Tag: hypnophobia
Jacco Gardner at The Echo: Psychedelic Scientist
Lawrence Rengert
July 3, 2015
I remember the first time I saw the band Sleep play in San Francisco. There they were in all their glory, long before the 2nd, 3rd or even 4th wave of psychedelic, heavy or stoner rock got a foot hold. What was amazing about them is I kept wanting to say “wow this band is just like Black Sabbath,” but then correcting myself I realized, “no this band IS Black Sabbath.” From their Green Amps made for Sleep (just like the Orange Amps made for Black Sabbath) every aspect of their music, appearance and presentation screamed Sabbath and they did not disappoint. In the exact same way, the first time someone put on the music video for ‘Clear the Air’, the first single by Jacco Gardner on Excelsior-Recordings, I was convinced it was the second coming of Pink Floyd. Not just as an influence, but as a reincarnation; conjured into existence from the UFO Club in London, 1966. In fact, Jacco Gardner looks a tiny bit like a smaller, younger and more attractive Roger Waters. From his spectacular colored light show to the Farfisa-esque harpsichord via modern day Korg synthesizer, Jacco takes you directly back to the earliest days of the
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New Album Review: Jacco Gardner- Hypnophobia
Brent Smith
June 30, 2015
I could talk about the baroque baroqueness of the Jacco Gardner electro-prog aesthetic. I could talk about how his sound puts you in Kubrick’s psychedelic record store scene from A Clockwork Orange. I could talk about how his near-prodigious use of retro, ornate, and esoteric instruments like Wurlitzer electric/Steinway upright pianos, harpsichords, Optigans, and Mellotrons would send anyone over 60 into a kaleidoscope time-warp back to the ‘Me Decade’ that flaunted things like paisley shirts, shag cuts, hip-huggers, mood rings, and bunk weed. Sure, I could talk about all that 10-Reasons-Why-Some-Particular-Decade-Is-Back drivel you read on popular sites, but truth be told, the Jacco Gardner sound is his own, and his time is now. His new LP Hypnophobia out on Polyvinyl Records is more than just a cool word about fear of sleeping. It’s a trip with anesthetic effect. I don’t mean anesthetic like physical numbing, I mean like what anesthesia does to the mind—puts you into a tripped-out state between waking and sleeping. Its 10-track reverie doesn’t veer off on tangents. Your mind may wander, but the sound stays true to its whimsical between-space. Don’t confuse that with the recent sleep paralysis horror that’s spreading across the internet. The first track
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