” (2:28) and “A Reprisal for Julia” (1:40), bring the keyboard work of guitarist/backing vocalist Carter Lewis more forward than it has been in the past, and the consciousness that drives the Goblin and John Carpenter-style cues those brief sojourns show, respectively, is an important progressive move. That’s not to take anything away from what Knorr, Lewis, bassist Joey Hamm (since replaced by Chase Thayer) and drummer Caleb Wyels are doing on the more straight-ahead material, just that they’ve grown enough as a band to make the decision to shift the context in which their material appears even more than the intro “Overture” did at the start of the last album. This, in combination with their four-part, 23-minute closer, “Tales of the Wasteland,” and the facts that they’re nodding at classic prog by subtitling Electric Children as “An Understanding by Merlin” and that it was recorded at least mostly live, and Merlin are making clear efforts to back their style with substance. Their third record offers plenty of both.

At eight tracks and 51 minutes, the 4one8 Records (vinyl may or may not be through Poisoned Mind Records) release is substantial but not entirely unmanageable, and Merlin demonstrate throughout a clearheaded presence through their immersive and atmospheric songs. For those who’ve encountered their darkened paths before, not much has changed about their root influences in bands like Uncle Acid, Pentagram and Floyd, but their own sonic personality continues to develop and it’s more of a factor here, whether that’s in the crisp efficiency of “Bad Trip” thudding to introduce the album while also providing its first hook, or “Tales of the Wasteland” stretching beyond traditional structures to purposefully wander in the space it’s created. Between those two, songs like “Will o’ the Wisp” and “Warbringer” indulge psychedelic impulses while “Night Creep” mirrors the thunder of the opener, tempos fluctuate fluidly and ambience remains consistent despite swaps of mood and intensity.

Part of that is down to the recording itself and the depth of the mix, credited to Bret Liber and Merlin, but spaciousness isn’t something Merlin were lacking before, even if they’ve brought it to new levels here. Their craftsmanship on cuts like “Bad Trip,” “Electric Children,” “Will o’ the Wisp,” “Night Creep” and “Warbringer” — which is each of the album’s chorus-minded tracks — isn’t to be understated, but the songs feed into a linear flow as well, deepening in the second half of the album post-“Interlude,” as “A Reprisal for Julia” and “Tales of the Wasteland” push Merlin beyond the point of willfully breaking the rules that they seem to have set for themselves before. That mindfulness is essential to understanding what Merlin are doing on Electric Children, as it’s a key element of their growth. Recording live, spacing out, all of this is directed toward a conscious push ahead of where they were on Christkiller, and the new ground they cover, stomp on, dwell in, etc., is malleable to whatever they want to make it.

It will be interesting to see/hear how they develop with Thayer on bass in place of Hamm, since low-end is a considerable factor throughout Electric Children in shoving the material ahead along with Wyels‘ drumming, but in these songs an essential dynamic in Merlin‘s sound is highlighted between Knorr and Lewis. Not just in the two coming together on vocals on “Bad Trip” or the early verses in “Tales of the Wasteland” before the languid instrumental roll takes full control of the proceedings, but in the sense of challenging each other that seems to play out across the Mind Control-esque “Will o’ the Wisp” and more raging solo and finale of “Night Creep” as well. I don’t want to leave the drummer and bassist out of that dynamic, as if to relegate the rhythm section to some corner, it’s just that vocals and guitar/keys take charge of the atmospheres throughout Electric Children, and Lewis and Knorr seem to be in direct musical conversation in a variety of actual sonic contexts, as on the title-track, which departs from its hook early in order to flesh out a psych jam that only recalls its chorus in its final instrumental moments.

