PENETRATION - AN AQUARIAN SYMPHONY

A shoddy psychedelic rock band with front man Father Yod taking centre stage with his big kettle drum in an almost Jesus like manner. The last time I saw that much hair on a face I fed it a banana.

'Ya Ho Wha' without the vowels and spaces reduces to YHWH, the Tetragrammaton. That's spooky Aleister Crowley territory in case you're unaware. 'Penetration - An Aquarian Symphony' is full of tribal drums and distorted guitars and is another of those albums that just sounds like a stoned jam by a bunch of hippies with too much time on their hands.

Supposedly they recorded this after meditation between 3.00am and 6,00am in a soundproofed garage. With no overdubs and being completely unrehearsed this should be enough to let you know what you're letting yourself in for. Joyfully, this is the only album I've heard of 'Ya Ho Wha 13' and apparently it's their highlight. Phew, I dodged a few bullets there!

Without even having to consider the possibility, this is clearly influenced by drugs, consumed wholesale by all members of this Los Angeles commune as they fuzz guitar and chant themselves into a state of stupor. Everything is very Lo-Fi and crude without any productional dynamics at all.

Happily there's some nice whistling on the last track where everything else is more subdued which lets the quietly played and tasteful guitar come to the fore. It's still a dreadful album by today's standards and sounds hopelessly lost in time.

In 1974 I would probably have loved this. As it stands today in 2015, it sounds amateurish, poorly recorded and without any thought of how it may be received in future decades .