the of mirror eye

* Acid Jam 2: Reformation Blues (16.5 mb) | Tide (8.5 mb)
From Acid Jam 2 : Rubric Records : RUB 13

So, back in 1988 Mr. Bevis Frond and friends got together to get their psychedelic groove on as the aptly titled band, Acid Jam. The resulting album, Acid Jam, is long out of print (I believe, but hope that I’m wrong because I’ve had the fortune to hear and/or buy it). Fast forward 12 years and those same fellows plus some added guests decided to get together again and have another go at it. The resulting album, Acid Jam 2 is an incredible “high” point for the genre of psychedelic music. Now mind you, this isn’t just anyone and their mom getting together and “jamming”. This is the cream of the British psychedelic crowd.

The dramatis personae of Acid Jam 2 reads like a who’s who of British psychedelia and to trace the musical pedigrees, histories and myriad intersections of the participants would be a gargantuan task best left to rock genealogists of the Pete Frame variety. Suffice it to say that alumni of Hawkwind, Camel, High Tide, and Magic Muscle, as well as members of The Alchemysts, The Lucky Bishops, and the Outskirts of Infinity are among the cast assembled for this album. Even Nick Saloman’s daughter sings on one number.

This is an acid rock extravaganza comprising 14 diverse tracks — equally divided between instrumental and vocal numbers — with a total running time of nearly two-and-a-half hours. Although the spirit and sound of this recording harken back to another period entirely, at the same time, Saloman and friends — by some paradoxical sleight of hand — have created an album that somehow feels wholly contemporary and is completely free of faddish, superficial retro-ism.

(by Wilson Neate)

I really can’t say enough good things about this album. Mr. Frond and friends really pulled out all the stops on this one and came up with something that’s far greater than the sum of their already significant parts. Absolutely amazing.

—–+—–