Get all 3 2025 RSD RidingEasy LP Titles for $75 !
Titles Included Are –
Licorice Roots – Licorice Roots Orchestra
Sylvain Carel – Look Over The Nile
John Braheny – Some Kind of Change
John Braheny was born in Iowa on December 9, 1938, first appearing on the early ‘60s LA folk scene and gigging around the folk circuit out west, there is easily findable video of him on the internet performing live in Vancouver in 1965 if you wanna hear him before the psychedelics kicked in. One of the remarkable things about the LP is that he also produced it, indicating no compromise in getting what was in his head captured on tape the way he wanted it. His arrangements are elaborate, bursting with creativity without losing focus, the songs are warm and human at the core with his innovative use of electronics and effects taking them to uncanny places. He’s a proto singer-songwriter foreshadowing the emergence of that LA scene via a side trip through the Twilight Zone. Familiar and mysterious simultaneously. This psychedelic skeleton in John’s closet is in my personal pantheon of the best late ‘60s LA solo artist mind blowers right along with very different sounding but astonishing LPs by Darius, Arthur Lee Harper, Damon and the likes.The players on the album include Rick Cunha on guitar and help with production, he made some LPs of his own. Lisa Kindred on backing vocals came out of the folk scene and is best known for the LP she made with notorious cult leader Mel Lyman in 1969 on Reprise Records titled ‘The Lyman Family with Lisa Kindred – American Avatar’. Bass, drums, trombone, trumpet are provided by session musicians with backgrounds in west coast jazz… Don Waldron on tuba is an unusual credit for a psychedelic LP but he also appears on albums by Frank Zappa, Dr. John, and It’s A Beautiful Day. One of the two bassists is Colin Cameron who also appears on the rare psychedelic Richard Twice LP on Philips Records. John Braheny plays guitar, violin, does the lead vocals and the way out experimental electronics that kick this record into a higher key.John’s first visibility as a songwriter in the world at large came with his song “December Dream” which is the opening track on the Stone Poneys with Linda Ronstadt LP ‘Evergreen Vol. 2’ also issued in 1968. Soon after he founded the Los Angeles Songwriters Showcase with Len Chandler, published the Songwriters Musepaper, did radio on Pacifica flagship station KPFK, and wrote what is considered the ‘songwriter’s bible’ the book ‘The Craft And Business Of Songwriting’ in 1988 for which he is best known. It is still in print. He was known around the biz as “the songwriter’s best friend” and the ‘Some Kind Of Change’ LP merely a footnote in his career. For us psych heads, however, it is one helluva dosed footnote! Several promo 45s were issued at the time so the label did try to work it, without success. The arc is long but this arrow flies higher than ever 56 years on! GREY DAY opens the LP with warm unassuming transitional acoustic folk rock into singer-songwriter territory. You can hear echoes of later ‘60s Roger McGuinn and Gene Clark in the vocal but with a more world weary resignation perfect for the relaxed existential vibe of a grey day where you just wanna sleep your life away.Delicious female backup vocals and a few serene French horn lines give no clue that this trip is gonna leave the laid back porch behind soon… it’s a severe grower as well…DECEMBER DREAM organically moves towards a more psychy atmosphere, delicate acoustic finger picking and voice reminiscent of early Tim Buckley utilizing spacious drone moves for the verses and vibrant but melancholy full sound on the refrains. The female backup vocals shine again unobtrusively, The lyrics are poignant and complex reflections about a woman and how she affects his mind. Bittersweet, introspective.DON’T CRY FOR ME shifts gears completely using a tuff bluesy stalker outlaw groove to convey where his head is at as far as society at large goes. It has the same message Jimi Hendrix presented in “If 6 Was 9”, addressed to a straight world left far behind by a deeper way of living free. “I been through so many changes, I know I’m not the same… if I’m not the way that you want me, you can’t make me feel ashamed… I’m free”. The swaggering confidence in the vocal verges on effortless sneering with lines like “I don’t expect you to understand, don’t even care if you’re tryin’, you had your time and now it’s my time”. Spooky backup vocal moves, we are psychedelic now.TOUR LINE LADIES is where the tuba and horns come in and on one level the most experimental track on the LP despite having no use of electronics or effects. It opens with people recorded inside one of those Hollywood tour buses as they make their way past famous landmarks, movie star homes, etc. and ends on Sunset Strip with the tourists gawking at the hippies. This field recording runs through the entire 5:19 ride as the music alternates between a surreal carnival old timey brass band waltz and a backwoods funk roots rock groove with freaky vocals above both. I have seen vintage footage of ‘60s tour busses amongst the hippies, this the only song I know about it. SOME KIND OF CHANGE ends side one with full blown psychedelic moves right from the start, effects, oscillators, backwards drums and anger back at the system for messing up the world. Terrific tuff stalker groove again, alienated pissed off attitude with lyrics like “Afraid to lose your power, afraid to lose your face, kill to keep your manhood, keep me in my place”. 