That is how the New Creation's Chris Towers summed up the difficulties of fusing psychedelic rock music with Christian ideals. He and his deeply spiritual mother Lorna were what were known as Jesus People, having even written a Christian-themed play that they had entered in a CBC contest. But it was 1967 and the budding guitarist was equally smitten with the near-possessed fingering of Jimi Hendrix and the leaden riffs of Cream. In a couple of years he would discover 'Gimme Shelter', the Stones' apocalyptic anthem that would become his favourite song.
Their play never did win. But in an attempt to prove the devil wrong, Towers and his mother continued writing devotional poems that eventually evolved into songs. With an acquaintance, 21-year-old Janet Tiessen, on drums, the Vancouver trio set themselves up in a rec room in nearby Coquitlam, hashing out their trippy, folk-inspired music and dubbing themselves the New Creation. Before long the group, which Lorna described as "unpretentious and unsophisticated", had amassed a sizeable cache of songs.
"How the songs, in their astonishing force, suddenly 'arrived' was a miracle," Lorna recalled. "And more so the tunes - they kept coming with blazing speed, some fifty of them. What were we to do with what we had? We had no agenda, and the world of music, out there, was hi-tech."
Of course, the believers out there - and even the cynics, sarcastically - might suggest some divine intervention at work. And you would not be so far off the mark. "With the encouragement of family and friends, we prayed much and we practised, we sorted out songs, and, by the grace of God, suddenly found ourselves with a studio." The New Creation allegedly had to pool their resources to come up with the thousand dollars they needed for the six-hour graveyard slot at Studio 3. Once there, the songs poured out with lightning speed, with most needing no more than a single take. The studio crew, she adds, seemed almost alarmed at the group's efficiency.
The resulting LP, Troubled, was pressed up in a tiny run of just a hundred copies and distributed mostly among family and friends. Oh to see their faces when they dropped the needle on 'Countdown to Revolution!', the opening track on side 1! It's a jaw-dropping seven-minute mash-up of religious and anti-religious slogans, Zappaesque feedback and musique concrete that could have fit comfortably on the last side of the Mothers of Invention's Freak Out. Those who hadn't already yanked off the tonearm and had continued listening would have heard a beguiling collection of folk-infused, mostly amateurish tracks (um, one take, eh?). Most are forgettable. Some, like the eponymous 'New Creation' touch on the haunting psych-folk that bubbled under in the late-sixties, while the uptempo groove on 'The Status Quo Song' even hints at the early Velvet Underground, if you strain the imagination a bit. Mostly, though, Troubled is a clumsy mess, leading some to dub the group 'the Xian Shaggs' (which, depending on your views on outsider music, is either an insult or compliment).
Troubled rightfully languished in total obscurity for some three decades until a California collector named Will Louviere happened upon a copy and sought to reissue it on his Companion label. When he finally managed to track down Thiessen, she thought it was a joke. After all, she was not in contact with the Towers nor had the group heard anything about the LP in ages. "No one had ever mentioned the record to them in thirty years," an incredulous Louviere explained. "It was truly and completely lost."
These days it is precisely the 'lost and then found' nature of Troubled that leads collectors to fork over such huge sums - $2900 USD according to Popsike - for an original copy. Some will dismiss it as pure rubbish, while others will hear in it a purity of intent that comes with the best naive art. Irwin Chusid, author of Songs in the Key of Z: The Curious Universe of Outsider Music and longtime WFMU program host, is clearly in the latter camp, writing, "Troubled is just a terrific album, a showcase of raw, inventive musicality. Categorically, it's - I dunno - Sixties Garage Godcore? Yet it transcends being a mere period piece. The songwriting is deliriously brilliant, the lyrical perspective haunting. The band's sincerity is unquestionable, even if its meters are unfathomable. And its appeal - undeniable.
Tracks 1 to 6 are the earliest live recordings on January 10th 1968.
Tracks 7 to 14 are a 1970 rehearsal at the Matrix, San Francisco.
Reissue of the first album by Brazilian musician, poet and plastic artist Manduka. Originally released in 1972 on IRT, the album is a sought-after collectors' item, especially among those who seek in its cultural richness, fundamental episodes of Chilean popular musical history. An essential record almost entirely written by Manduka during his exile years in Chile, away from his home in Brazil. It includes improvised jams and songs about Brazilian history, his own exile and the new cultures he got exposed to. A sublime combination of acoustic guitar sounds, percussions and delicate songwriting that may remind you of some other Brazilian artists like Os Novos Baianos or even Caetano. It includes a special cover version of Violeta Parra's Qué dirá el Santo Padre and features guest artists like Soledad Bravo, Patricio Castillo, Baltasar Villaseca from Congregación, brothers Gabriel and Eduardo Parra, members of Los Jaivas, and Numhauser himself.
Canadian punk rock history! This exclusive collection of rare Diodes tracks contains alt versions, demos, and archive treasures, including two versions of the band's hit Tired Of Waking Up Tired.
In the intervening 20 years the Prisoners’ legend has grown. Graham Day and Allan Crockford have formed a variety of groups, from Planet to the Solar Flares (and Allan is currently in the Billboard Garage charts with his group the Stabilisers), organist James Taylor formed his Quartet and virtually invented Acid Jazz. The Prisoners are now lauded as the great pioneers of modern day garage, lauded in the NME as one of the most influential bands of the 80s and recently having their “Last Fourfathers” album described by Uncut as “one of the most important in British rock”. Everyone from Oasis’ Noel Gallagher to Radio One’s Steve Lamacq claim to love them, taking in Ian Brown and the Horrors along the way.
Big Beat version does not include a handful of tracks that are already available as bonus tracks on Big Beat’s reissues of the Prisoners’ original albums, but otherwise sees the Hangman album present and correct with great live tracks, live cuts and early B-sides showing a truly breathtaking outfit in action. Includes two wonderful undiscovered cuts, an instrumental called Unbeliever (fast) from the “Wisermiserdemelza” sessions and a take of Love Me Lies recorded live in a studio some time before the its appearance at those sessions. Also added are two cuts recorded at a demo session in 1984 which appeared on various small run compilations – Joe 90 and an amazing version of Hush.
