The American Metaphysical Circus starts as a collage, Zappa and Sgt. Pepper can first of all greet briefly, then a song peels out, Dorothy Moscowitz sounds almost lascivious, the beautiful melody is carried by her voice and the Electronics. Do not forget, we are here in time on-synth era, ring modulators and similar instruments produce sounds that are a few years later popularized by Moog. And with schmückendem accessory that has nothing to do here, this music is electronically over long distances, what goes on here, goes far beyond psychedelic. The following Hard Coming Love that thing then goes up a strong rocker, but where else would howl and roar the guitar, do it the Electronics, and here at last is remarkable how resourceful and precise the disk was recorded and mixed the end of 1967. And then there's the text No, Love is not here to chastise the romantic togetherness meant but here it goes directly and bluntly to the point. Cloud song is a nice respite, without necessarily even begin to sound cheesy or sweet, while at The Garden Of Earthly Delights, the group attracts the pace again, the singer sounds here like Grace Slick. Pure sex are the lyrics of I Wont Leave My Wooden Wife For You, Sugar male lead vocals here do not mix randomly with female: It is about the tension between adultery and (vorgegaukelter) loyalty. A prudish in America at that time more than risky business, the music stands in stark contrast to vaudeville with electronic undertones. Where Is Yesterday sounds like penance for mortal sin (lust here, clearly well) Gregorian Meets Electronic Pop, complex run in three minutes, the lyrics can grow for a religious hymn, if you do not listen closely enough; Rather, here religious criticism crosses sociological survey. Coming Down is again a conventional sounding psychedelic song, but executed extremely visionary. Love Song For The Dead Che is a subtle ballad, the melody has catchy, light years from the remains Schnulzentum but removed. The American Way of Life is taken at Stranded In Time on the grain, in less than two minutes, the group leads to a kind of mini-opera, instrumental brings everything that can bring this group. Completed is the album by almost seven-minute The American Way Of Love: Part 1 is Metaphor For An Olderman, sharp Psychedelic with Impetuous Violin Electronics Combination. Whereas Part 2 California Good Time Music white charming to swing, the lyrics but again are angry enough to let fly the charm. And Part 3 Love Is All is a hard rocking conclusion, where a collage album is summed again by sequences from the tracks. How much fun its been? asks a man's voice just before the end still well, already Fun, but a mad, of course.
2014er edition which I review here, comes with 10 bonus tracks, exactly as many as had the original album, and compare the play time ago also. The quality of these numbers is very good, partially there are alternate takes of album tracks, or at least a good complement to the massive original listenable album.
Few albums of the late sixties were so far ahead of time as this, that fact and the for that time very daring texts were key reasons for the low commercial success. And it was one of the very first albums of electronic rock music. Hard-earned cult status, the board already, and now sounds fresher than almost everything that was published in 1968. Who does not believe that this work can provide in addition to albums by Warpaint, Alt-J and a number of other new bands of the past five years that have nothing to do with Retro. My tip: If you think that there is not a single disc of 1968, which would be at least somewhat dusty, please listen to the here. Bet that?