The
Orange
Alabaster Mushroom - Space & Time:
A Compedium of...
 Artist:
The Orange Alabaster Mushroom
Title: Space & Time: A Compendium
of...
Catalog#: AHA!029
Price: $10.00 
|
Tracks
on this CD: |
| Your
Face Is In My Mind |
| (We
Are) The Orange Alabaster Mushroom |
| Tree
Pie |
| Crazy
Murray |
| Another
Place |
| Rainbow Man |
| Ethel
Tripped A Mean Gloss |
| Valerie
Vanillaroma |
| Space
& Time |
| The
Slug |
| Sunny
Day |
| Aim
the Vimana Toward the Dorian Sector |
| Mister
Day |
| Gone |
| Sydney's
Electric Headcheese Sundial |
|
|
Elusive Canadian psych-garage-pop-cult mastermynd Gregory Watson
falls into the
category of those who have definitely had "too much to dream last
night". He has allowed his especially analogue recordings as The Orange
Alabaster Mushroom to be re-combined in the digital realm. A collection of eccentric
60s pop-alchemy and exquisite psychedelic lunacy, mystical melodic songs and
assorted hallucinations culled from nearly a decade of recording. The mind-expanding
sounds of dirigible guitars, overdriven organs, helium-pitch vocals and a Ringo
drum fill falling down the stairs… The OAM is influenced by Sid Barrett's
Pink Floyd, Donovan, The Rain Parade, Electric Prunes, Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Dukes Of Stratosphere, The Soft Boys, 13th Floor Elevators, and Love, and what
we imagine are loads of oddball 60s and 70s psychedelic obscurities. Fans of
the psych-pop-mod-freakbeat sounds of the incredible 'Nuggets' Boxsets will find
plenty to drool over, The Orange Alabaster Mushroom is indeed cut from the same
paislied, technicolor cloth.
Greg was previously member of The 14th Wray & The Fiends, among others.
Once the esteemed UK imprint Earworm Records produced their 12-track vinyl-only
compendium of The Orange Alabaster Mushroom last Fall we hoped it was only a
matter of Time (and Space of course) before Hidden Agenda was able round up the
necessary okays en route to reaching the masses with a CD version: A collection
of all The OAM's 45 singles, sundry compilation tracks, five unreleased freak-outs,
plus three bonus tracks which are in addition to the tracks previously compiled
on Earworm's vinyl version, which is for all intents and purposes out-of-print
and unavailable. A great majority of these songs are available on CD for the
very fyrst tyme.
The
Orange Alabaster Mushroom is essentially Greg Watson, a gentleman
from Ottawa who has a deep love for and knowledge of '60s flower
power and psychedelic pop. Space and Time: A Compendium contains
two sets of recordings Watson made from 1991-1992 and 1998-1999,
and although the fi is definitely low, the quality is impressively
high. Fans of the Rubble series, as well as contemporary neo-pop
psych artists like the Blow Pops and the Petals will just love
this stuff! The early material ranges from lysergic, early Status
Quo-influenced tunes like "(We Are) The Alabaster Mushroom" and "Rainbow
Man" to
snottier cuts like "Your Face is in My Mind." The crown jewel of this
batch is "Another Place," a jangly masterpiece with a beautiful melody
and one of the sweetest, descending choruses you'll ever hear. The more recent
tracks are a bit higher on fidelity, but very much in the same vein as the earlier
stuff. The best of the bunch include the oddly appealing "Ethel Tripped
a Mean Glass," "Sunny Day," which adds a bit of New Vaudeville
whimsy, and "Space & Time," which is like being in sugar cube Munchkin
Land! Space & Time: A Compendium is a delightful, swirling trip into the
mind of a man who really knows his stuff. -David Bash / Amplifier / Volume
27
Living on
the Kingston-Ottawa axis, Canada's own Gregory Watson is a psychedelic-era revivalist
of the first order.
On Space & Time: A Compendium of the Orange Alabaster Mushroom we find almost
all of his recorded output since 1991. Except for three tracks, all of this material
has been previously released on compilations, singles and most recently on the
vinyl LP of the same name put out last year by UK's Earworm label. To save all
that record hunting, Hidden Agenda brings it all to you with this complete CD
collection. Watson revels in '60 garage psychedelia and all the signifiers are
here: great swirling organ riffs, backwards guitar solos, sitar buzz and vocals
that range from gruff garage punch to munchkin-like sing-songs. Reference points
range from '60s originators like Syd Barrett and Donovan to not so recent revivalists
like XTC as Dukes of the Stratosphear and Fegmania!-era Robyn Hitchcock and the
Egyptians. As you can guess by Watson's recording moniker, he's about as lyrically
surreal as it gets, but most importantly, the OAM's melodies are as hook-laden
as they are hallucinogenic. The recordings and instrumentation are so authentically
old school that it's impossible to date some of this material. Being a solo artist
in the true sense, recording all the instruments himself, the OAM has not been
a club act until about one year ago when Watson put together a live band. Unfortunately
Watson hasn't released anything recorded after 1999. Maybe his new band will
be
the inspiration. -Ian Danzig / EXCLAIM! / Nov 2001
Orange Alabaster
Mushroom
Space and Time: A Compendium of...
