Les Rallizes Denudes
Mars Studio 1980
Phoenix Records ASHBOX-3
4xCD Box Set
£36.99
Another massively potent archival round-up from Phoenix, this time reissuing one of the most sought-after of the original Univive sets, Mars Studio 1980. Probably the best loved of the Rallizes studio recordings, this set catches the group at an insane twin guitar peak with the addition of second guitarist Fujio Yamaguchi pushing the music out into a weird distended psychedelic blues zone. This beautifully assembled box features four discs of fully re-mastered studio recordings, jams, out-takes and instrumentals from an extended 1980 album session. The tracks are dominated by a clean, bluesy VU feel that’s somewhere between “Ride Into The Sun” and Dylan’s Basement Tapes, with lazy, off the cuff run-throughs, studio banter and radically different stylings of key material, with a particularly notable version of “Enter The Mirror” that features keyboard work that is almost a duck for Al Kooper’s playing on Blonde On Blonde. Also features some spectacular free improvised jams and a buncha material not heard anywhere else, all in sparkling studio fidelity. Accompanying the studio work is a fantastic live show from the Yamaguchi era, recorded on September 11th 1980 at the Yaneura club in the Shibuya district of Tokyo, previously issued as Double Heads September though not included on the Double Heads set. Mars Studio 1980 stands out amongst the plethora of Rallizes releases as a rare complete studio date that sees the group experimenting with a sound that really has few parallels even in their own back catalogue. Numbered edition of 1000 copies with new liner notes. Very highly recommended! *Ships on Wednesday*
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