Sky Saxon,mindless opportunist or minimalist genius?.Saxon and his band The Seeds certainly were not shy of making the most of current trends in the mid to late sixties.Coming out of L.A. in ’65,they started life as a snotty garage band with a melodic debt to Buddy Holly and the obligatory r ‘n b of the early Stones.Somehow they managed to meld their influences into something very unique.An obvious lack of technical ability adds to their early records,with Jan Savage’s surf-cowboy guitar style rarely threatening to catch up with the drumming.They suprisingly scored a hit with the proto-punk classic “Pushin’ too hard” in ’66.After several near miss follow ups,Saxon was still convinced his talent could more than handle the now
burgeoning psychedelic scene.
The result was “Future”.At the time(’67) seemingly a misguided fuck-up on the scale of “Their Satanic majesties request”.A futile bandwagon jumping exercise devoid of inspiration​.Now with hindsight,“Future” (and “Satanic Majesties”) make the whimsy of “Sgt.Pepper” seem laughable.The Seeds took the psychedelic blueprint but removed the peace and love part.“March of the flower children” features Saxon chiding the hippies with a bullwhip and coming on like a boot camp drill sergeant.Underneath the summer of love trappings,they were still sneering punks,only with more exotic instrumentation.“Fallin’ ” has their usual neanderthal 2 chord riff but with a looped harpsichord pattern and Indian percussion.“Travel with your mind” goes one better,with just a single chord and a bargain bin sitar.The combination of roughness and ambition is what makes “Future” so special.There’s even a heartbreaking ballad,complete with strings,“Painted doll” that true to form seems to be more about fixation than any existing romance.
Although the band performed a track from the album in the exploitation film “Psych-out”(starring Jack Nicholson),their commercial peak was well behind them.The lp was received badly.Their career nosedived further to the point of no return.“Future” though easily surpasses their 1st two garage albums and a whole load of the production line mysticism of the time.Whatever Saxon’s aims at stardom,luckily(for the rest of us) he could only be himself.