Rediscovering The Mandrake Memorial

My friend Brendan was over recently for a "follow the muse" listening session. In the heat of a tangent I fired up "Puzzle" by The Mandrake Memorial. One of my "Desert Island" LPs and a certifiable masterpiece. These four guys from Philadelphia were 180 degrees away from soul, funk or R&B. They were a psychedelic folk/pop/avant garde/musique concrete oriented band who recorded 3 albums for Poppy Records from 1968-1969. For example, here are some song titles; "Bird Journey", To A Lonely", "Barnaby Plum", "Ocean's Daughter", Whisper Play", "Bucket of Air". The first side of "Puzzle" navigates through warped tunes linked by little miniature variations called "Just a Blur" which always end with the last note tape echoing into infinity which at one point segue into a full blown "Kyrie" of massed overdubbed choruses and orchestra, written and arranged by the band. The common thread throughout is the interesting and haunting voice of bassist Randy Monaco who sings in an introverted ghostly alto. He makes me a believer when he muses from the heavens, "When I look down, S'just a blurrr". For me, these guys carried the psychedelic mantle way beyond blues tinged contemporaries like Pink Floyd because they drew on so many influences and in terms of ideas and execution far more conceptually advanced. At one point Brendan reflected, "What strange music", not meaning this in an unkindly manner. Any fan of psychedelic experimental music who hasn't heard these guys will be rewarded if they take the leap. I can't recommend "Puzzle" enough.