quicksilver messenger service/dino valente

...here's what's needed, some solid evidence that these cats were pretty near the pinnacle of their version of powerful acid jams right from the near start of their recording jaunt...the freak guitars twang and weave their way around the tunes and pack one hep and decidedly heavy, heavy punch that don't get lost in any unnecessary choogle...here cats with an enquiring mind can also be in the studio digging what this masterful galaxy blasting acid duelling combo were putting down in late time 1967...they got a disk deal off the back of being at the monterey fest earlier in the year and this was the big chance to make a solid mind frying start with the first LP and they didn't disappoint...these tapes are four decades into their existance and show the signs of age with a rough and ready presence but the sound is full and upfront and sure outweighs the occasional defect...after a few listens it becomes trippy and brings an unexpected vibe to the preceedings...

...cats who dig the early free(k)form R&B daze, like up to around the time shady grove hit the racks are going to flip their lid with this double boot and that ain't no mistake...this was most definitly the period that counts when it comes to this combo for although it must be said dinos version was a real different proposition, an excellent thing in their own right, but not to be confused with the ballroom QMS...this here is one hotcha big groove from start to finish (albeit a rough and ready listen in a couple of places)...of top historical import with the first disc kicking off with a radio ad for a gig at the avalon followed up with said show (9/66), well nice...disc one sees the quicks building up their chops and the second is one long journey through the singular sound that by '68 was patently their own...more top evidence of a great aggregation who mangled beer joint blues into chemical alchemy producing ballroom tribal-psych...does not disapppoint one iota and a chipper addition to their canon...

...the trick is with getting on the cozy side with the dino QMS slabs is just that, you have got to think of them as solo dino platters...this might be a bit hard for dedicated west coast heads but it's the only way to deal with the whole shebang... he was there at the beginning after all and if he didn't have an appointment booked at one of the great societies rest homes the whole QMS story would have been a different kettle of cherries anyhows... these first two become really tasty platters when all acid ballroom damage baggage is ejected and checked out in their own space...heads that once did give them needle time found 'just for love' the favourite but 'what about me' may come off better with the passing of time... it's a nice folky jazzbo funky hippy rock effort that stands on its own merits... both need to be played loud to get the benefit of these island treats......with the 'quicksilver' slab there was more of what dino liked best in the way of sound and that was himself...yep, more hippy rural rock type grooves and a few possible loner stoner touches, but this is undoubtably a dino messenger service biscuit...'coming thru' appeared in 72 and by the looks of things the other cats were getting a look in as regards the writing dept as dino was working as a co-operative cat for a change, though probably just had other things to attend to...no matter as this one was starting to fire on a few more cylinders and the old back burners were getting going, some funky rocking was happening, but in the end it was too late, the quicks had lost the message and that was that, never to get really back into gear, times and sound had changed forever......to round things out nice and easy there's the cat himself back in 1968, just out of hock and on the block managing to score a major rec. co. deal and put out this pondering loner stoner epic...once heard never forgotten this is a mighty piece of wax which divided a lot of west coast heads back in the day as a lot cats weren't ready for this sort of dragged out intencity...its the real deal and comes with extra width for cats who just can't get enough...

1 comment:

  1. there's certainly a group of widely scattered songs that i think were written by dino valente that i like a lot : something's on your mind-kathy dalton,what about me, get together,me and my uncle,time.i remember finding his website very interesting

    ReplyDelete