Sandoz - Pay Attention 1971 UK Hard Rock, Psych Blues
Contains recording from 1971 of short-lived underground hardrock/psych/blues trio that featured John Goodsall on guitar, vocals (sounding like vintage Captain Beefheart!), and compositions, as well as Jim Mercer on bass and Gary Lonsdale on drums.
As the name of the group might imply, this is head music, and is really not anything like what Goodsall went on to do with Brand X. Three longish tracks unearthed from the vaults. This has become an instant collectible by virtue of the fact that only 350 copies were pressed.
They played a handful of gigs in 1972 including a Greasy Truckers show, and left behind these three amazing tracks.
"London 1971:
With the revolution bungled, the snow raging and the sky losing height, paranoia and nasty tales abound. A new dark age has dawned and music from the underground takes on a cold and ominous flavour. The band Sandoz, a subterranean sensory assault, capture the prevailing consciousness as eloquently as any, also managing to draw a wry smile and the wink of an eye from the day-glo patchouli-scented corpse of the sixties as it is finally whisked off on an icy cosmic breeze...
Named after the Swiss laboratories where LSD was first synthesized by Dr. Albert Hoffman, Sandoz barely surfaced for air, their only official appearance being a Sunday afternoon Greasy Truckers' bash at Group 64 in Putney. They were essentially rehearsal hermits, experimenting with, and whisking up, all manner of esoteric psychedelic ingredients into a dark mind-bending electric miasma of their own. Totally unhinged and eccentric, Sandoz acknowledge the influence of the good Captain and his mighty Magic Band (vocals through the Broughton filter!) the ultimate power trios of Hendrix and Cream, Amon Duul 1 1 (hallucinogens personified) and Miles Davis' trailblazing Bitches Brew. The three remarkable recordings presented here for the very first time (each of which clocks in at over eight minutes) is evidence of the fact that Sandoz were at least one step beyond most of their contemporaries, their musical hedonism, jammed with all manned of complex time-changes, intricate ensemble passages, blistering instrumental workouts, and polytonal counter-rhythmic weirdness, suddenly zooming off onto spectacular tangential trips..."
For this is progressive rock at its finest moment, absolutely 100 percent uncompromising, a complete F-- you to any kind of semblance of respect for any music industry or commercial popularity: this is true art.
Tracklist
A1 Apple Core Machine 0:00 A2 I Ain't Strong 8:39 B1 Demi-God 17:21
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