Merlin, three albums in, have established a multifaceted approach to high-grade songwriting, and Electric Children — a recording process from which they’re already nearly 18 months removed — finds them at a crucial stage in their evolution. It’s worth noting that that’s a process I don’t think is over, and while Merlin have made clear and successful efforts to come into their own across this material, there’s still growing to be done and new ground to explore, be it in further incorporating elements of “A Reprisal for Julia” into songs like “Bad Trip” — which “Night Creep” does briefly at its start — or in playing with the balance between heavy psychedelia, heavy rock and doom that has brought them to this place. Perhaps most encouraging of all is that the band make it so plain they too realize this, and among the easiest things to read into Electric Children is a commitment on Merlin‘s part to keep pushing their limits. One hopes they do.

Merlin, Electric Children (2016)

Merlin on Thee Facebooks

Merlin on Bandcamp

4one8 Records

Poisoned Mind Records

St. Louis classic rocking four-piece The Judge have been picked up by Ripple Music, which will offer a vinyl pressing of their previously-digital-only 2015 self-titled debut and an impending follow-up as well. With the ubiquitous delays in pressing LPs, I wouldn’t expect the self-titled to surface until at least the summer if not the fall — unless it’s been secretly in the works for a while — and it might be 2017 before the second record gets out, but it’s good news one way or another for fans of natural vibes and ’70s-style heavy rock and roll with a decidedly American touch. Anyone who likes their funk grand, if you know what I’m saying.

Ripple announced the alliance with the image below, as has become their wont, and under that you can find a much-condensed version of The Judge‘s bio, as well as the self-titled audio:

Please welcome to the family. The Judge. Debut album on first vinyl pressing and new album to follow.

In 2006, guitarist Dylan Jarrett and drummer Evan Anderson formed a rock band in Granite City, IL. under the name “Unfallen” along with bass player and friend Zach Revelle. The band didn’t last but a month and had one practice and would soon depart. In September of 2008, Dylan Jarrett joined a newly forming Rock/Blues band with guitarist Andrew Pashea, cousin of Zack Revelle, and drummer Darren Williams. The band would call themselves “The Ripper”, named after the Judas Priest song.

Along side The Ripper, Jarrett and Anderson, who now called their two man group “The Judge”, had been writing some material in between early 2009 to mid 2010 and had recorded some promo videos and songs with home recording software. After the departure of The Ripper, Anderson and Jarrett sought out to get a drum set so they could reform their old band. That break came in late June of 2010 when Anderson got the drums and they were able to rehearse at Jarrett’s house throughout most of the summer.

With Jones in the band they had found the sound they were looking for. Jones’ bass and Anderson’s hard hitting drum playing accounted for the heaviness of the band along with Jarrett’s progressive style of guitar playing, similar Rush. Jarrett had brought his classic and psychedelic grooves into the playing, Jones was now making his bass fuller and more prominent, and Anderson was more accurate and creative with his drum fills and cymbal choices. Tyler Swope would join the band. His versatile voice, which could hit the highs of Robert Plant and the lows of Jim Morrison, would suit perfectly in the band’s style of rock.

After recording the demo, the band began to play more and more shows, getting their name out, and impressing a lot of people. Comparisons to Led Zeppelin to Black Sabbath to Deep Purple, everyone was loving the sound and vibe. It is here that the band stays.

Dylan Jarrett – Guitar
Evan Anderson – Drums
Kevin Jones – Bass
Tyler Swope – Vocals

https://www.facebook.com/thejudgeband/
https://thejudge.bandcamp.com/
http://www.ripple-music.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Ripple-Music-369610860064/

The Judge, The Judge (2015)

Laser-light doom rockers Merlin will release their new album, Electric Children, next month through 4one8 Records and Poisoned Mind Records. The former has made preorders available for the CD version now ahead of the March 11 release date, and in celebration, the Kansas City outfit have a new video for the song “Bad Trip.” It’s a track that was originally premiered here back in November, but the new clip takes us further into the band’s live methodology, finding the four-piece of vocalist Jordan Knorr, guitarist Carter Lewis, bassist Joey Hamm and drummer Caleb Wyels playing mostly in the dark with lighting effects surrounding. I’m pretty sure it’s a basement — at one point you can see a hot water heater — so it may well be their practice space, but they do well in setting the atmosphere either way.

