CONCRETE RUBBER BAND -Risen Savior (Official reissue of this insane underground basement psychedelic rock album, a massively-rare 1974 release) CD

BIzarre burbling electronic embellishments find unity with abundant fuzz guitar, organ, and male and female lead vocals. A very strange rock album (in the best way), which just happens to have religion as its subject. "Official reissue of this insane underground basement psychedelic rock album, a massively-rare 1974 release on the Missouri-based American Artists label (AAS1164), of which only two or three copies are known to be exist in private collections. The song titles reveal the Christian undercurrent, but don’t be put off by that (if such a thing would be off-putting for you): this is a very strange and unusual rock album which just happens to have religious undertones, replete with organ, fuzz guitar, male and female lead vocals and masses of electronic embellishments—arguably more akin to Debris or Intersystems than anything else. The label says this about it: "Some of the most ‘out there’ psychedelic sounds can be found on this Kansas trio's mega-rare custom LP. The song, ‘Christian,’ for example, opens with a Bach fugue before laying in its steady rock beat punctuated with subterranean wah-wah guitar and a wild, heavily modulated lead. The song, ‘Wicked,’ opens side two with a bizarre amalgam of what sounds like synthesized, bubbling lava pits, frequency oscillations, distorted, sci-fi vocals and shortwave, static patterns. This is psychedelia at its most underground and extreme, with all the ear marks of a bad drug trip which, given the songs dark subject matter, works just fine. Likewise, ‘What Shall We Do?’ opens with a lengthy outpouring of some of the most vicious, distorted, fuzz guitar ever then relaxes into a spooky, dream-like ballad before it climaxes with a flying saucer effect that sounds straight out of Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon.” There are several fine and moody garage tracks here as well. The overall impact is difficult to describe: the songs are highly listenable and quite creative. Dense echoes add to the homemade feel of the entire project.  Duncan Long, the main man behind the synths, guitars and song writing is now a published science fiction author, which explains a lot, we think.