5:47 of heavy psychedelic bliss here with fuzz outro…LONG WAY HOME opens side two with a straightforward relaxed folk rock pop ambience and can’t go home and have things be the way they used to be lyric. It’s heartfelt and clearly resides at the start of side two for its radio friendly appeal.WARM is just that, in a haunted way. It’s a positive song yearning to turn on the listener to the peace of mind the singer has found. Subtle use of tremolo and leslie effects and a sparse use of electronics add poignance to the proceedings. Warm.REASON FOR LEAVING has the classic cadence and chord changes of early folk rock with sparse to the point backup and another vocal that brings to mind the earnestness and sincerity of early Tim Buckley. Delicate and assured, resigned to the end of a relationship, an ever growing silence between them, no drama, faded love.FREE FALL is an ‘acid-folk’ masterpiece coming as the penultimate track on the album. It resides in a space akin to the most psychedelic folk moves Pentangle made circa their “Basket Of Light” LP. Hypnotic eerie trance folk with brilliant use of medieval vibed choral colorings. The words match the sound, brilliantly arranged.
SILVER CORD is the 8:55 long epic closer, opens with electronics and slips into a late night after hours jam atmosphere. Sparse but inventive interplay between guitar, bass and drums are shot through with ethereal psychedelic wind effects. There are several movements, a bluesy jazzy groove, raga trance, some lyrical fingerpicking in the middle. There are no vocals, the electronics do the talking here. The tight-but-loose feel in this relaxed jam never gets old for me, the sort of track that could go on for hours and not take one wrong step. Never boring as it is loaded with uncluttered detail. The blend of west coast rock combo and electronics feels like a long lost Fifty Foot Hose basement improvisation… way after hours!
Have you ever had a great afternoon nap? The kind where you drift off, and on your way back to the afternoon, shards of the dream creep into your reality, bits of reality creep into your dream? As you wake up, you can’t tell if the afternoon just got better because the best parts of the dream made it into the day, or because the nap refreshed you so completely that you now have a whole new perspective?
That’s what “Licorice Roots Orchestra” by Licorice Roots sounds like.
If you tilt your head at the appropriate angle, you will hear the best parts of Marc Bolan, Donovan, and the Beatles. Or maybe just a massively talented fan refracting those things, but when you’re just waking up, who can tell?
Raymond Listen, as the band was originally known, was formed in the early 1990’s by singer/songwriter/pianist Edward Moyse, when he moved from rural Wellsboro in Northern Pennsylvania to Newark, Delaware and asked Dave Milsom to form a band with him. Milsom quickly took up the drums. Gradually, they added Dave Silverman (flute/glockenspiel/keyboards) and Kim Benner (finger cymbals). There was a fertile music scene percolating in Delaware, including peers like Jimmy Crouse, Zen Guerrilla, Smashing Orange, and Carnal Ghia, some of whom Raymond Listen shared stages with in 1991 and 1992. If you wanted to see a national touring act, you probably had to go to Philadelphia, but there was something going on.
In 1992, Raymond Listen started recording at Noise New York, with studio owner and legendary scenester gadfly (Mark) Kramer. His business was in transition, and sessions quickly moved to his new facility Noise New Jersey. The recordings that became “Licorice Root Orchestra” went so well that Kramer offered to release the results on Shimmy-Disc.
A brief refresher course for those of you who didn’t live through the indie-rock boom of the 1980’s/1990’s: Kramer is an artist/producer/collaborator/label head who worked with a dizzying array of artists, including Galaxie 500, The Butthole Surfers, Ween, Penn Gillette, John Zorn, Jad Fair, Daniel Johnston, Low, King Missile, Bongwater, Gwar, Boredoms, Jon Spencer, Yo La Tengo, and many, many more. Shimmy-Disc was his label, and it was known as much for the outsize and outsider personalities he collected (and personified) as for his deft and clever production style.
The label was no commercial powerhouse, but it had an outsized cultural footprint. People paid attention to Kramer and Shimmy-Disc. In a world where punk and indie rock had recently upended the established commercial order, small labels were potential breeding grounds for the next thing, and Shimmy-Disc was high on the New York City list.
