Harmony Rockets "Paralyzed Mind of the Archangel Void" CD (Excelsior Records & Big Cat Records/1995)

If you subscribe to my Facebook newsfeed then you have no doubt seen my recent lamenting over post See You On the Other Side Mercury Rev. In the mid 90's in my mind there was no other band that came close to conjuring up the unique sounds that the upstate New York based psychedelic/orchestral/indie/art rock band Mercury Rev. With their first two albums Yerself is Steam and Boces respectively they sounded like if the Butthole Surfers and Sonic Youth crossed with Sun Ra were writing a score for Disney's Fantasia. It was fantastic drug induced brilliance with hypnotic swirls of guitar noise and horns and the juxaposition of melancholy vocals from guitarist/vocalist Jonathan Donahue and the manic, stream of consciousness freak outs of then vocalist David Baker. The popular belief of older Mercury Rev fans is that they lost a large spark of creativity when Baker left the band but I maintain that their first foray without him, See You On the Other Side, is actually a wonderful album offers a balance between the chaos of prior albums with a more pop and orchestral element which at times is more trippy and surreal. However, by the time 1998's Deserter's Songs touched down any edge Mercury Rev had completely vanished as their music (and to this day) has become predictable and for a lack of better words safe. What does any of this have to do with Harmony Rockets? Well because Harmony Rockets was an experimental side project of Mercury Rev.

Paralyzed Mind of the Archangel Void is a single track clocking at 41.40 and it features droning guitars with interweaving horn melodies, squeaks and squalls with occasional percussion, vocals, wavering sounds and chimes to provide a generally stoned out psychedelic trip. Harmony Rockets consists of the two mainstays of Mercury Rev, Jonathan Donahue and Grasshopper and the project occurred around the time of See You On the Other Side but it certainly has some of the "out there" quality of Boces. According to the liner notes: "Paralyzed Mind of the Archangel Void" was performed live at the Rhinecliff Hotel by the group Harmony Rockets. It was recorded on a hand-held Arrivox-Tandberg 183 analog cassette recorder."

In addition to Paralyzed Mind of the Archangel Void the group released the Golden Ticket EP, of which there are two versions of in 1997. If anyone out there has a rip of that they would like to share I would certainly welcome that. And as a side note for people interested in David Baker's contributions to Merucry Rev I highly recommend you seek out the sole solo album he did under the name Shady. It is an absolute brilliant mindfuck and it features guest appearances from Merucry Rev members as well as Jimi Shields of Rollerskate Skinny.

Download Here