#rick brown

I Was Real by 75 Dollar Bill

75 Dollar Bill’s potent blend of juke-joint boogie, Sahel shredding, stern NYC minimalism, and experimental wonkery reached an apotheosis on Wood/Metal/Plastic/Pattern/Rhythm/Rock, four slabs of art-school party jams that were as groovy, jagged, heavy, hard, soft, abrasive, smooth, austere and warm as sandstone. Their new LP, the sprawling I Was Real, doesn’t add anything to the sound they perfected on W/M/P/P/R/R. Rather, I Was Real deconstructs, re-examines and re-assembles it. It’s a career summary, victory lap and puzzle box from of one of America’s most interesting bands. 

I Was Real’s biggest surprises are formal and structural, not sonic. Nearly every prior permutation of 75 Dollar Bill, from guitar/percussion duo to septet appears on I Was Real, and their studio-as-instrument experiments have become more refined. Captivating opener “Every Last Coffee or Tea,” (a wonderful full band re-recording of a track from their first cassette) segues into “C. OR. T.- Verso,” three minutes of scraping noise constructed from the “Every Last Coffee or Tea” intro. Another one: the suite of “I. New New II. The Worm III. Like Laundry,” where a slinky guitar/double bass number is swallowed up in its prime by a taut drone whose tonal center shifts imperceptibly over the course of four minutes before fading into the moody guitar/percussion duet “Like Laundry” (not to be confused with “Like Like Laundry,” another early piece). Best of these experiments is “WZN#3-Verso,” which consists of roiling, rumbling viola, violin, Casio, guitar, saxophone and bass recorded as overdubs for the closing track, “WZN#3” (another re-recording), but left to fend for themselves.

FERDINAND [RICHARD]

"En avant"

(LP. RecRec Music. 1983) [FR]

Gracias a que a principios de los ochenta la discográfica catalana Edigsa distribuía en nuestro país sellos independientes británicos como Factory o Cherry Red, tuvimos la gran suerte de poder disfrutar sin problemas de ediciones tan imprescindibles como el álbum “Before The Dream Faded” de The Misunderstood, publicado en 1983, tan sólo un año después de su salida oficial UK.

El disco de esta banda USA afincada a principios de 1966 en Londres a instancias del DJ y fan John Peel, precediendo así a The Jimi Hendrix Experience, es una auténtica burraada entre el rock psicodélico y el blues hipnótico de poderío singular. Enganchaban las célebres rave-ups de los  Yardbirds y las llevaban más allá, también sus motivos orientales. Una de esas bandas que de verdad (de verdad) merecieron mucho más sin conseguirlo.

A finales de año lanzaron la magnífica “I Can Take You to the Sun” en el sello Fontana. Todo pintaba de maravilla, pero su cantante Rick Brown fue llamado a filas por el ejército USA para luchar en Vietnam y se truncó la prometedora carrera de esos Misunderstood, que aún vieron publicada su portentosa  “Children Of The Sun” en 1969.