Mort Garson is perhaps one of the most influencial unknowns in twentieth century music, his experimental electronic music, made in the sixties, was lightyears beyond what anybody else could dream of. With a string of albums such as the Wozard Of Iz, Signs Of The Zodiac and Black mass, Garson created space age worlds of never before heard sounds. Proper electronic music, proper surreal worlds. This album is a take on the infamous musical, Hair, rendered in an amazingly futuristic and yet somewhat haunting way by Garson's genius. (NOTE: I have not seen the musical, so imagery I use to describe is inspired solely by the music on this record)
A springy aquatic rythm brings us into the first track, Aquarious, verses out of tune and violin like until the chorus plonks in, recognisable and layered of electronic sounds. The music keeps it sounding wet, dripping and the chorus has this kkinda epic majesty to it. It's amazingly done with all analogue electronics. No singing here, just pure space age music. Track two is Frank Mills, a gentle walking kinda music, echoed chords replace soft guitar strums, and a plonky keyboard forms the main melody, resembling an old Sega Master System game's music. It's very sweet and very short. We then get into Be In (Hare Krishna) via a pulsating rythm and a harsh sounding electronic lead, a distorted keyboard. The music pulsates further with percussion taking in, it all loops around the central melody with extra pianos to give texture, then suddenly it gets loud. Violent and fun, the synthyness comes up, the pulsating rythm becomes stronger, and the lead becomes more frivolous and we get treated to some fun pre-Hawkwind spacey wooshes. It's sounding very much like BBC's Radiophonic Workshop, I guess because of the same gear being used. The famous song Good Morning Starshine enters witha Super mario brothers style bassline, a space age keyboard souond plays us the melody, extra texture comes in and we hear the famous 'moog cat' sound. This track keeps a good pace and is nice and gentle after the psychedelic trip of the previous number. Garson manages to bring a nice optimistic sound to what could be harsh electronics a-la Kraftwerk, but this is the polar opposite. Side 1 ends with Three-Five-Zero-Zero, starting with harsh electronics and wooshes in a very very Radiophonic style, we then get a lovely plonky rythm and beat comming along, and a melody which sounds like it's played flat, but could just be the patch used for it. It's haunting indeed, contrasting the previous song. At moments it's melancholic, at others it marches along. Harsh sounds and whooshes take over ontop of the beat, creating a total headfuck. Kinda an ideal end for the first half of a truely unique trip.
Side two begins with a menacing rythm, punctuated by drowning arps and then the melody comes in in a rather weak whispy noise, background arpeggios come in and more textures make the sound thicker. The track melds into Land Of The Free, and it returns to the normal track. this is the famous song, Hair, but turned into a haunting futuristic world. Bleak and cynical. Track two, Easy To Be Heard, begines more lighthearted and exploratory, it has a sense of wonder and yearning adventure. A playful moog sound for the melody that stretches out to find itself, and is really enjoyable. A flute-like sound comes in, adding more to this adventerous sound, we're walking through woodlands or forests or across landscapes, hills and valleys. Track three askes the question, Where Do I Go? in a wonderful spacey playful tune, it sounds like it's kinda cold and isolated yet warm at the same time, it is very curious, the music reflects the puzzling question in it's title. It's a kinda meandering melody, but seems to stay rather safe, but some nice jazz hooks at points do keep it fresh. Yes, jazz hooks in electronica. The track fades out and we are left with just two more numbers, first is Walking In Space, A majestic WHOOSH followed by a pinky melody become the motif of this ditty. It then bounces and layers on reverbed and echoed sounds, a proper space age feel, before becomming a kinda jazzy number with a decent bassline, space jazz, but not in the Sun Ra variety. Whooshes again return to remind us we are in space, and the rythm changes once again, upbeat and active. Fun and playful. The album finishes off with Let the Sunshine In (The Flesh Failures), starting with a nice beat and some slamming playing just with incredible weight behind the echoed notes. It sounds truely menacing and archaic at the same time, the gentler melody is haunting and melancholic, also almost detuned. Even the playful sections are ghostly. The beat becomes even more aquatic as the track continues, and the whole number fades away.
this album is still such a new and exciting sound, creating a full range of emotions and space age noises with electronic instruments. Mort Garson takes the hair music, and creates his oqen world with it, old hippy ideals become cynical and isolated in a futuristic soundscape. Garson was a true master of layering electronic sounds to create impossible music, and was lightyears ahead of his contemporaries in the field of electronica. This album truely deserves to belong in every home, a real MUST HAVE.
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