This is a 2 part installment, tribute to Father Yod. It’s been done, but I thought I’d post it in an organized comprehensible fashion. Yod He Vau He.

Album: God and Hair 13 CD Box Set
Genre: Psychedelic, Acid, Experimental,
Communal Prog Rock
Where: LA
Who: The Source Family
Year: 1974
Label: Captain Trip
Related:Yodship, Father Yod and The Spirit of ‘76, Fire Water Air, C A Quintet

Father Yod was an owner of a LA health food RESTAURANT on SUNSET STRIP.
Though kept secret, now notable members included Sky “Sunlight” Saxon of The Seeds, Djin Aquarian, Octavious Aquarian, Sunflower Aquarian]

Album List:
FATHER YOD AND THE SPIRIT OF 76:
1. Kohoutek [debut release, Higher Key, '73]
2. Contraction [Higher Key, '74]
3. Expansion [Higher Key, '74]
4. All Or Nothing At All [Bonus Singles, Higher Key, '74]
YAHOWA 13:
5. Ya Ho Wa 13 [Bonus singles, Higher Key, '74]
6. Savage Sons of Yahowa [Higher Key, '74]
7. Penetration: An Aquarian Symphony [TeePee, '74]
8. Im Gonna Take You Home [Swordfish, '74]
9. To The Principles For The Children [Higher Key, '75]
FIRE, WATER, AIR:
10. Golden Sunrise [Captain Trip, '77, Father Yod's Absence]
YODSHIP:
11. Yodship [Captain Trip, Japan Bootleg, Unknown Origin]
VA:
12. Sky Saxon Singles [Captain Trip, Rarities, Unknown Origin]
13. Unreleased Materials with Djinn, Sunflower, Octavius, & Sky Saxon

Identified here with the modern, shorter version of their original name — Marble Sheep and the Rundown Sun’s Children — Ken Matsutani’s psych-rock group has gotten punkier than ever (Matsutani also runs the intriguing Captain Trip label). Released outside Japan on Germany’s Funfundvierzig label, the eight songs here are mainly shorter blasts of High Rise-style psych, though certainly with a more pop sensibility. Imagine if the Ramones broke into wah-wah guitar eruptions periodically, and you’ll start to get the picture.

Marble Sheep have had a long career, and have gone through a number of changes. Their earliest incarnation was along a rather noisy, tripped-out angle, and then in the 90s Matsutani went through an overtly Grateful Dead-influenced period that, to be honest, didn’t really hold my interest. I saw them in Tokyo in 1992 and while the liquid light show was nice, the sound was a fairly bland psych pastiche. Around 2000 or so, however, they seemed to get their energy back, and the Stone Marby album showed some good promise again. Since then, the band have gotten substantially punkier, with fine results, and this album from last year (though it may have been released in 2006 in Japan; my promo copy here doesn’t have much info) is pretty heavy.

“Tears” opens the album with 12 minutes of space voyaging, but most of the other tracks are kept at pretty short lengths until the closing “From the Centre”. Even the 6-minute semi-ballad “Savior of Street” deftly balances melodic vocals with thick fuzzed-out guitar and heavy, crashing rhythms. Overall, good stuff that’s nice to hear coming from a band just reaching the end of its second decade!

Listen: “Skull Cool”

Well not really, but it’s been a full week already and more on the way. So probably not much more posting today than this, but I will say that among other things that I’m listening to a not-bad-at-all disc from 1996 on the Captain Trip label by the Japanese band Freaky Machine, Unchain, which I picked up over the weekend in SF for a buck or something similar. Turns out they’re still chugging along, and I do admit to enjoying their bio on the website:

FREAKY MACHINE

“Psychedelic Rock rise to the space above”

Play DUB,JAZZ,ELECTRIC JAM,even sing the message of PEACE, though one great story.
This 14 years from form a band, sing “LOVE,FREEDOM and PEACE” loudly.
Keep playing enthusiastically, believing “Music could be a weapon of PEACE”.
Every member got a wide range of activity like remix-work, session-work, song-writing, sound engineering, visual artist etc…

Actively related to “ECHO BEATS SHONAN” nature environmental organization based on Shonan-Japan.
4000 of audience came to the first open-air event.

Keep on running for the philosophy “Change this contradictory world by the power of music”

Beats the hell out of “well, we just started jamming one day” by a mile. Anyway, back to the grind for today.