TOUCH [AKA: 20-20 SOUND]

Oh how in love I was with this album from the late 60s! I was somewhere around 13 or 14 and listened to this, Zappa's "We're Only In It For The Money" & "Lumpy Gravy" and whatever Beatles album was out at the time. I was seriously smitten.

Touch is the story of a record label saying, "You won't tour for this album? Ok, we aren't promoting it anymore." And just like that, friends I said "run and get this album" couildn't find it, nor get it via ordering.

Just like that the industry cut it's nose to spite it's face.

So what was such a big deal abouit a band called Touch? Some here will bring up it's historical meaning, being the first U.S. Progressive Rock album, and make no mistake, it was progressive. One listen to "Friendly Birds" "The Spiritual Death Of Howard Greer", "Down At Circ's Place" and "Seventy Five" brought about changes sometimes touched on by Frank Zappa, such as the at the time - revolutionary arrangements and voicings of these songs and the absolute startling reality that what came next was at once thrilling and unique. Even by "Zappa" standards.

Instrumentation was mostly bass, drums, guitar and a Pipe Organ that would see the first serious creative use of effects we take standard for today such as reverb, or as in Touch's case, slabs of reverb and reversed reverb; globs of echo effects planned to explode at various sections of the song as orchestral segments written by the band were delegated to a drum kit attempting to emulate an orchestral set of kettle drums and Tam Tams while guitar and organ played horn sections.

Nothing like this existed as a rock recording, let alone any recording as of 1968. And that was just a 3 and a half minute song that started as lounge jazz, onto abstract jazz, followed by a Gil Evans on Acid by means of Stockhausen transition to orchestral sections barely understood most likely by Touch, let alone the recording company that smelled proffit on it's hands....and most likely would have gotten it had the band caved in and tried to play this virtually impossible to play music live and on television sans the studio effects necessary to replicate the sound Touch needed.

As a completest thank you, several tests in the studio are performed, and while pretty good, the small but very important effects prove to be a problem. And so a record company played hard-ball, made getting this amazing album difficult and making sure the band was all but dead until their contract expired years later.

But now we can hear Touch again and while it isn't 2006 production, the sound repair is amazing. As listeners remember this was recorded in 1968 and released in 1969. Prepare for a bit of age in the production process and give this masterpiece a chance. Normally I am very sad listening to the albums I liked as a kid.That's not the case with Touch, which is great via a decent stereo and astonishing with headphones. Touch was a bold album and stands the test of time. Sit back and listen to the beginnings of Progressive Rock; the beginnings of a whole new way of recording and of using the studio as a creative tool as well as taking keyboards, especially organs, and creating a new wall of sound.

There are few moments were such massive changes meet the technical minded and the audience at the same time. Best of all, you can live the moment the world changed and our favorite form of music was born.