Nick Salomon's long running (a new record is due out this summer) one-man-band-with-a-bit-of-help-now-and-again psychedelic excursion has no beginning and no end. In the beginning there was and is Miasma (1986),
It was then he began building a house made of bits of Cream, Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, Blue Cheer, The Byrds, The Wipers, Hawkwind, Pink Floyd, etc. He then furnished this wonderfully demented mansion with every obscure band who ever used an effects pedal to aurally describe what it was like to take LSD. Rooms are added and filled with mild-melting bric-a-brac ad infinitum.
Any trip the listener makes to the groovy abode is cozily familiar. The fifth trip will remind you of the first or the second or the the third...
So, as Trouser Press stated years ago, a listener can jump in anywhere when it comes to Bevis Frond. Each record builds upon the same form as the last.
New River Head is yet another nicely furnished room for celestial contemplations, melancholy folk moments and Wah-Wah Pedal dreams. There is even an eldritch ode to ole' H.P. Lovecraft with David Tibet lending chants - the nearly 20 minute freakout The Miskatonic Variations. Also, you can count on Nick, amidst the haze created by the magic mushroom cloud, to drop in a fragile, beautiful pop tune:
I suppose listening to the first eight Bevis Frond records is like smoking pot every day. After a week or so, you just don't get that high anymore. But if you lay off the stuff for a few months and THEN pack your bowl or bong then, well, then you get really StOneD...
Bevis Frond is something to be savored and loved in moderation.
The Frond has rested for seven years, but Salomon has kept himself busy compiling the absolutely essential and excellent releases on his Psychic Circle record label. Each release is like a fully furnished room in that Way Out Mansion he built long ago...
You are on a roll, my friend -- great posts!
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