good blood by second family band

Second Family Band is a musical collective from Madison, Wisconsin which rose from the ashes of legendary free-folk outfit Davenport. They've had releases on Sloow Tapes, Earjerk, Gods Of Tundra, Bumtapes and a whole host of other crucial underground labels. Alt.Vinyl Records is proud to release 'Good Blood', an absolutely necessary slice of bold psychedelic absurdism from a tribe of musician-magicians operating at the very peak of their dark powers.
Line-up: Endless, Woodman, Nico Kain, Clay Ruby, Dave 3000, Ivan Mariesse, Tyler Ol'Son, Lliam Lee Zian.
Opening scuzz-haiku 'Below The Arch' instantly enthralls with some throbbing maltronics circling a quivering cardboard totem , a sky of sound pinpricked open with some gently rabid Ponca drumming and delicate wafts of fragrant fuzz. In seven minutes we are ascended beyond cloud level onto a crytalline plateau of ringing light and trembling breath. It's a shamanistic free-drone space-jam in miniature, rather like some strange confluence of The Necks, Sunburned Hand Of The Man and Circle at their most obtuse.
The next track 'Night Graces of the Morning Temple' slowly balloons us back to earth, the music seemingly deflating the speakers as she goes. A choir of rusty radiators throb, moan, creak and boing along a half-dreamed corridor of mournful wah-wah. It sounds like Morphogenesis playing Berio at the bottom of a sewer, or the soundtrack to some Lynchian nightmare - very cool and grubby, bathed in a sort of undulating aural moonlight. Total deep listening mirage-music.
Side 2 is comprised of a single 23-minute track, 'Good Blood', a delightfully pungent slab of relentless exotica blending elements of Les Baxter and Martin Denny with a nice Wooden Shjips-esque vibe, the whole mad soup bled through with some really sensitive electronic splashes and splutters. At about seventeen minutes we emerge from hypnosis into a clearing, bleary-eyed and stomach-cramped, and face a dramatic climax. The boulder-strewn groove threatens to topple at any moment, the air is awash with the flash and hiss of cymbals and feedback, it just rocks harder and harder.... then it's over, and my hand is reaching for the needle to spin it again.

'Good Blood' is a a towering piece of psych-prog ritualism. Bloody brilliant!

Credits

released July 1, 2010