PERRY LEOPOLD-EXPERIMENT IN METAPHYSIC
( 1970-acid-folk-psych)
Vi posto anche il primo lavoro del nostro eroe!non all'altezza del monumentale "Cristian lucifer"ma da avere anch'esso! Cold in philadelphia e absurd paranoin i pezzi migliori con il secondo che fa un filino da guida per una song dei sabbath che ancora non individuo!vabbè...!a voi!
Pretty excellent album from this sadly overlooked singer/songwriter who used to describe his music as "acid folk". Not only is their excellent and rather epic tunes like "Cold In Philadelphia", "The Absurd Paranoid", "The 35th Of May" and on and on, but also the man was quite the 6 string slinger. One of Gear Fabs greatest releases. Experiment in Metaphysics is one of the rarest and most sought-after artifacts of the hippie era. Recorded live during a five-hour session in the basement of a shoe-repair shop in June of 1970, most of the 300 original copies of Experiment in Metaphysics were simply given away in one afternoon, yet, inexplicably, bootleg copies of the album later sprang up half-way around the world. The reason for the album's staying power is apparent: the music is gorgeous, first-rate progressive folk. In fact, Side Two of the original LP's label was given the title "Acid-Folk" (the other side was called "Kommercial"), probably one of the very first uses of that term. Perry Leopold creates a proto-gothic ambience full of dark and brooding imagery that is much less cartoonish than most of what passes as "acid," while maintaining that music's visceral punch. Like much of the youth countercultural scene of the times, Leopold can occasionally give into mystical pretentiousness. Experiment in Metaphysics has moments — namely the spoken-word monologue in the middle of the mostly stellar opening cut, "The Absurd Paranoid" — of philosophical meandering. Still, even those moments maintain a period charm. Experiment in Metaphysics is exquisitely intelligent and forward-looking. Leopold's mood is much more pious than most music that came out of the psychedelic era, and, indeed, extreme piety tends to be a product of youth, yet there is something aged and wise about Leopold's music. The "Kommercial" side, cryptically subtitled "SMOKE," is conceptually bleak, and after "The Absurd Paranoid," it takes on a much more palpable quality, grounded in experience ("Cold in Philadelphia" and the gorgeous "The 35th of May"). The "Acid-Folk" side (subtitled "DROP") opens with the stark, multi-part title track. Each of the three songs in this section is a virtual mini-suite, with the closing cut, "The U.S.S. Commercial," standing as the album's magnum opus. Experiment in Metaphysics shows some truly progressive and experimental songwriting, even for the time period. Each song, even the instrumental cuts, feels like a story, with beginnings and endings and all kinds of interesting ideas and storylines sandwiched in between. The album is a relic that has not lost one iota of its power
link: http://lix.in/7c5ab0
PERRY LEOPOLD - CHRISTIAN LUCIFER
(1973 MASTERPIECE ACID PSYCH FOLK)
IO AMO QUESTO DISCO!
E'un capolavoro!davanti ad una birra questa estate un mio amico (ciao vale!te l'ho postato vedi??!?!) si lamentava di non riuscire a trovarlo...l'ho scovato un qualche città americana (credo la stessa della casa di registrazione Gear fab o come si chiama) è un disco stupendo e come dico nella descrizione nel titolo è un acid folk psych roch...la storia che si legge pure nel libretto mette in mostra come questa gemme ha rischiato di non vedere mai la luce(o gli scaffali dei record store!) visto che i nastri vennero persi tanto che il disco è stato pubblicato nel 1999 (e suonato nel 1973!...cosa che mi fa sperare per una stampa dell'album "GranicusII" dei Granicus!) Tutto il disco è impregato di una sorta di misticismo (come il titolo può indicare) che è fortemente presente in ogni nota...anche ad un ascolto distratto ci si accorge dell'aura che circonda questo disco già evidente nell'intro dell'opener "Sunday afternoon in.."e da come cambia la melodia nella canzone...si passa ad una seconda gemma ("the windwill") e subito ad una terza "starewell"!unica nota dolente , secondo i mie gusto la 4 traccia che, pur molto godibile rovina un po' il ritmo delle prme 3 song...si riprende con "the annunciation" con un ritornello che fa cantare...il disco si chiude (purtroppo!!!)con la bellissima song "Vespers". Se volete un consiglio da me ascoltate subito questo capolavoro, che secondo me è uno dei 10 titoli più belli della mia discografia!Vi lascerà una stranissima sensazione addosso!bellissimo!
Although his incredibly rare first album, Experiment in Metaphysics, was a sensational and dynamic slice of progressive acid folk, Perry Leopold took a phenomenal leap forward on the follow-up, 1973's Christian Lucifer. (It is a small miracle that the recording ever saw the light of day, since the studio at which it was recorded was sold and then closed, and all the master tapes from the sessions were erased and used again, leaving only a few mixdown copies.) The songs on the first album, while all strong individually, didn't quite hold together, but Christian Lucifer is conceptually a whole, impossible to imagine as anything other than what it is. Leopold's melodies again shine like slowly uncovered gems. Complex melodic lines and protracted vocal melodies stretch and build ominously, like the sight of a wise, enigmatic monk concealed beneath a woolen cloak. The religious reference is not an empty simile. If the songs on his first album came across as parables or ancient narrative tales, then Christian Lucifer is a collection of hymns, prayers, and litanies conflicted with the dualities of life, full of metaphysical depth. Whereas the first album stuck to the folk basics, this second album was stunningly produced. Gorgeous layers of acoustic guitars, bass, clavinets, bassoons, recorders, oboes, cellos, tabla, MiniMoog, and explosive timpani and bells gave the album a rococo-styled grace and wispy beauty, invoking everything from medieval madrigals to Bach and Vivaldi to Middle Eastern musics to psychedelia and the Doors. And yet, it is none of those things. There are imprecise similarities to Nick Drake's oppressive but beautiful fragility, the theatrical majesty and scope of David Bowie (who is quoted at the beginning of "Serpentine Lane," a dystopian reply of sorts to "Space Oddity," with Leopold's deep voice infusing the music with the same alien quality), and the visionary mystical musings of Merrell Fankhauser and Jeff Cotton's cult band Mu. The foreboding keyboards of "The Windmill" are pulled directly from "Riders on the Storm," but the album is an entirely unique and novel amalgam. There is a Renaissance Fair feel, particularly in songs such as "Sunday Afternoon in the Garden of Delights" and "The Starewell," harsh and pretty at once, and intriguingly arcane. Leopold was, in fact, a troubadour in the truest sense of the word, singing his music for whoever would listen. Ultimately, the album is a very individual struggle with the duality that lies at its heart and is the crux of everything humanity is and does. Christian Lucifer is both terrestrial and ethereal, both tangible and transcendent. It is unquestionably Leopold's masterpiece, and one of the most artistic, intellectually mature, and haunting albums — released or not — of its era.
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