So Arthur Brown's name remains irremediably attached to the late-'60s freakout hit "Fire." So his numerous subsequent albums and projects never eclipsed that one fulgurous shot at stardom. Yet the man kept on going, re-emerging periodically with a new serving of songs. And in all of them remains one element: the voice. That unusually powerful, charismatic voice upon which aging seems to have no hold is what gives Tantric Lover its soul. Beyond the battered-up Summer of Love lyrics and the acoustic guitars, the voice is still a strange attractor and enough reason to turn your ear to this album. That is not to say that Brown's writing doesn't deserve your attention…
Esoteric Recordings are pleased to release the classic lost album by The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, Strangelands. Recorded in the Autumn of 1969, the sessions were an attempt to resurrect the Crazy World by Arthur Brown and featured some classic material. Divided into four sub-headings, (The Country, The City, The Cosmos and The Afterlife), Strangelands was certainly ahead of its time but failed to gain a full release for nearly two decades. In hindsight, the material can be seen as the blueprint for Arthur s next project, the innovative Kingdom Come.
This Esoteric Recordings reissue also adds the legendary Replicas sessions by Rustic Hinge. Featuring Crazy World drummer Drachan Theaker and guitarist Andy Rickell, the project was originally intended to feature Arthur Brown as vocalist and also featured the legendary High Tide guesting on one track…
Though a bit over the top, this album was still powerful and surprisingly melodic, and managed to be quite bluesy and soulful even as the band overhauled chestnuts by James Brown and Screamin' Jay Hawkins. "Spontaneous Apple Creation" is a willfully histrionic, atonal song that gives Captain Beefheart a run for his money. Though this one-shot was not (and perhaps could not ever be) repeated, it remains an exhilaratingly reckless slice of psychedelia.