I remember reading good things about Mandrake Memorial, although there was never an agreement on which of their albums is the best: the relatively straight psychedelic/proto-progressive debut, or their more electronic and experimental 3rd album
Puzzle? The
MOJO Collection highly recommends the latter, so I put it in my shopping list, should I find it for a nice price. I haven't yet (meanwhile the CD reissues are already 20 years old and almost just as rare as the original), but I stumbled on this recent release in the bargain bin. According to the liner notes, the music here "anticipates the woozy, dream-like vibe of their 1970 masterpiece Puzzle". It was recorded during an ill-fated trip to London, but subsequently shelved, although many of the songs were used later on
Puzzle. Apparently the band travelled to London to record with Kinks/Who producer Shel Talmy, who gave up on them after a few sessions as he couldn't reconcile himself with the band's electronic/experimental tendencies. Keyboardist Michael Kac had quit after the recording of their previous album. With his harpsichord and piano gone, the band's sound relied heavily on Craig Anderton's electronic "modulators" (basically home-made synthesizers of a sort). The approach pans out in the case of the hypnotic "
Ocean's Daughter" and "
Part Of My Dreams" where Randy Monaco's hushed, melancholic vocals blend well with the other-worldy synths. Longer pieces like "
Bucket Of Air" and "
Witness The End" are meandering and less successful, although the latter shapes up after the first 7 minutes - to a palatable psychedelia similar to
Fifty Foot Hose and
West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band. With whom I hope you're familiar, otherwise I just told you that an obscure 60's psychedelic band sounds like 2 other unknown 60's psychedelic bands. Traces of the more pop-oriented
W.C.P.A.E.B. are also evident on the beautiful mid-tempo "Puzzle" and, especially, the eastern/Indian sounding "Tadpole", while "Wouldn't You Like It" is the exception, a sunnier and relatively poppier song. If they presented him more songs like that maybe Talmy wouldn't have abandoned them, though the album would have been less interesting for it. The London recordings are augmented here with two tracks from an earlier acetate, the acid folk "Cassandra" and harder rocking "The 12th Brigade". These have a more home-made, demo-like, quality, while the rest of the album, fully produced from the original master tapes, sounds much crisper and more professional. "Cassandra" and "
Witness The End" were previously available in different form in their 2nd album Medium, while "Puzzle
", "Ocean's Daughter", "Tadpole", and "Bucket Of Air" were revived, in more orchestrated versions, for Puzzle. More than an interesting rarity, or a collection of unreleased archive recordings, 3 Part Inventions sounds like a legitimate psychedelic classic. Innovative for its time, if quite antiquated now, but with some charming melodies and good ideas. I'll be sure to dig deeper in this band's discography, but for now I feel like I've made a good start.
the following (very good) blog also includes download links for this album
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