Halo Grey

After 16 years of hard rock evolution, Baroness, now more than ever, sounds fascinated with the possibility of rock and roll's future. Gold & Grey is the final entry in the band's long-running series of color-coded releases which began with The Red Album in 2007. It would have been poetic to bring the band's sound back full-circle on this release, and in some ways the group does just that. But in the course of the record's expansive 17 songs, the band members explore a palette of emotions and sonic ideas as varied as the numerous shades a painter can create with just two component colors — singer and guitarist John Baizley should know, he's an accomplished painter by trade.

Gold & Grey represents the end of Baroness' color-schemed album titles, preceded by Red Album, Blue Record, Yellow & Green, and Purple. The now-Philadelphia-based quartet have been through major changes, from magazine covers and award nominations to a horrific life-threatening bus crash that caused the original rhythm section to leave, and the 2018 departure of founding guitarist Peter Adams, vocalist/guitarist John Baizley is the only original member. Bassist Nick Jost and drummer Sebastian Thomson were on board for Purple, but new guitarist/backing vocalist Gina Gleason (Santana, Smashing Pumpkins) makes her studio debut with Baroness here.

Alexander Spence - Oar (1969) {Sundazed SC 11075 rel 1999}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 372 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 151 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (png) -> 183 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1969, 1999 Columbia / Sony Music / Sundazed Music | SC 11075
Rock / Folk Rock / Psychedelic Rock

No one except psychedelic Renaissance man Alexander "Skip" Spence could have created an album such as Oar. Alternately heralded as a "soundtrack to schizophrenia" and a "visionary solo effort," Oar became delegated to cut out and bargain bins shortly after its release in the spring of 1969. However those who did hear it were instantly drawn into Spence's inimitable sonic surrealism. As his illustrious past in the Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger Service, and Moby Grape would suggest, this album is a pastiche of folk and rock. In reality, however, while these original compositions may draw from those genres, each song has the individuality of a fingerprint. As a solo recording, Oar is paramount as Spence performed and produced every sound on the album himself at Columbia Records studios in Nashville in the space of less than two weeks.

No one except psychedelic Renaissance man Alexander "Skip" Spence could have created an album such as Oar. Alternately heralded as a "soundtrack to schizophrenia" and a "visionary solo effort," Oar became delegated to cut-out and bargain bins shortly after its release in the spring of 1969. However, those who did hear it were instantly drawn into Spence's inimitable sonic surrealism. As his illustrious past in the Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger Service, and Moby Grape would suggest, this album is a warped blend of acid folk and far-out psychedelic rock. While these original compositions do draw heavily from those genres, each song has the individuality of a fingerprint, and Spence performed and produced every sound on the album himself at Columbia studios in Nashville in the space of less than two weeks…