All praise the bargain bin ! If you read the least installment, how i’m one of those people who caint stop buying rekkids, despite no time to listen to’em properly? At least not enough to do em justice? I mean i found yesterday, under a pile of comix and socks and so on and so forth a copy of old Beefy’s ‘Strictly Personal’ and a Satie Lp that i’d plumb forgotten i’d bought, and bought them i had cos they were strictly cheap, and as the Mummies would say ‘Cos Cd’s are shite, man’ (an opinion i’ve had to re-evaluate cos there’s so much out there ‘n’ better stuff that dont turn up on LP, except for MUCHO ££££££££)…SO today wake up for the first time this week feeling nearly back to my old self after that fun but disastrous in recovery terms trip with almost a mantra in my mind ‘BE content, DONT spend MONEY, RECORDS you have plenty enough’ etc etc…and spent a cosey morning trolling round town, visiting the museum seeing life size Rechko people sculptures, sitting in the Pav gardens and eating bagels and gherkins when the obvious happened..suddenly found myself confronting 2 boxes of reduced price new rekkids outside Brighton’s best shop for 60’s & 70’s wierdness & Jazz.…An’ the left hand flicks out Hand of Orlac like, no control of it at all, and the right follows and the next thing you know dem hands dem hands dem sweaty palmed hands are fluttering thru obscure bands LPS i’ve only maybe vaguely hard of as my feet try to drag my body and away down the street but it just aint got the strength and as it gives up the hands rest upon this:
YA HO WA 13’s “PENETRATION-An Aquarian Symphony” a near nil detail on the front cover obviously chew on yr beard and freak out LP. What stop the hands and arrests the eye though is the band’s name written in BULLETS like all those no-hoper and no no-where 80’s metal bands and the imposing photo of this most mad and guru looking MOONDOG like figure on the front intoning asides to an old phallic mike as he wallops a timpani drum. On the back cover 4 hard heads brood over guitar, bass, drums & ‘sound’. Now with names like Djin (git), Sunflower (bass), Octavius (drums) and Zinuru (on that ‘sound’) this seems so hippy it almost screams, or rather chants BEWARE! In fact the whole think (no dates nowhere) almost looks a spoof, a joke , a pre-Spinal Tap to point and laugh at the unaware.
I HAVE to buy it, natch…And Stephen King (not the Garth Merengi type chap) is passing by and see’s sweaty mitts and LP going into shop and gives big kudos and thumbs up, and HE knows his onions, so cash changes hands and here IT sits like a beast in the wilderness and one now attempts to describe it to ye…(thank yr chosen deity it comes with good sleeve notes inside).
Now i mentioned mantras earlier, and obviously mine didn’t work cos the items’ here in the house and oddly enough it’s a mantra in itself the mantra of YAHOWA which i guess comes poss. from YAHWEH the old name for God…FATHER YOD is the guru on the cover he of the Brotherhood of the Source Family a resturant running ex WWII guy whose method of saying things are about to change ’round here, so get ready little kitties was to use use music as his new magic wand where before his idea to PENETRATE humanity was thru yoga, thru the belly with food and the Source Restaurant Family. A believer in the 7 Hermetic principles of truth: that the nature of the universe is MENTAL and that EVERYTHING VIBRATES and the energy of the recording is a PENETRATION(mongst others).YOD and co. proceed in their enlightend plan with some marvellously relaxed yet instense grooves. As (1) YOD HE VAV HE spirals in with Yod’s old man o’ the hills minimal chant, and then DJIN’s circular guitar riff which should sound so cliched but motherfuckin’ DONT…It’s all vague for a minute and what for a pulsebeat they may call newage but Djin is an inspired and free player, y can tell by the back cover and the hairs on his chinny-chin-chin and as his main riff kicks in YOD cants and cans and chews on his beard and the band ‚all of them start a loose but together groove that just shows what hours of spontenous jamming can do to a body. A catchy riff, a sudden stop and away into a sitar type space and as yr getting saddled back in yr stoner armchair YOD breaks in on TIMPANI…BOM BOM BOM BOM.…like slaves governed by beats and pulling oars towards an unseen horizon this song truly kicks off with a hypnotic ‘pull-pull’ beat as Djin excels over all his contempories and wihtout seeming to know or care…he’s thatmuch into his thing… ‘HO’.…more YOD timpani , more slave barge of the mind set free upon wild waves and shores as chinese gong sez ‘ride brothers for y freedom, cos the other in charge fuckers are left way behind.…Octavius circles round his skins as the larger and larger gong gets RESONANCE and Djin expresses some very minimal and quiet THEN loud geetar , i swear he’s one of the ‘rough n ready’ lost 6‑string genui.….…..a slow but short meditative beat from ‘Oct takes us out . Side 2…þÿ$ ‘Journey Thru an Elemental – Wee hand bells tinkle at the edge of the disc…and all seems so quiet for some time.….mebbe a vague whale talk on the periphery as , to carry on boat metaphors Djin’s geetar creaks up like the worn and musical boards on a MARIE CELESTE type ship and GONGS let you know it’s CREEPY time and THINKY time…BASS in and spooked out violin effects with the same presence as German Oak for a few beats then out…In fact the whole thing has a kraut OAK feel to a degree, but w/out the taint of opp,ression & death.…this LP rises, a phoenix to use cliches. A Phoenix damn rising as HUGE proto-metal chords say “BEER” (meaning one who is self existent – a Be-Er)
Seen KILL BILL? Remember Daryl Hannah all medical white ans eye-patched with kill-death-kill syringe in hand as she stalks hospital corridors to that Haunting whistling sound track? Well now we got the harmonic, gentle and at harmony YAHOWA version.…no unrest here, just the bond an unknown but yet KNOWN melody creates between us straying folks..where are we, where we bin, what do we know and WHO the hell are you? For a short while YOD’s whistle holds you in a wee mystical half way houseof mind and body whilst Djin and Sunflower again slowly crank up to Penetrate the parts most other gurus cannot reach.
Hmmm..anyway Im a leaving it here, short-ish..Computer problems a go-go, and gibberish characters popping up…Im never buying anyhthing with a plug again, cept a guitar lead.……Still, a rather special and great LP…ther’es a 5 points on ‘Penetration’ from Father Yod’s magic book (ie a Dictionary) on the meanings of the word, that’s where those bullets come in.….But this is one LP that certainly resonates,veritably crackles and hums with growing power in a very ‘kraut’ way for a non-germanic LP (of course we all know what a misnomer ‘krautrock’ is a musical term, one band being hardly like another aurally, but there is a vibration there if we wait) and certainly, near damn mystically PENETRATES!
Anyway, wish me luck, I’m off to join the Morris Men.