Ozric Tentacles - High Park fire

Sad news recently from the Ozric Tentacles camp - on Friday 22nd June 2012 the home in Colorado of Ed, Brandi and Silas Wynne was burnt to the ground due to being in the path of a major wildfire (video here) and most of their belongings were lost with it. Happily the Wynnes themselves were not injured in any way as they had enough warning from local services to evacuate. They had returned home from playing dates in Europe to find that they had been given an hour to vacate the property and did their best to grab anything valuable and make their way to safety.

They heroically managed to play a gig at the Midsummer Meltdown in Pennsylvania on 23rd June but by then it seems that their home & property had gone.

More from Brandi on the Ozrics message board -

Hi All,
We can not thank you enough for your kind words and concern during this difficult time.
On this solstice, Friday, June 22nd, 2012, our lovely mountain Erpland burnt to the ground, taking with it all of our archives, photos, masters, studio equipment, artwork, a ton of instruments, the list goes on and on.
We were really having fun making those posh re-releases with all kinds of new images and bonus material, but all that is going to be a lot harder to find now. I was thinking to maybe open a P.O. Box, where if people have old photos or recordings or various other mementos collecting dust they think we should have, then perhaps they could send them on when they have the time. We have created this email account:

 ozricmadsummermeltdown@gmail.com

 for anyone who wants to send messages, digi images, or audio even (though it probably won't accept large files, but it's at least a contact for a start to open up some ideas), ...or any information on building houses, preferably sustainable, or anything at all that that they feel they would want to pass on to brighten the day be it a joke, or advice, or to advise us that they have any studio gear they are getting rid of, we're going need to buy a few things . . . !

Communication is quite difficult at the moment, we are kind of all over the place, things should settle down in a bit, but maybe not for a week or two, I'll try to keep checking in but the amount of questions I have to answer this week is quite over-whelming especially after not getting to come home after the tour, we're STILL tired from that ! =)

For all the locals in FoCo our friend Kyle from "Good Gravy" is putting on a charity benefit show for High Park Fire refugees this Friday evening, all proceeds go to rebuilding homes for those who have lost them.

Still shocked but alive. . .love & light ~ brandi x x (& ed & silas) 

My own association with Ed and the band goes back to seeing them for the first time in 1984 at Stonehenge and I have many happy and hazy memories of times spent with whoever was currently in the band at those early gigs and social occasions, so this is pretty upsetting. My sympathies and best wishes go out to Ed, Brandi and Silas - anyone who wants to express their own feelings should write care of the above email address.

From the Top Drawer XL - The Oroonies

In celebration of the Summer Solstice here is the last of my collection of tapes released by the Oroonies. This one is called 'The Whale And The Wind', and was released sometime around the turn of the 1990s. The band released at least one tape under the name of the Cheapsuit Oroonies, more of an acoustic affair, but I'm afraid I don't have that to share.

The Oroonies went on to record an album for ex-Hawkwind bassist Dave Anderson's Demi Monde label called 'Of Hoof And Horn' in 1992. This appeared on vinyl (DMLP 1027) and is well worth hunting down, although stylistically the band had left their wild pagan-inspired psychedelia behind to some degree and moved more towards world and Balkan influenced music. The record contains a new version of 'The White Owl And The Silence', the original of which can be heard on this tape.

Tracklisting as above. 

Side Firstly contains upfront rocking material such as 'A Scary Hole' and the haunting mystical themes of 'The White Owl And The Silence', while side Secondly recalls the meditational pastures explored on previous releases such as 'Exalt The Horn' - all brilliantly conceived and performed in the band's unique style.

 Download a copy HERE

 @ Club Dog 14th October 1988

Preview for the curious...

*** The Oroonies have a Facebook page! ***

From the Top Drawer XXXIX - Julian Bream And His Freshwater Stream

How about a steaming hot cup of fish tea? So refreshing...
No? Just as well, 'cos it's pretty hard to digitize as a physible (heard of those yet? - 'A digital file containing instructions that enable a 3D printer to create a physical object'). Guess you'll have to listen to the sounds supplied by Julian Bream And His Freshwater Stream instead.

One or more of these men may admit to having had something to do with this tape one day...

Julian Bream (no relation to the eminent British classical guitarist and lutenist of the same name) was an outfit related in strange and interesting ways to the team who ran Club Dog in London during the 1980s/1990s and later Megadog, who spread their madness nationwide in the UK and even internationally in the following years. The band made rare appearances on the bill at (usually) their own events, and elsewhere when the main Dog was sleeping it off in his kennel.

A rare sighting in public

Playing an unimaginable racket a hard-to-describe style of mutant psychedelic jazz/blues/rock with probably several nods and hand gestures towards Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band, they puzzled and offended more than a few punters with their barely concealed disdain for their audiences' safety or sanity (as evidenced by tracks like 'Are We Annoying You Yet?), modern life in general, and domestic cats.

 

I'm not sure if the band ever produced more than the one tape we have here - and maybe it was for the best...LOL (No, they're really good actually)

I'm not writing out all the track names here, just click on the artwork for larger versions that you can actually read.

Ripped @320kbps from an original cassette as two side-long tracks

Get a copy HERE if you think yer hard enough.

(Thank God it's wearing off at last...)