spirit

...one of the greatest ever combos from the hippy trippy 1960's and certainly up there and way above the LA combos from that time...tripping acid rock with jazz moves though this ain't no poppy fusion jive...these cats invented a sound that was certainly their own...light of touch but not airy-fairy, this stuff goes straight to innerspace and meanders and bubbles until it fades away and by that time its ready to be spun again...4 decades down the long strange trip of underground sound this waxing is still revealing layers of goodness and thats a rare and wonderful thing not to be taken lightly...

...recorded during the summer of the year of the barricades this second waxing probably ain't quite as chipper as deal#1 but then again it was still head and shoulders above the competition with its singular take on acid rock played by jazzbos/surfers/pyschedelic teens...its the melding of these different ideas into a fresh new whole that allows this combo to stand alone today as one of the premier aggregations of those lost hazey-fazy-daze...still a super platter with no whacka-doodle tracks to bring a cat down...gradeAgrist...

...third wax (forth if the sountrack from the model shop flick is included though that weren't released at the time) from this top left coast combo and this got a few cats uptight back in the day as it didn't seem up to snuff...what it was looking back is the tunes ain't quite as catchy on the first go round so a little perseverance is in order and all will become clear...still an excellent biscuit today and also back in '69 if the competitions anything to go by...added to the outer reaches of this coaster is four extra tracks one of which is the '1984' single which was banned from the radio in the land of the free due to its subversive nature - wooo-boy, the all mighty power structure scared of hippie jazzbos writing a song...

...with this waxing came the last of the original quintet disks and it appeared fully formed and just as chipper as when they began...listening through it can only be stated theres still a certain world weariness in the lyrics and an urge to be hopeful and do the right thing for the sake of saving any sanity that might be left...something that aint been learned yet therefore a still very necessary message wrapped up in great sound production...dig it...

...one of those swinging '60s hollywood flix, this time directed by a modern euro cat and of course the movie don't make too much sense but with a couple hits from the medecine chest everything is groovy so it don't matter about the script...somehow spirit got themselves the gig of supplying the sounds and its all part of that jazz rock keyboard groove they were laying down at the end of the west coast psych years...totally cool vibes emanating straight from the fridge and goes well on one of those lazy afternoons kicking the gong around...more proof spirit were number one in a field of one, ain't nobody come close to sounding like these cats (not even themselves after sardonicus)...

...when the first and greatest incarnation of spirit called it a day randy embarked on some sort of solo career by putting this wax out...with the earlier fraternisation with jazzy psych grooves played out by 1972 it was time to get heavy with some jimi copped guitar whamming splattered liberally across tunes both original and covered...toked up madness pervades all areas giving fun loving cats a marvellous freakville bound stoned messaround to get lost in and as always a great way to while away those vibed up afternoons of lazy contemplation...

...any cats who kind of forgot about spirit after that quartet of near perfect rock-jazzbo-psych grooves from the late 60s might want get cozy with this double disk comp of their '70s output for the mercury label, perhaps not as cerebral as the early works but certainly not whacked out AOR useless as most of their contemporaries who were still in the game were putting out (no names no pack drill but we all know who was guilty of blandness in the dark days of the mid/late seventies and onward), theres some cool vibes happening here...the first disk is nearly all the spirit of 76 wax and the 2nd is a fair smattering of tracks from the other 3 which unfortunately did have some below par tuneage on them (at least below par for a group of spirits calibre)...so, not as wig lifting as the early work but worthwhile and recommended for all heads who dwell out on the time coast with some rock'n'roll curiosity in the blood...