Atila: El Principio Del Fin (1975)

Blind buys are always a crapshoot, and any criteria you use to make a judgement on a band or album will always only take you so far. Case in point: I read about the debut album from Spain’s Atila on the LaserCD website, and admit I was taken in by lines like “Originally released in 1975 by the obscure New Promotion label in an alleged tiny pressing of 100 copies the album has reached “monster” status among die-hard collectors worldwide, sometimes reaching the 1500€ tag.” So the idea of grabbing El Principio Del Fin (or The Beginning Of The End) in a remastered reissue with liner notes and a bonus CD of an alternate cut of the album sounded great. And…it’s fine? Also I could have just grabbed the digital version on Bandcamp for about $10? Oh well, it still sounds pretty good.

ChrisAugust 25, 2025Leave a comment

Vinyl

Haystacks Balboa: Haystacks Balboa (1970)

Another band lost to the either of the early 70s rock and prog brigade, Haystacks Balboa formed up in Forest Hills, Queens and hit the circuit hard, opening for the likes of Jethro Tull, Faces, Savoy Brown and Mungo Jerry. Their one and only album was produced by Shadow Morton, which is pretty much the extent of their listing on Wikipedia (under Shadow Morton, no less). What makes one band rise to the top, and another fall to obscurity? Listening to Haystacks Balboa again, I have ideas but no firm answers. There’s some real gold on the debut, but there are also the claw marks of inexperience, though not enough to turn me off to the band’s many charms.

ChrisJuly 22, 2025July 22, 2025Leave a comment

Vinyl

The Damnation of Adam Blessing (1969)

Sometimes there is no explanation for why one band rockets into stardom and one band just…simmers. Certainly listening to the self-titled debut from The Damnation of Adam Blessing (or Damnation, if you’re streaming services) you’d be hard pressed to find any fault: killer lead vocals, solid grooving rhythm section and plenty of fun guitar work shaped around covers and originals. Is it just case of so much music exploding at the time for every one big band grabbing the spotlight a dozen others get lost in the dark? are lost in the shuffle? I don’t know, and while I admit to getting blinded by terms like “underground” or “cult” when it comes to the rock of the late 60s and early 70s there’s a lot in The Damnation of Adam Blessing that convinces me these guys were huge in another reality.

ChrisMay 5, 2025May 5, 2025Leave a comment

CD, Vinyl

Les Rallizes Dénudés: YaneUra Oct/Sep ’80 (2024, 2025)

Lovely as Les Rallizes Dénudés are, I have been sick as a dog since Monday night, and their particular sonic onslaught is now doing nothing for my aching an pounding head, so we’re going to wrap up Live Month today with a brief double-header. It’s one that makes sense, though: two blasting shows at the Yaneura live house in Shibuya, Tokyo. And because we established that linear time has little meaning to a band so unstuck in its tick-tock mechanisms, we’re going in order of release but in reverse chronological order, starting with YaneUra Oct. ’80 and then moving back to YaneUra Sep. ’80. Let’s do this so I can give my clogged and pressurized ears a break…

ChrisApril 24, 2025April 24, 2025Leave a comment

Les Rallizes Dénudés: Baus ’93 (2023)

As the concept of linear time has little meaning to Les Rallizes Dénudés, so shall it go with us. From 1977 to their speaker-blowing return in 1993 back a few days to a more tentative, but no less powerful reintroduction, Baus ’93 showcases Mizutani and company at that first post-hiatus show, four days before the explosive set covered on CITTA’ ’93. In all it’s a picture of a band finding their footing in real time, ironing out the kinks and wrinkles of five years away from the stage in a way that sounds cohesive and natural. If it’s not the singular experience the previous two releases are, it’s still filled all the feedback and cosmic soloing you’d expect from the band.

ChrisApril 23, 2025April 23, 2025Leave a comment

Vinyl

Les Rallizes Dénudés: CITTA’ ’93 (2023)

After sporadic live shows throughout the late 70s and early 80s, Les Rallizes Dénudés took a hiatus, not returning to the stage until 1993. Fast foreword another 30 years and the band’s former bassist Makoto Kubota, working with the blessing of the Mizutani estate and Temporal Drift, have done an astounding job cleaning up and releasing CITTA’ ’93, a near mythological performance taking place four days after their “comeback” gig. Sourced from a magnetic ADAT tape (supposedly Mizutani didn’t even know the show was being recording at the time) it’s an amazing document not only for its high fidelity – this might be the clearest the band have ever sounded – but for some truly inspired playing, morphing now decades old tunes into new forms.

ChrisApril 22, 2025April 22, 20252 Comments

Consuming the Tangible

We are what we consume

Tag: psychedelic rock

Atila: El Principio Del Fin (1975)

Haystacks Balboa: Haystacks Balboa (1970)

The Damnation of Adam Blessing (1969)

Les Rallizes Dénudés: YaneUra Oct/Sep ’80 (2024, 2025)

Les Rallizes Dénudés: Baus ’93 (2023)

Les Rallizes Dénudés: CITTA’ ’93 (2023)