[Hidden Agenda; 2001]
Rating: 8.0
There are thousands of them out there. The people who toil away the hours by
setting up mics in the hallway, bouncing track after track of sound on their
four-tracks, ensuring that independent music can never die. On one hand, it's
very easy to romanticize this kind of thing: musicians who do their work with
no guarantee of ever being heard are sort of like monks, practicing their arts
far away from civilization, completely at odds with what the material world would
have them accomplish. How noble, to stick so closely to their ideals, that they
would work so hard for no apparent reward other than hearing the sounds in their
heads played back.
On the other hand, theoretically, anyone can do this. Go pick up a recorder,
and sing and play and bounce to your heart's content. As Milhouse said, "Fun
is fun," but some of us have to listen to the stuff, too. It would be nice
if everyone who was taping themselves made good music, but often (and I an personally
attest to this), the music is like an inside joke only understood by the teller,
and perhaps a few of his best friends.
Of course, sometimes people are forced into this method due to circumstances.
In other words, if you don't have the cash or label support to record in a big,
fancy studio, how else to make music but by recording at your house or garage?
In a perfect world, the Music God would automatically give the most visionary
musicians record contracts, but as it is, the kids will have to make do with
what they have. I imagine Canada's Greg Watson is one of these types, masterfully
producing his own stuff because nobody else will.
Watson's virtual one-man show, the Orange Alabaster Mushroom, plays amazingly
well-crafted psychedelic pop, generally from the British angle. He started recording
in 1991 under this moniker after working with a band called the 14th Wray. His
first music was actually issued under their name, despite being almost entirely
written and recorded by Watson. He did eventually end up recording in a proper
studio in the late 90s, though the results retained his DIY aesthetic and only
emphasized how spot-on his psych arrangements were.
As for the music, I'd say the Dukes of Stratosphear have nothing on this guy.
I don't generally go out of my way to listen to anything that resembles a genre
exercise, but the Orange Alabaster Mushroom is so amazingly precise in its depiction
of '66-'67 era British psychedelia I'm drawn into the stuff by its sheer persistence.
And to top it off, these are very good tunes-- what's the value in copying anything
verbatim? Watson's music would sit well on a shelf next to Nuggets, and that's
the best compliment I can give this release.
Space & Time: A Compendium of the Orange Alabaster Mushroom is a compilation
of material released from 1991 through 1998. Watson recorded most of it on four-track,
but a few tracks, as mentioned earlier were done on
eight-track in a studio. "Your Face Is in My Mind" is actually one
of the few American-flavored tracks, recalling bands like the Seeds or ? and
the Mysterions with raging Farfisa organ and raucous garage-grunge guitar. The
opening organ exposition, which actually reminds me of Iron Butterfly more than
anyone else, is alone worth the price of admission. And check this: "Your
face has left impressions/ Deep inside my cranium/ And when those thoughts are
realized/ It's here I find/ That your face is in my mind." That's a lyric,
my friend, which Watson delivers with whiny, crass sincerity.
No great psychedelic band could exist without its own title song. Watson's "We
Are the Orange Alabaster Mushroom" fits the bill here, and is prime Small
Faces, circa Ogden's Nut Gone Flake, with its anthemic chorus and aggressive
drumming. "Sunny Day" is a tart slice of music-hall, while "Tree
Pie" gets by on sheer aggression and hyped up soul power, courtesy of harmony
vocals in overdrive and a guitar solo so of a different era that I wonder if
the Seeds' Jan Savage wasn't beamed in for the occasion. (By the way, Jan, where
are you?)
Other tunes take the softer approach: "Another Place" features a rather
beautiful guitar line, and telling lines like, "I don't belong here, though
there is another place I can go." Watson's vocals are still in trebly, whiny
mode, yet he manages to bring out some inherent sweetness in this music. Another
charmer is "Valerie Vanillaroma," featuring nice Byrds-y twelve-string
guitar and relatively smooth harmony vocals. The bridge's guitar and organ hits
are classic, and if there's a fourth "Austin
Powers" movie (as if I had a doubt), they need to get Watson to write the
love theme.
If psychedelic isn't your thing, then obviously this album isn't for you. Furthermore,
if hearing vinyl ticks on a CD (this collection is a re-release of a vinyl set
from 1999, and they apparently just took the old records and transferred them
to compact disc), then you might get annoyed with this. However, you can only
dog on addictively catchy, well made psych-pop for so long before giving in to
the groovy sounds. No, this record isn't a major statement, but it is almost
flawlessly executed. Chalk one up to the bedroom musician for keeping this music
alive.
-Dominique Leone, PITCHFORK, February 4th, 2002 |
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