[.ca] Inner Marshland

where's The Shrine?:
My long standing admiration for the Frond started with the original release of "Inner Marshland" in the U.S. by Reckless Records LTD. It was Summer/Fall '88 when a co-worker lent me this CD to listen to over lunch. The cover art was interesting enough. At home for lunch, I popped the disc into my stereo and the world as I knew it melted away. I considered myself rather musically astute, having worked in a record shop a couple years prior, but this gem of 60's psychedelia had slipped past me. Then I saw the publish & copyright dates, 1988. Another really interesting thing happened, the guy that lent me the disc gave it to me. Now that it's been re-released and re-mastered with new bonus tracks, I purchased it (and Miasma) without question. However, the original release on CD contained tracks from the "Through the Looking Glass" double LP, most notably "the Shrine". If master Nick decides to re-release the Reckless recordings, then I sincerly hope he releases "Through the Looking Glass" as it's own proper disc.

what is this minsmere sphagnum:
Hands down my favourite bevis frond album, that has the blistering guitar sound you've come to expect from nick, is to me a very late night album, see things in the dark, eerie landscapes , odd pond creatures, and just you entering a very very other world, I am enchanted now as I was then check out reflections in a tall mirror, for evidence that Nick is the only guitarist that makes any sense. Buy this and treasure it, Reckless hid Nick, now that the world is catching on hopefully this reissue will put the Frond in their respective place at the top.

Looking Through Your Window Eye:
The first Frond I ever purchased and still my favorite. Nick takes one two many guitar solos,sometimes 2 or three are multitracked, all going at once, but the tunes are great psychedelia and very DIY. Warning to tech-heads, this is really lo-fi, noisy,home 4 track, trash can drum sound stuff. He went digital 8 track a couple of years ago, but this stuff is early, before that enlightenment. The rumor is that Nick Saloman started home recording with money he got from a car accident. His guitar sound is pure late 60's psych freakout like SRC, Hendrix and George Brigman,the later whose records are also sonically comparable to The Frond. See Bevis live if you get a chance, it'll be the show you'll talk about for awhile. Maybe the best heavy power trio I've ever heard in concert.The Frond is an addiction, when you hear one you'll be an instant fan and want his whole catalogue. Also highly recommended is Miasma and Gathering Of Fronds.

Brilliant as ten thousand micro-explosions across my retina:
The first time I heard the 1988 Reckless release of this album, my jaw dropped so low I had to dig a hole and fight off hordes of Mudmen to get it back. It set off a panic in me to hunt down all other Frond releases, no mean feat in the musical wastes of 1988 South "Welcome to Record Bar" Carolina. I wound up with Miasma, Triptych, A Gathering of Fronds, and The Auntie Winnie Album,as well as Scenes From the Dreams of Angels, from Bari Watts' Outskirts of Infinity (the most brilliantly executed yet somehow totally hollow and unimaginative Jimi Hendrix clone in existence. Sorry Bari, you amazing guitar inferno.) Unfortunately, those last three mentioned releases somewhat cooled my passion for this crazy Englishman's musical vision. I guess the lo-fi just finally got to me. I mean, I know musicians are limited by the real world considerations of rent and food, and I am very deeply impressed by the fact that Nick was the force of one behind everything in his catalog, but I was just getting kinda shell-shocked, kinda flattened out by the flat vocals and drums on each new record. I mean let's be honest-- psychedelia this good just SCREAMS for better production. You want to be able to turn out all the lights (the ones OUTSIDE your head, at least), lay back on a big pillow and hear each tiny microgram of color and sound rage loose around your skull. So, eventually, I lost track of the burning NEED for more Frond, I guess..... But I have never EVER stopped loving to this gorgeous record. I have hundreds of garage rock and psych albums, by bands from the 60's to present times, but Inner Marshland is one of the best. From the eerie cries of tiny and unseen yet possibly vicious little creatures lurking within the echoscapes of "Cries From..." and "Defoliation Pt. 1" to the whimsically lonely "Hey Mr. Undecided", sitting on his barbed-wire fence, to Sooty and Sweet rocking out in the attic playroom long after their bedtime in the intro to "Once More", everything on this disc SHINES as simply wonderful music from an incredibly gifted, prolific musical talent. And, this was the standard by which all those other releases were judged. Here, there's not really a notice of murky 8-track production, you're too amazed at the song to hear the making of it. THIS sounds GREAT, why didn't THOSE? AGOF and TAWA weren't BAD records, they just weren't THIS GOOD. So, I cast them away. I exiled myself from the Shrine! Oh no! What have I done?!? I have forsaken him, and I have been a fool. So only now, stuck a billion miles from home, and having alleviated my fears of internet commerce enough to shop often in the biggest damn record store I've ever seen, surrounded by Blink-O-matics and Creed-ins at every turn, I now know I must amend my ways and return to Saloman's flock. Pray for me no more, for I have ordered Vavona Burr and Valedictory Songs as my penance. I wonder, Mr. Irving-Poleridge, if they can top this one... "Listen, and you shall see...." Hey, wait... this is re-mastered? must...add...to.......shopping...cart......

• Cries From the Inner Marshland
• Termination Station Grey
• Window Eye
• Once More
• Defoliation (Part One)
• Reflections In A Tall Mirror
• Hey Mr. Undecided
• I've Got Eyes In The Back Of My Head
• Minsmere Sphagnum
• Mediaeval Siensese Acid Blues
• Defoliation (Part Two)
• Walking In The Lady's Garden
• Slave
• Run At The Sun
• Parapsynquiry
• The Great Mistake
• Solid Vimto