That’s true of the song itself as well. “Bad Trip” is under three minutes long, but the grandiose vibe Merlin conjure is writ large throughout the track’s thudding first half and manic second. In an alternate universe, one might’ve seen the video late at night on Headbanger’s Ball with the lights off and been stoked out on the skeleton in the strobe-lit electric chair at the end, but even in the context of YouTube, the point gets across. “Bad Trip” is the opener of Electric Children, and after it the record unfolds with elements of psychedelic roll and classic doom, Merlin continuing to foster the progression that 2014’s sophomore outing, Christkiller (review here) made so plain.

More to come before the release of the album, but for now, if you’re not flash-sensitive, dig into “Bad Trip” below and enjoy:

Merlin, “Bad Trip” official video

Merlin – “Bad Trip” now available!

We are happy to inform you that MERLIN’s first video clip for the new album “Electric Children” is now available to watch, stream, share, tweet… as you see fit!

The new album is coming out on March 11 in the USA through MVD and in Canada on March 18 through Conveyor / Universal Music distribution.

Pre-sales are running now and will ship on or before March 5!

You can pre-order the CD right here: http://www.prcmusic.com/store/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=1406

Merlin on Thee Faceboks

Merlin at 4one8 Records

Poisoned Mind Records

Just a couple weeks ago, Kansas City doom rockers Merlin oversaw a Poisoned Mind Records vinyl release of their 2014 sophomore full-length, Christkiller (review here), and already they’re announcing the next chapter of their story in the form of Electric Children, a third album set to come out in March. To mark the occasion, the four-piece — who’ll play their final show with bassist Joey Hamm on Nov. 27 at Records with Merritt in KC — today unveil the new song “Bad Trip” in a YouTube stream as the first audio made public from the new outing.

While somewhat over the top aesthetically — did I mention the last LP was called Christ Killer? — Merlin have proved to-date to be entirely clearheaded in their songwriting and overall purpose. Like its predecessor, “Bad Trip” shows the band have a crisp approach to sonic heft, less prone to building walls of fuzz than to plodding out with Caleb Wyles‘ big, echoing drums. Vocalist Jordan Knorr remains a commanding presence up front, working in layers to set up the propulsive riffing of Carter Lewis (also synth and backing vocals), made even thicker by Hamm‘s rumbling bass. Even as it throws itself into a wash of noise and deconstructs at the end, Merlin seem to be in control of the swirl enough to finish with a couple clean hits, as if to acknowledge that, indeed, nothing prior was happenstance.

We’ve got a while to go before Electric Children arrives, but though it’s just under three minutes “Bad Trip” gives an intro to the album — figuratively and literally; it’s the opener — and puts it on the list of ones to look forward to in the New Year.

Basic info and cover art by Harley and J follow the track on the player below. Enjoy:

Merlin, “Bad Trip”

Merlin was forged with one purpose: To obliterate your mind with a witche’s brew of epic towering riffs, and 70’s era doom jams far too spacey to be of this planet. After being formed in the beer soaked, incense littered basement they call The Wizard’s Lair, Merlin vowed, no genre is safe from their Psychedelic Wall of Fuzzy Doom. Prepare yer minds, for your soul is already theirs…

Merlin – Electric Children
Release Date – 03/09/16
Recorded from October 2014 through July 2015 at Red Roof Productions
Mixed/Mastered – Bret Liber/ Merlin

Tracklisting:
1. Bad Trip
2. Electric Children
3. Will ‘o’ the Wisp
4. Interlude
5. Night Creep
6. War Bringer
7. A Reprisal for Julia
8. Tales of the Wasteland I-IV

Merlin is:
Jordan Knorr – Vocals
Carter Lewis – Guitar, Synth, Backing vocals
Caleb Wyels – Percussion
Joey Hamm – Bass

Merlin on Thee Facebooks

Merlin on Bandcamp

Poisoned Mind Records BigCartel store

Bulbous Creation, You Won’t Remember Dying (1970)

