The Mandrake Memorial - Puzzle. 1969 USA-Pennsylvania

Side 2 of the previous album Medium was a harbinger of things to come for The Mandrake Memorial. Gone is the trademark electric harpsichord and its place is the guitar trio - with a fully staffed choir and orchestra in tow. The conventional psychedelic songs are undoubtedly The Mandrake Memorial of the first two albums, but the other tracks show the band pushing the boundaries of rock into exciting new directions, oddly reminding me some of Pink Floyd's 'Atom Heart Mother' suite that had yet to appear. Guitarist Craig Anderton's growing interest in electronics is given a test drive on 'Bucket of Air' - a splendid display of proto Kosmiche Krautrock if there ever was one. Overall, it's definitely an experimental record, and one that did not result in commercial success for the band. The subsequent 45 single sees The Mandrake Memorial heading back towards the middle - not sure where else they could have gone honestly - and then decided to hang it up, having accomplished a great deal in only 2 short years.

Ownership: LP: 1969 Poppy; CD: 1996 Collectables. The original gatefold features a fetching Escher cover (House of Stairs from 1951), and comes with a cool circular insert, which is often missing (fortunately I have it). On the CD, Puzzle adds in the original LP liner notes which are in Dutch and likely come from Escher himself. In addition, the CD has both sides of their final 45 single as a bonus. They also inexplicably "colored in" the Escher sketch - who knows why?

7/5/14

The Mandrake Memorial - Medium. 1968 USA-Pennsylvania

Side 1 of Medium sees The Mandrake Memorial taking a step back as they try to define their sound to a finer point. There's more of a downer folk blues sound going on, though its still psych based. There's still plenty of phasing and fuzz guitar here, along with the prevailing electric harpsichord. Side 2 definitely takes the straight jacket off, and the band spreads their wings further into longer compositions and creative instrumentals - peaking on the 6 minute instrumental 'Barnaby Plum'. A mixed album, with a much greater discrepancy - both at the top and from the bottom.

Ownership: CD: 1996 Collectables. Full biography, but the same as on the other 2 album reissues.

7/4/14

The Mandrake Memorial. 1968 USA-Pennsylvania

Philadelphia based The Mandrake Memorial began their career as a psychedelic pop group, with the distinction that all the songs here feature distant "lost" vocals and electric harpsichord. There's a certain sameness to their sound throughout. The music is every bit of its era, practically defining 1968 for us. The best tracks, naturally enough for a group existing in the psych world, are those that feature biting fuzz guitar licks such as heard on 'Here I Am', 'Dark Lady', and 'Strange'. Closer 'Sunday Noon' sounds like The Mandrake Memorial covering The Doors. And it's just as great as that might sound.

Ownership: CD: 1996 Collectables. I first bought the debut LP back in 1990, appropriately enough, while in Philadelphia (with collector Jeff Baker, who I understand is no longer with us). I replaced that as soon as the CD hit the market. The debut sold well (over 100,000 copies according to the CD liner notes), especially within the local Northeast Philly/NYC/Boston market, and thus finding an original isn't too hard. If I see it again, I'll keep it this time.

7/3/14

The Mandrake Memorial - 3 Part Inventions. 1969 USA-Pennsylvania (archival)

3 Part Inventions was originally to be the album that followed Medium, The Mandrake Memorial's sophomore effort. This second album is where the band's interest in experimental music began to take hold. So much so, that founding member Micheal Kac bolted from the scene (amicably I might add). Traveling to London in the summer of 1969 to record, The Mandrake Memorial seemed on the verge of releasing their breakthrough album. But the producer, the well known and respected Shel Talmy, thought their brand of music to be hideous and quit. That left the band on their own, without any support of the British music unions, to finish what they started. Once complete, a couple of publications announced the imminent release of 3 Part Inventions.

Of course that never transpired. The label wanted them to rerecord the album, which they dutifully did, and that lead to their final effort Puzzle. In retrospect, it's hard to argue with the label here. The album doesn't really gel together. It's a set of disparate ideas and it's not crisp at all. As an archival album, however, this disparity works completely in its favor. We're hearing a band at the vanguard of music that only groups such as Pink Floyd were exploring back then. The blueprint for Krautrock honestly.

The first 3 tracks all would end up on Puzzle. I didn't compare them to the album proper, but here they seem like 3 random songs that fly by without notice. The album begins to come together on the excellent previously unreleased 'Part of My Dreams'. Here's where the Pink Floyd references start to come out. The primitive synthesizers and trippy tones are what makes this era of music so special. 'Wouldn't You Like It?' was also unreleased, and as the band notes later, should have been the hit single of the album. 'Bucket of Air' of course is the landmark track from Puzzle, from an experimental point of view that is. This version, which I'm sure is different than Puzzle's, is quite excellent as well. You could just picture these guys in front of some strobe-light film extravaganza in Berlin circa 1970. 'Witness the End' comes from Medium, but is a new tripped out version. These latter duo of tracks were to make up Side 2 of 3 Part Inventions. Way ahead of their time. The Mandrake Memorial are far more cohesive than a band like fellow Americans' Friendsound, but the music has this similar go-for-broke attitude.

That concludes the album itself. There are two more tracks thrown on, an unreleased version of 'Cassandra' and 'The 12th Brigade' a track that was left off of Medium. Too bad on the latter, as it's quite excellent psychedelic rock.

For fans of Puzzle era Mandrake Memorial, 3 Part Inventions is a must pick up. Otherwise it's probably going to be too "out there" for fans of just their earlier material.

CD: 2016 Flashback (UK)

The CD booklet has an encyclopedic amount of info regarding the full history of the band. Though oddly only a small fraction is dedicated to the 3 Part Inventions portion of their career. Also has photos, concert posters, that sort of thing. The album is taken from the original masters reel. Essential for fans of the band.