Reviews:


Mike McLatchey 3-September-2002 Zeer Oude Klanken en Heel Nieuwe Geluiden

This private release from the Netherlands 1973 may have one of the strangest titles in progressive music with Zeer Oude Klanken en Heel Nieuwe Geluiden. This has "underground" written all over it, and what I mean by underground is that word psych collectors often use to denote an early rock album with muddy production and rambling music values. But this is a strange underground psych album by any measure. There is harmonica early on and then bagpipes get pulled out. These all work over this rambling, meandering guitar (apparently only 3 strings) work that seems to not have any rhythmic backing underneath it but whim. It's as if you walked into a bar late at night to see some unknown electric guitarist wailing away without any care in the world only to have various other musicians get up and join him on occasion for what seems like no particular reason at all. After being at the bar for a while, you realize with surprise (sorry, I'm not that easy) that the guitar player is also joined by vocals every so often, mumbling and crooning and wailing like Robert Plant after a 12 pack of beer. Just listening to this album is awe-inspiring, at the very least for the musicians' sheer audacity in actually releasing this thing. The question here is just exactly when did the acid start happening? My guess is about halfway through the album, which is about when the guitar player starts adding so many effects to his sound that it starts to become a wailing, rumbling wall of noise. So later on, after he's finished being Jimi Hendrix, the mood settles down to a violin and acoustic guitar duet that could have been a mellow jam from High Tide's early years. But before you know it the electric comes back, the delay and reverbs are cranked up to full and the weird, manic guitar rambling is back in full force. This is one you have to hear to believe. Perhaps a tribute to the potency of Amsterdam's hash bars? Only you can decide.



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