Put Bulbous Creation in the same league as Jerusalem, Suck, Weed, Fresh Blueberry Pancake, Orang-Utan and countless other righteous acts who came along in the heavy ’70s, released one or two albums and succumbed to the passage of time and never wound up going further than that. Based out of Kansas City, their debut LP, You Won’t Remember Dying, was issued either in 1969 or 1970 on private press, and was the only full-length the band — its lineup comprised of vocalist Paul Parkinson, guitarist Alan Lewis, bassist James Wine and drummer Churck Horstmann — would release in their time, though Wine and Lewis would continue with a different lineup as Creation afterward. Nonetheless, with Parkinson‘s charismatic frontman presence and underlying organ on “Fever Machine Man,” Bulbous Creation and You Won’t Remember Dying stand alone, singled out by a psychedelic blues weirdness and overarching languid stoner groove that serves them well across the record’s eight tracks. With Wine‘s bass as the anchor for much of the material, Lewis‘ guitar is free to roam through darker fuzz kept in motion through Horstmann‘s swinging drums, and an organic lo-fi style only adds to the enduring appeal.

They start off somewhat proggy on “End of the Page,” but by the time they get around to the wide-open jamming of “Let’s Go to the Sea,” they’re entrenched in heavy blues groove. Parkinson, who’d go on to perform as a singer-songwriter, isn’t over-the-top as a vocalist, but he gets his jibes in and he seems all the more in command of the songs for the restraint he shows. One might dig into the paired-off “Having a Good Time” and “Satan” and hear shades of Black Sabbath‘s “Hand of Doom,” but while Sabbath‘s self-titled debut seems an atmospheric touchstone for You Won’t Remember Dying, it’s worth remembering that Paranoid wouldn’t show up until Sept. 1970, and it’s more likely both groups were taking influence from Ten Years After, of whose “Sugar the Road” Bulbous Creation are covering with “Having a Good Time.” “Satan,” on the other hand, is an original worthy of the cult rock tag with which it would be saddled if it came out today, and seems to find a druggy companion in the slower buzzsaw shuffle of “Hooked” on side B, almost Alice Cooper-esque, though Billion Dollar Babies wouldn’t surface until 1973.

That doesn’t mean You Won’t Remember Dying is the secret touchstone of ’70s heavy by any means, but it’s a badass record front to back and soaked in a vibe that many who attempt to take on the tape-recorded spirit of its era would die to capture. I’m amazed no one has taken on the Zep-blues of “Stormy Monday” as a lost-classic of heavy jams, but so it goes. If they had three soundboard-quality bootlegs of live shows out there, Bulbous Creation would be legends.

Barring that, You Won’t Remember Dying has been reissued by Numero Group and is available as a vinyl/download as of this post. As noted, half of this band would continue on as Creation, but Lewis died of esophageal cancer in 1998 and Parkinson of leukemia in 2001, so Bulbous Creation will sadly remain a group who never had their day, even despite the album’s current availability.

Hope you enjoy.

—

I sent notice via the social medias — the Instagrammaphone, thee Facebooks — but all next week I’ll be doing the next Quarterly Review. If you don’t know what that means, no sweat, I won’t take it personally. It’s 50 reviews over the course of Monday to Friday, broken up into five installments of 10 reviews each day. It is a massive undertaking, but the last two (three really, if you count the end of last year) have been very satisfying for me both in the actual doing and on an existential level that there aren’t just 50 records I’m ignoring because I don’t have time to cover them, so it is very much a thing that’s happening. I’ve been getting album cover images and setting up posts the last couple days so I can get down to writing this weekend. It will be fun.

Also next week: On Monday, a track premiere from Brain Pyramid, who have a new album coming out through Vincebus Eruptum Recordings, and at some point an interview with Neil Fallon of Clutch that I’m hoping to get posted before their next tour starts. Fingers crossed.

Other than that, what, 50 frickin’ reviews isn’t enough for you?

Ha.

