Valentine and Pat Gruber (AKA PG Six) had been main movers in that scene, and from their record shop day jobs, had worked against the prevailing trend of heavy rock and modernist electronics to seek out like-minded outsider artists and in a deliberate retreat from a world which had just become ultra connected, they did an escape to the country. This retreat mirrored an older generation of psychedelic folksters such as Vashti Bunyan, Alexander 'Skip' Spence and John Fahey, bonds were formed.
The wilderness chosen was in the seasonal north east state of Vermont; Valentine and Elder then went about growing their vision in the country, living at 'maximum arousal farm' and starting an annual 'Brattleboro' festival where peers and outsider artists such as free jazz man Paul Flaherty, out there vocalist Dredd Foole and hobo songster Michael Hurley could play among appreciative ears.
Unlike the early 70's musicians however, who often retreated into commercial non-existence; the new generation were able to keep in touch with their audience through the internet and CD-R's, many, many CD-R's. Cheap to produce and often adorned with hand made artwork, these frequent sonic communications were cheap and often limited to 30 - 100 copies, and you felt like you were experiencing the developments of the scene in real time almost.
MV & EE themselves had innumerable CD-R's on their Child of Microtones label behind them prior to this release. Dealing in a freeform electric country blues or 'lunar raga' MV & EE take the psychedelic explorations of The Grateful Dead or guitar wig out Neil Young to the next logical stage. Heavy analogue reverb and tremolo dominate the production MV termed Spectrasound.
Neil Young once said that during the recording of On The Beach he was ingesting 'honey slides', which are a combination of baked weed and honey, reportedly these were utterly debilitating and the band at Topanga would lie wiped out for days, stoned beyond belief. Well, if you imagine a situation where honey slides continued as the drug of choice, instead of cocaine and the 80's you might get close to the zoned out majesty of this record.
If you are one of those people who find it difficult to enjoy Neil Youngs thin falsetto voice, then you might struggle with MV's weedy refashioning; in the right mood though his laconic NY isms feel right.
Chunks of this record drift by in a blissful stoned revery. Loose interpretations of country blues standards by Charlie Patton, Mississippi John Hurt and Reverend Gary Davis are included. Anthem of the Cocola Y&T feature a lyric about a beautiful stoned girl; C.C. Pills is a horizontal Robert Johnson on mandrax. Raga drone & harmonica feature; the back up band for this outing play instruments called things like cumbus wood flute, yayli tambur, stuti box, electric jug, and mooncrotales. The second disc is even better, opening out over even wider vistas, Meditations on Payday has you looking for pots of honey to cook, you can smell the bongwater. MV's production emphasize tinkly sounds like brushed shells, a dog barks, someone puts up a shed, trip potential maximized. EE sings beautifully on Banty Rooster Blues.
The motherload is remarkable final track Death Don't Have No Mercy, a 23min journey which seems to start completely free and loose and gains form throughout it's duration, like they had smoked themselves sober.
The view from maximum arousal peak is sweet, long may it last.
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