Head To Head
Log In
Register
Unsung Forum »
Psychedelic Revolution
Log In to post a reply

270 messages
Topic View: Flat | Threaded
IanB
IanB
6761 posts

Edited Feb 20, 2012, 09:34
Re: Psychedelic Revolution
Feb 20, 2012, 09:23
espsummer wrote:
the reviews for psychedelic revolution sound about like what i would expect these days. I feel like we are in some sort of post-interpreter phase. It feels like that was a turning point. There was always anger and "heaviness" going on in Julian's music but i feel like a tilt started towards more anger/heavy metal/and just being hard after interpreter that I myself just haven't been able to get into as much. The albums previous to Interpreter were psychedelic, heavy, and their was an aura of "getting high" about them or magic of some sort. Safesurfer and star car are heavy in a cosmic way and thats what my mind STILL craves after all these years. For me the best albums in which Julian still taps into that cosmic energy are the RIte albums. I don't know if that phase is over but they are the saving grace of my modern fandom. I for one will always be more blown away by "I have always been here before" or "dragonfly" than the almost depressing "all the motherfuckers blowin themselves up" vibe. I don't feel anything when hearing that. In fact i usually think about the US/british/israeli in the lives of the middle east that is usually the source of the anger to begin with. They don't just "hate us because of our freedoms".


He was on an unbelievable run of releases for about 15 years (which is about 14 more than most people manage) but I haven't felt the magic you describe since "Feels Like A Crying Shame". "Drain'd Bonor" was the crossroads musically as I really don't buy into the Sunn O))) / Sleep / OM approach and never got the appeal of much of the JapRockSampler music either apart from the Moodies Prog of Far East Family Band and some of the experimental electronic and free jazz releases. That aesthetic feels like a retreat into foggy incomprehension. As do the Black Sheep records. We're all getting older and I guess the political disappointments that inevitably come with age can breed a stylistic retreat in many a great artist along with a more misanthropic, or at least less loving and forgiving, outlook. I am not saying that is what happened here but there is (coindcidentally or not) to my ear a definite change of tack around the time he turned 50. I feel the anger and understand the source but for me the vibe (if not the politics) is all getting a bit Kingsley Amis in leather trousers (if without the revolting anti-semitism). Whereas as what I need at this time is more of a Post-Punk Christopher Hitchens ;-) In brief I am not feeling the Romantic / magical connection with nature that seemed to be there all the way up to "Dark Orgasm". It's all polemic and no poetry.
Topic Outline:

Unsung Forum Index