Thursday 28 February 2013

Tales from the Golden Casket



Between 1990 and 2002 something weird and wonderful happened in north Wales when a series of recordings, 130 in number, descended from the spheres onto a series of cassettes and CDs with titles like Transbluscent, My Sonic Lodge, Yellow Shell and The Gadfly. There were songs about dna and rna, stuff we're not supposed to know, butterflies, lost love, unvarnished desire, vanity and deceit, spiritual quest, molecules, balloon trips, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Ramblin' Jack Elliot, hoo hah!, new philosophy, serotonin, Jesus, trout, Rimbaud and of course Shar Lopez. There were covers of The Electric Prunes, Bob Dylan, Jimmy Webb, Al Bowlly, George Harrison, Jane Bond and Nirvana. There were extended electronic tracks including the psychedelic masterpiece Mantra, Atman Revisited, I Dreamt I was Still In the Rainforest and Santa Fe Epiphany.

 

These emerged year by year from small studios in the Bangor area and were focussed around the work of an enigmatic character who operated under many different aliases including Cody and the Machine Elves, The Lineman, Cody and Dean and Cody and the Pilgrims of the Sky. In addition to Cody himself, several of the Bangor area's leading underground musicians would often pop up on the recordings - John Cratchley, Sheila Brook, Rob Parry, John Lawrence, Ann Matthews, Dewi Evans and most commonly Alan Holmes are all evident on various recordings.

Now after ten years silence comes a collection drawing from this cornucopia plus the additional bonus track from 1984 recorded in York. These are The Tales From The Golden Casket. This CD's worth of samples provides a mouth watering taster for the full casket itself, rumoured to be scheduled for release in the near future. Draw up a velvet footstool, dim the lamps and light up your world with these 15 songs.

1 Love Song (Shimmering Highway)  1990
2 Becoming Director of Earthly Movies  1993
3 Seven Veils (for Tom Robbins)  1991
4 Primrose Vaulting  1995
5 Butterfly Man  2002
6 Saffron  1995
7 It's All Hurtin'  1990
8 V.M. Workshop  2000
9 Sending Out Love As The Code  1991
10 Halo of Thorns  1995
11 Jelly Man (1971)  1995
12 1898  2002
13 Dream Blues Vol.23  1993
14 Avalon Odessey  (for D.F.)  2000
Bonus Track:
Heart Play  1984

get it here