I’d like to note that today is my 11th wedding anniversary. The Patient Mrs. and I have been together for 18 years, more then half of our lives, and I am incredibly lucky and grateful that she even wants to have anything to do with me at all, let alone be married to my unprofitable, difficult-to-live-with, complains-all-the-time-and-does-nothing-to-better-his-existence, can’t-hold-a-note-but-won’t-stop-singing, doesn’t-do-nearly-as-much-laundry-as-he-used-to, consumes-way-too-much-garlic ass.

Before I go, I want to say thanks again to Doug Sherman, Darryl Shepard, Dave Jarvis and Mike Nashawaty for having me as a guest on Show Sucks on WEMF radio last weekend. If you missed it, you can listen here, and thanks if you do. It was a lot of fun to sit in with those guys and bum the room out with my opinions of local athletes and venues. I felt like a jerk later, and rightly so.

Thanks everyone for reading. I hope you have a great and safe weekend, and please check out the forum and the radio stream.

The Obelisk Forum

The Obelisk Radio

Italian imprint Heavy Psych Sounds continues to expand its already impressive roster with Cosmic Wheels, a revived project from brothers Paul and Vincent Marrone. Based on the West Coast, Paul Marrone is probably best known for drumming in the likes of Radio Moscow, Astra and Psicomagia. Vincent is based in Missouri, and plays bass and handles vocals and harmonica in the two-piece, while Paul does guitar, drums, vocals, organ and sitar. They released a demo circa 2007 that apparently made something of a splash on MySpace, and though most of it was instrumental, it closed out with the could’ve-been-classic “12 o’Clock Groove Street,” a pure molten late ’60s vibe that underscored the classic feel of the nine tracks preceding.

The questions about Cosmic Wheels‘ Cosmic Wheels on Heavy Psych Sounds is whether it’s those demos — which never officially saw release — those demos re-recorded (albums have been made from less) or completely new material, scrapping the demos altogether. If I knew, I’d tell you. I guess we’ll find out next month. Preorders start May 15, album’s out May 29.

To the PR wire:

HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS RECORDS is stoked to announce ***COSMIC WHEELS***

From Radio Moscow’s drummer Paul Marrone and his brother Vincent A Marrone a great record: 10 brand new awesome tracks for fans of Cream- Jimi Hendrix-Radio Moscow-Cactus-Blue Cheer-MC5-Buffalo Killers.

Released in 200 Ltd Orange Fluo Vinyl / Black Vinyl / Cd / Digital. Out May 29 / Pre Sale May 15.

–Cosmic Wheels is Paul and Vincent Marrone. From the ashes of their first band together – where they were known as The Moonshakers with the addition of their older brother Joe – came a new name and a new sound. Recorded in 2007, presented here – and available for download for the very first time – is a collection of rough and unfinished tracks from their Cosmic Wheels sessions.

Late ’60s to early ’70s is the name of the game here; riffs aplenty with a copious dose of heavy psych. That’s definitely not the whole story though, as the listener is treated to seasonings of jazzy goodness, as well as the odd helping of heavy blues-rock. There are clear nods to some of the brothers’ most cherished influences in there too. If six words is all one had to describe this album, they would be ‘Heavy Psych Rock Orgasmic Brain Burner’, simple as that!

With the project halted due to problems with the studio, these demo tracks remained for a long time confined to the realms of MySpace, at the time THE place for independent artists to showcase their work (but now sadly in decline). They were enjoyed by the few classic rock enthusiasts who happened to stumble upon their page or hear about them through word of mouth. The end of 2009 saw a glimmer of hope for fans when drummer Paul – who plays with heavy psych blues band Radio Moscow on and off and has an album out soon with his ’70s-inspired prog band Psicomagia – added the songs to the growing social music site last.fm, with talk of a possible finished product. However, that was never to be. Perhaps it will never be. Only time will tell.

