In 1967, Drake Levin, Phil Volk, and Mike Smith (all former members of Paul Revere & the Raiders) formed a band called Brotherhood. They released two LPs in '68 and '69. Sometime during this period, they were also allowed to record this musical "joyride" with a bunch of friends and outside musicians. From this came one of the most peculiar American psychedelic LPs of the time. As a kid, I related it to the second disc of the Mothers' Freak Out! album, and there's certainly some of that freak-out thing here. What you hear is mostly experimental and improvised. And it's just beautiful! But there's also Drake Levin's "Love Sketch," a delicate psychedelic instrumental and the only written piece here. And there's "Childsong," with field recordings of kids playing mixed in with unobtrusive space music. A lot of what's happening here is the three Brotherhood members using "the control console as a musical instrument"--i.e., they're (re-)mixing and adding effects through the mixing board. The second side consists of two nine-minute pieces: a remixed jam called "Lost Angel Proper St.," and "The Empire of Light." The latter consists of prepared piano (Phil Volk) and organ (by Ron Collins, a member of Brotherhood on their first LP) being fucked with by Drake Levin and Mike Smith behind the console. What they produce sounds like minimal space music. Very nice! (slippytown)
;-) ;-)
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