Stark Reality - Acting, Thinking, Feeling: The Complete Works 1968-1978 3x CD box set
SKU
05-NA 5094
This is a fascinating set that grew out of a 1970 kids TV show! Read this and be amazed!
"Acting, Thinking, Feeling marks the first time that psychedelic jazz ensemble The Stark Reality's Discovers Hoagy Carmichael's Music Shop album has been reissued in full (the 2003 Stones Throw Records anthology Now only contained half of the original album's music). The anthology also contains the band's out-of-print Roller Coaster Ride (first issued as 1969 on Now-Again in 2003), and a series of recently discovered, previously-unreleased tracks in a three CD 'complete works' box set. Besides the missing Hoagy Carmichael's Music Shop songs, the most exciting additions to the Stark Reality's oeuvre are the three songs recorded between the earliest incarnation of the band -- the big band that recorded 'Theme to Say Brother' and 'Acting, Thinking, Feeling' in 1968 -- and the slimmed down combo that recorded the Roller Coaster Ride and The Stark Reality Discovers Hoagy Carmichael's Music Shop. These recordings display a band in flux, and color the development of Stark's genius. We hear the signature sound of his 'plugged in' vibes for the first time; we hear an early stab at the psychedelic 'Red Yellow Moonbeams' (and realize why his addition of John Abercrombie and his fuzz guitar was crucial to his vision); we hear a subtle change towards a more funk and rock based sound. Contains 52-page booklet with never before seen photos, extensive liner notes and annotation."
"Probably the farthest out of any children's record, The Stark Reality Discovers Hoagy Carmichael's Music Shop descended on unwitting pre-teens in 1970, thanks to Boston's public-television station WGBH and one of its producers, Hoagy Bix Carmichael...The Stark Reality are most reminiscent of Larry Coryell or the early Soft Machine; they state a bizarre, barely tuneful theme, then spend a period of time making that theme sensible to listeners, and often insanely catchy, by improvising on it extensively -- worrying it to death with fuzztone guitar, distorted vibraphone, and nimble, scaling basswork. Stark's vocals, which only come in occasionally, are of the psychedelic hillbilly variety, a monotoned parody of his Oklahoma accent singing of the months in the year, cooking, making friends, and on the highlight "Rocket Ship," a ride into space. It's truly difficult to believe any child would know what to make of this without parental supervision -- unless any parents were visionary enough to expose their child to musical events like the Soft Machine's support slot for Hendrix during 1967 or the Miles Davis engagement at the Cellar Door in 1970 that produced Live-Evil -- but open-minded listeners during its second incarnation will undoubtedly prove more appreciative."-John Bush/Rovi
- LabelNow Again
- UPC659457509422