As mentioned recently, I could have sworn I had a UMR entry for this album. Appears I hadn't heard this record since I started this blog. huh. Over 18 years ago I wrote:
I have to admit to being surprised Aardvark's sole album isn’t more highly revered than it is. Heavy organ rock, with a really great fuzz sound (and some fuzz bass), spastic drumming, great melodies that could only come from England at this time. ‘The Outing – Yes’ goes into Ohr label Krautrock territory. And ‘Put That In Your Pipe and Smoke It’ still reigns king in the intense organ rock freakout category. It’s my own private reserve I guess.
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I almost went +1 from there last night, but held back. Still it's a 5 star / Gnosis 13 for my tastes. I highlighted the two primary underground interest pieces. But I what I didn't call out is how wonderful the other six short form tracks are. Very British sounding, a holdover from the psych era. Not that far off from Caravan's debut with less instrumentation.
Ownership: LP: 1970 Deram. Single sleeve. Stereo version. Recent online acquisition (2023). Paid quite a bit for this, but this is a title I really wanted to own. Both from a music perspective and I have history with the LP. My first copy was indeed the original purchased from a mail order dealer at the beginning of 1994. In those years between 1994 and before I got married (early 1997), I had become quite the "wheeler dealer", trading frequently with some of the heavy hitter European dealers of the day. When the Si-Wan CD hit the market, I decided to float the Aardvark out there to trade for more LP rarities. I received two inquiries immediately. One from a well-known Belgian dealer and one from a dear friend in Italy who I had recently stayed with in Rome. The deal in Belgium was awesome, but Aardvark was not the primary of the batch, so I thought maybe I could swap it out. But no such luck, it had to be part of the deal. What I received in return are rarities I still own to this day and most have never been reissued. It may have been the best trade I ever made. The sad part is I had to withdraw the offer to my friend. He was very upset and I lost the friendship. Which sucks, but it is what it is. This copy, however, will not be offered to anyone :-)
CD: 2005 Deram (Japan). Papersleeve edition. This copy replaced the Si-Wan version. From 1996 until just recently, the CD is all I owned. For music this good, I want to own on both formats.
1//94; 3//05; 9/19/23 (new entry)
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