Case 12012an 82yearold Man With Persistent Ulcers on The Hands

Following the untimely cessation of the much-beloved underground eclectics Sun City Girls in 2007 due to the death of percussionist Charles Gocher, the brothers Bishop (Alan and Richard) have shown no signs of slowing down their respective creative output. As the voice (and low end) of Sun City Girls, Alan Bishop (aka Alvarius B.) has continued, in his own way, to further the late band's legacy with a sprawling series of appropriately avant-garde recordings and world music experimentalism. As co-founder of the Seattle-based Sublime Frequencies, he and Hisham Mayet have tapped into the spiritual predecessors of Sun City Girls' pan-globalism, offering up little-heard recordings both classic and contemporary from around the globe.

Writing on the Wall's only album was theatrical heavy blues-psychedelic-rock that, despite its power and menace, was too obviously derivative of better and more original artists to qualify as a notable work. The organ-guitar blends owe much to the Doors, Procol Harum, and Traffic, though the attitude is somehow more sour and ominous than any of those groups. The vocals are sometimes pretty blatant in their homages to Arthur Brown, particularly when Linnie Paterson climbs to a histrionic scream; Jim Morrison, Gary Brooker, and Stevie Winwood obviously left their imprints on him too. Throw in some of the portentous drama from the narrations to the Elektra astrological concept album The Zodiac: Cosmic Sounds (particularly on "Aries") as well…