Probably as a result of Shimmy-Disc’s reach, the album was widely reviewed, and reviews were ecstatic. Melody Maker called it “Seismic” and hailed it as “a delicate work of weird genius.” NME called it “magical and childlike.” CMJ said “infused with the essence of Pet Sounds without sounding derivative.” Sassy magazine issued them their coveted “Cute Band Alert.” None of this seems to have contributed to much in the way of airplay or sales.
A short tour in Spring, 1994 took them to Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Louisville, and two different cities in West Virginia. They played some regional shows with Dogbowl, a few scattered shows in New York City, and gradually changed their name from “Raymond Listen” to “Licorice Roots Orchestra.” A second album was recorded at Noise New Jersey, but disagreements between Moyse and Kramer over mixing and production resulted in the band leaving the label, and Moyse taking over the producer role for their subsequent recordings. They made and released 6 more excellent, lower-profile albums, the most recent one of which came out in 2009.
How could such a beautiful, unique piece of work come out in the midst of a creative boom time, and go mostly unheard? My theory is: It was too nice. People were looking for snark, angst, neurosis, and despair in their indie rock music in 1993, and Raymond Listen offered peace and serenity. Grace doesn’t win a battle with a jackhammer.
Now Riding Easy comes to the rescue. If you ever loved the dreamier side of the Flaming Lips, the idea of Elephant 6, or a great afternoon nap, here’s your chance. This is why the world needs record collectors. Licorice Roots Orchestra is, on its own terms, a masterpiece. Good night.
—Geoffrey Weiss, Los Angeles, 2024
Sylvain Carel – Look Over The Nile
French composer Sylvain Carel started life digging on the classics like Dvorak and Holst, and then he logically developed into a Prog-head. Thrilling to the expansive sounds of Van Der Graaf Generator and King Crimson, he would delve deeper into kosmische Krauters like Amon Düül and Tangerine Dream. His Strat-rocking 20s led him to studio work backing and writing for other performers and eventually, developing his own vision. With an early love of the ARP synthesizer, it was a natural move into soundtracks and evocative soundscapes. This would lead to a serious study of Musique Assistée par Ordinateur (Computer-Assisted Music), and Carel building his own studio to accommodate all his ideas.
Carel also filled his head with the sounds of the globe, traveling to Africa, India, and the Middle East, and all these influences spilled out on his first solo Lp from 1982, tellingly titled Look Over the Nile. Like most sought-after private presses, the album displays a deceptively simple cover, masking a rich, even mystical tapestry of sonics that transcend time, place or waves (new? olde? the sea’s?). Carel continues to create symphonic ambient works to this day, but Look Over the Nile might be his finest daze.
LOUKSOR is a nearly-misleading but brilliantly bloopy opener. It’s one unique slice of wedding-band techno-funk from the Star Wars Cantina Band. Boasting an insanely primitive drum machine stammer, unexpected dubby key vamps, YMO melodiousness, and a constantly morphing sameness–it’s simply not like anything you’ve ever heard.
THE NEXT DUNE begins with ambient Cluster pulses and shimmers, but then gets down like an overzealous-Vangelis audition to join in supergroup Harmonia. The veritable suite then hikes into a full-on Dinger-ian Viva! (La France) anthem. The Stratosphear/Autobahn-like propulsion one/ones the listener into a metronomic trance, a spiraling dream of subtle phases and increasingly complex melody tones.
WATERS is dreamy newest age that comes on like ‘In the Air Tonight” before being drowned in creamy/bloozy multi-tracked space guitar that’d make Davey Gilmour blush. The near classic rock fist-pumper then descends into a pure cosmic electronic K-hole.
SOFT SOFA RIVER displays a nearly Heldon-ish fried experimentation. The beatless number has it’s own dystopian, sequenced internal rhythm , before building into a buzzing (but purty) wall of synth.
COBRA conjures a rootsier La Dusseldorf, and yet evokes a cool early 80s tv show theme, especially once the warbly-but-wailing (and hammer-on-ing) guitars ooze in (think Knight Rider or Hunter? A Buck Rogers hedonistic space-dance number?). The epic also has a few nice “movements” into blissed minimalism and full on geetar rok.
VISION OF THE END isn’t as bleak as it sounds, but more like some Cure-ish/Lynchian post-surf punk, with a sleazy drum machine on the “Latin rock” setting. The over-chorused guitar falls somewhere between Steve Hillage and Andy Summers, and I’m not complaining!
IN THE CRISTAL is a short-but-sweet endcap, which evokes the great Gottsching playing guitar like it was a dulcimer. With kosmik Tomita-esque waves flowing in and out, it’s one glorious and fitting closer.
