Gas Mask – If You Just Think Of Me
Gas Mask – The I Ching Thing
Gas Mask – Thank You My Dear
Sometimes as a DJ you can judge a book (or record as it were) by it’s cover. You take a look at the cover of this LP and you know you’re guaranteed to have some interesting music and likely some breaktastic happenings. In that regard New York’s Gas Mask does not disappoint. Gas Mask were a large band in the style of Blood Sweat & Tears, with a slightly jazzier side of things, which I’m going to guess was largely because of the influence of Enrico Rava, an italian jazz trumpeter who’s done some particularly good work over the years on the ECM label as well as being a part of the fascinating aural freakout Escalator Over The Hill from Carla Bley (something that I just realized I’ve never posted on…perhaps I’ll do something big for it’s 45th anniversary in 2016).
As is the case with a lot of BS&T inspired bands, I would have liked Gas Mask a lot better if they were an instrumental group. There’s nothing technically wrong with the lead singers voice or even his lyrics, though neither is particular “right,” but it’s the playing on the album, on instrumentals like “The I Ching Thing” and the best vocal tracks, “If You Just Think Of Me” and “Thank You My Dear” that keep me coming back to this record…though it’s also quite possible this will end up being on Rose Records one day in the near future too.
Cheers,
Michael
Right on this is one of my favorite obscure Horn Rock Albums. I wish these guys recorded more albums. I have only ever heard one rip of this album and while it had no skips or scratches it had some harsh background noise or too much high end. Is this your own rip????
From my collection, always the case with Dig Deep, which is basically covering new discoveries and new things that I discover digging. Might be parting ways with this one though as I need to raise some funds to keep the blog going.