“Seed” by Dimmer

The fourth coming of NZ music legend Shayne P. Carter as Dimmer (following Bored Games, DoubleHappys, and Straitjacket Fits) is probably the era of his 40 year catalogue that is least well-known overseas. I could start an argument by saying it’s his best era. But ‘best’ is always meaningless, subjective, caught up in judgements where the emotional resonance of music in a particular time and place for listeners rightly over-rules any attempt at objective assessment. So let’s just take a deep breath and allow 10 minutes of a live version of “Seed” which appears on the newly released double LP “Live at The Hollywood” envelope the senses:

“Seed” was one of the songs on the first Dimmer album “I Believe You Are A Star” in 2001, a revolutionary album at the time, marking an evolution into smooth and slinky groove-based futuristic soulful rock music, yet still clearly identifiable as being Shayne P. Carter.

Carter notes these live recordings: “included angles and extrapolations on the tunes that aren’t on the original recordings.”

“Seed” includes new angles and extrapolations from Carter’s Gibson SG guitar, helped by it’s 10 minute hypnotic groove locked in by original Dimmer drummer Gary Sullivan (Jean Paul Sartre Experience/ JPSE, Solid Gold Hell).

Carter also notes: “Although I stand to financially gain from the exploitation of this artefact I wholeheartedly recommend the item to the general listening public.”

I do not stand to financially gain from the exploitation of this artefact, however, I also wholeheartedly recommend the item to the general listening public.

“Ain’t So Hard To Do” by Dungen

It’s still Psychedelic Sunday somewhere in the world so here’s a shredding Dungen track from their recently released “Dungen Live” album. As anyone familiar with the Swedish psych improvisors would expect, it’s a glorious album of free-ranging melodic psychedelic music. Can’t explain it any better than this from their Bandcamp: “Dungen Live is a document of a band playing with and beyond time, passionately reviving a slowly storied history of sound. A captivating ride captured and collaged from two shows in their native Sweden, Dungen Live covers all the peaks and valleys, the moments of intuition and inspiration, and the cosmic connectivity between a family of musicians that makes each Dungen show a spiritual shift.”

Most of the free-ranging improvisations form around familiar Dungen themes from the studio albums and are simply named A1, A2 etc. Here’s the only named track “Ain’t So Hard To Do”.

The song is by Doug Jerebine, giving the album an unexpected New Zealand connection. Jerebine was a guitarist in a NZ band called The Brew, renowned by his peers in the 1960’s as an exploratory player with the playing ability to rival Hendrix. He headed to the UK in the late 1960s, changed his name to Jesse Harper on the advice of his ambitious manager, recorded a demo album of heavy psychedelic rock, put together the World Band, and was on the verge of being signed to a major label. Instead he recoiled from the rock and roll excess and walked away from music, seeking spiritual enlightenment by joining the Hare Krishna religious movement. He moved to India and effectively vanished for 30 years, before re-surfacing in NZ and taking up where he left off…

The Jesse Harper album of demos that  has had been circulating for 30 years as various imprints of dubious legality, finally had an official re-release in 2012 on legendary US alternative label Drag City.

Doug Jerebine and The Legend of Jesse Harper was one of the first PopLib posts published, way back at the start of 2013.