Hello from Las Vegas, the futuristic psychedelic space sludge rock capitol of the world! Are you guys ready to meet your DOOM?!
Just kidding.
Welcome to Week #3 (installment #11 overall) in my An Album A Day project. The theme for this week is going to be “Ten Inches Of Pleasure” and I’ll be highlighting some of my favorite 10″ records in my collection. I own less than 20 of those suckers (they’re so hard to store! you have to keep flipping ’em because the sides are so short!) but I’ve really pared it down to what I think is the necessary titles at this time. You might argue with me about the tenets of owning the Blind Melon “Galaxie” promo red vinyl 10″, but you and I both know it’s their best song. And, you know, I have to own everything Spiritualized released on almost every format, so of course “Let It Flow” and…uh…whatever the other one is. Ten-inch records are pretty much the bane of any collector’s existence (because unless you’re a No-Neck Blues Band archivist most people don’t own — or care about — 8″ records). That doesn’t mean they can’t offer pleasurable listening experiences. So this week Swan Fungus celebrates the joy we all feel from ten inches.
Heh.
Y’all know aboutĀ MoRkObOt, right? The Italian band who were formed in the tradition of theĀ Zolar X school of futuristic space weirdness. Fake personae and all. According to ancient future legend, “Since the dawn of the first galaxies the voice of MoRkObOt resounded solemn over the saturated atmospheres of the planets in evolution. Dominator of the magnetic strengths and ancestral regulator of the conscience flows, MoRkObOt has returned to the Earth through his three messengers Lin, Lan and Lon brutally subdued to his will. MoRkObOt manifests himself through sonic experimentations that humans call music. MoRkObOt pervades the darkened minds of Lin, Lan and Lon conducting their notes in sadistic consequential deliriums.” In other words, three unknown persons manifesting the will and the word of an ancient space deity through their noise/music. Pretty cool, right? It doesn’t hurt that they’ve been described as Electric Wizard playing Hawkwind. Oh, and they’re on Ufomammut‘s label. That should give you an idea of what their deal is, sonically. MoStRo was the band’s second album (they released a self-titled one in 2005 I’ve never seen), it’s broken up into six tracks over two sides and runs the gamut from pummeling space rock to synthy drones. It’s a pretty incredible effort, and one that I felt I needed to own almost immediately after hearing samples online.
There are a couple CD variations of this record, but as far as I know there had only ever been one limited edition vinyl release pressed by Supernatural Cat, out of Italy. The 500 hand-numbered copies are housed in a handmade and silkscreened deluxe box on Avana paper. There’s a wire-bound booklet with artwork for each individual track on the record. It’s a beautiful package, and one that stayed sealed for a very long time because…well…why would you ever open something that’s so pretty to look at? What, you want to listen to the music or something!? Ugh, you’re…like…the least Record Collector-y collector ever! Why can’t you just horde things because they’re limited edition like all the other collectors prospectors?
Mine was purchased from Aquarius Records during a trip to San Francisco in the summer of 2007 (August 11th). I was helping my buddy Steven move from Los Angeles to the Bay Area at the time and it was a pretty miserable trip for me. I got tasked with driving his car up the interstate while he drove a U-Haul and someone else drove themselves. One of the tires blew out on the highway and no one would circle back around to help me out. So, yeah, the trip got off to a great start. Personalities clashed a bit, and by the time we got to Taqueria Cancun and Aquarius I felt like I needed some retail therapy. I spent way too much money on vinyl that day, and then worried the rest of the day about whether or not things were going to melt in my car. Luckily summer in San Francisco is the coldest winter imaginable. Dumb logic, Evan.
Anyway, I’ve got this wonderful work of art in my collection now. It survived the drive back to LA. Now it’s on a shelf with its 12 or 13 bastard siblings, segregated from the 12″s and the 7″s like they should be. Still, this is a great fucking record. You should hear it. Come over sometime, check it out.
MoRkObOt
MoStRo
(Supernatural Cat – CAT 002, 2006)
01. Tobokrom
02. Zorgongollac
03. Kaklaipus [MP3]
04. Cammut
05. Skrotokolm
06. Poldon