If you dig these tracks, buy the album, spread the word and we may just hear more sweet sounds by these two incredibly talented brothers. (Sébastien Métens)

http://cosmicwheels1.bandcamp.com/
www.heavypsychsounds.com
https://www.facebook.com/HEAVYPSYCHSOUNDS

Cosmic Wheels, Cosmic Wheels Demo (2007)

The discography of Kansas City trio JPT Scare Band is not a particularly easy one to trace. Albums were recorded during their initial early-’70s run and then left to sit for decades, then there were compilations and other studio works after they got back together that only made it more difficult to put to a convenient timeline. Bottom line, however, is that their output is worth the effort of trying to make sense of it time-wise. Their latest outing, 2009’s Rumdum Daddy (review here), led to a signing with Ripple Music for the subsequent 2010 comp, Acid Blues is the White Man’s Burden (review here), but prior to that, the band had also issued records like Jamm Vapour, Past is Prologue and Sleeping Sickness (discussed here) on their own Kung Bomar imprint, leaving just their first two outings, Acid Acetate Excursion and Rape of the Titan’s Sirens, yet un-reissued.

Ripple is stepping in to rectify the situation, and will oversee the release of both records as a 2LP set in April. Below, the PR wire brings word of the new vinyl and does as admirable a job as I’ve seen of making JPT Scare Band‘s complex history — did I mention the members live in different states? — make sense to the layperson. And by “layperson,” I mean me.

Dig it:

Proto-Metal legends JPT Scare Band to release vinyl set via Ripple Music | Stream album track ‘It’s Too Late’

Banded together during the tumultuous years of the early 70s, JPT Scare Band fused a sound equally heavy in hard rocking blues as it was tripped out in psychedelia, creating a sound so imposing that it perfectly reflected the emotions of the era. Formed by guitarist/vocalist Terry Swope, drummer Jeff Littrell, and bassist Paul Grigsby, JPT Scare Band began recording songs in their Kansas City basement and soon compiled a vault full of reel-to-reel tapes that would make up much of the band’s catalogue.

Though the band formed in 1973, JPT Scare Band’s first album, Acid Acetate Excursion, wasn’t released until 1994, over twenty years after the band’s formation. Along with Acid Acetate Excursion, the band, in conjunction with Monster Records, released two more albums, 1998’s Rape Of Titan’s Sirens and 2000’s Sleeping Sickness. Both releases highlighted the bands heavy psych/proto-metal blues sound through the otherworldly and unheralded guitar work of Terry Swope, and each has become an underground cult classic.

The new millennium has seen JPT Scare Band delve deeper into their archive of recorded material, accumulated through massive jam sessions throughout the 70s, as well as the 90s, and a flood of product was soon released. Through the band’s self-realised label Kung Bomar, seven albums hit the streets including 2002’s brilliant Past Is Prologue, 2007’s stunning release of all new material with Jamm Vapour and most recently, 2009’s Rumdum Daddy.

In the waning months of 2009, JPT Scare Band merged their energies with rock label Ripple Music to release Acid Blues Is The White Man’s Burden, a collection of unreleased tracks, extended jams, and outstanding cover tunes that helped bridge the gaps in the JPT chronology and turn on a whole new generation on to their classic version of acid rock.

Despite being scattered across the US, JPT Scare Band has never stopped working and creating relevant music. JPT have the uncanny ability, an almost shared consciousness, to pick up right where they left off after being apart for fifteen years and hammer out a set of hard edged guitar driven rock that would have made Cream sound soft. JPT Scare Band will appeal to fans of Jimi Hendrix, Cream, and Black Sabbath.

This April, Ripple Music will release a very special LP set consisting of their first two, seminal releases – Acid Acetate Excursion and Rape Of The Titan’s Sirens – re-presented in full, with new gatefold album art that incorporates the images of the original two albums. Originally recorded in the 1970s, these albums have been out of print since the original Monster Records release in the early 90s and represent the full early history of the band that Classic Rock Magazine once hailed as one of the, “Lost pioneers of Proto-Metal.”

Acid Acetate Excursion and Rape Of The Titan’s Sirens will be released together via Ripple Music on 28th April 2015.

https://twitter.com/jptscareband
http://www.jptscareband.com/
http://www.ripple-music.com/
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ripple-Music/369610860064

JPT Scare Band, “It’s too Late”