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Spirits Burning: Golden Age Orchestra/Crazy Fluid
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Voiceprint Records (VP490CD/VP492CD)
  Here we’ve got a couple of recent releases by this space rock etc. collective that has been operating for over 10 years now with a changing line-up under the guidance of Don Falcone from the States. Released as Spirits Burning & Thom The World Poet, Golden Age Orchestra is an exceptional Spirits Burning album in several ways. Usually all the musicians involved have worked individually on their own to produce their share to the songs but this time most of the basic tracks for the album were created live by three musicians (David L.: acoustic and electric guitars, Jay Radford: electric guitars, electric conga, Michael Clare: bass guitar) and Thom The World Poet (vocals, lyrics) while Don was recording the sessions with his laptop. Later on, Don added for example some organ, piano and electronics. In addition, the album’s last track (that is a remix of the album’s second track) features a few other musicians as usual. Besides the different working method another new thing is that almost the entire album has an acoustic approach. The acoustic guitar is in a very important role most of the time, in addition to Thom’s improvised lyrics. There are no drums on the album, so the music doesn’t really start to rock out in the actual meaning of the expression. I think this is also the first Spirits Burning album not to feature Gong’s Daevid Allen, although he’s been mentioned on the album’s credits as long-distance inspiration…
So what does this album sound like? The first couple of songs “Golden Age of When” and “Only One Question” are a bit hypnotic and repetitive pieces that wouldn’t be out of place on a Rättö & Lehtisalo album, for example. ”Pony Up (Myth of Reality)” is humorous Country music and “The Choise” a bit more melancholic Americana. ”Retirement Blues” is, as you might expect, a blues-styled number and also ”Santa Somewhere (Beach Blanket Waltz)” has some blues elements but it does also bring to mind early 70’s Pink Floyd. ”Everybody Knows” returns to Americana in a beautiful way while ”Both The Light and The Dark” is a mystical psych folk piece with the phrase ”…the light and the dark…” being repeated on and on. This one also includes some conga and I think it’s too bad that we can enjoy this great track only for less than three minutes. So now we still have the bonus track ”River of Xperience (Only One Question Remix)” that has some percussion, harmonica and more guitar added. It still remains pretty minimal as the rest of the album. In summary, Golden Age Orchestra is a very different Spirits Burning album in many ways and if you’re only interested in harder space rock or more progressive stuff it might not be for you. Personally, I do enjoy the atmosphere it creates and Thom’s apparently totally improvised lyrics are just genius.
When the previous album included lots of vocals/poetry, the latest Spirits Burning album Crazy Fluid includes mostly instrumental material. The cast of performers is again very vast and international, although mainly American. The album begins in a very psychedelic style with ”Holy Water and the Sea Movers” and Cyndee Lee Rule’s violin gives it some exquisite tones. Daevid Allen plays the guitar on the following, pretty exciting number ”My Caspian Sea Monster”, and this over 10-minute-long track goes to orgiastic free jazz occasionally. This is very experimental stuff and my wife told me to stop the CD at this point… ”Slicing Through the Unknown Plantagents” continues in an even jazzier mode but this time with more laid-back and cosmic vibes. Great going! The quite experimental ”I Don’t Want to Grow Up and Be a Scent Dealer Like You” is a two-minute piece somewhere in between King Crimson, Mahavishnu Orchestra and Pharaoh Sanders, “Caravelle” a rather peaceful but psychedelic and weird track that seems to have influences of classical music, avant-garde, folk music as well as jazz. The album’s lengthiest track is the almost 11-minute-long ”Pinball Symphonics (An Ancient Psychedelic Performance @ the Tail End of Your Youth)” that is a very experimental and lysergic sound collage. Then some more “normal” stuff: “Martian Crystals” is an excellent, mystical and dark number that also includes some vocals by ex-Hawkwind Bridget Wishart. “Liquid Clocks” is a very pleasant, jazzy and softly swinging track that has for example saxophone and is one of my favorites. The fast “Fondue Fuels” rocks surprisingly snottily and hard. This piece perks things up a lot and sort of reminds me of Steven Wilson’s I.E.M. project. The album is finished with 70’s prog styled, long, four-part “The Bok of Luana” that also includes lots of vocals mainly by Daevid Allen. So the track naturally has Moog, Mellotron, flute, organ etc. I’m reminded of at least Gentle Giant, Yes, Camel, Genesis, Van der Graaf Generator and naturally Gong which should give you an idea of what’s going on. This is another very successful Spirits Burning release and somehow Don and the guys have yet again been able to get together a very unique whole with the album’s cosmic free jazz vibes and experimental touch perhaps being the most characteristic elements.
www.spiritsburning.com |
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