Released
55 years ago this month is the sophomore LP from Red Krayola, God Bless
The Red Krayola And All Who Sail With It, which was issued in May of
1968. Shifting their sound radically from their debut, the band
inadvertently predicted post-punk atonality and minimalism a good decade
before it would become trendy.
After the psychedelic hippy
freakout that was The Parable of Arable Land, which inter-cut wildly
effected songs by the band with improvised mayhem from the collective,
The Familiar Ugly, a group of some 50 hangers on and friends, things got
paired down significantly for the followup. The group were down to a
trio with a scant few guests to join in. The production also took a
radical shift away from what had been done before, with the band opting
for a completely stripped down and flat production sound. No effects,
reverberation or delays were used at all, save for the last track on the
album. Only the natural acoustics of the studio room were used with
even the EQ on the tracks was deliberately kept flat to avoid adding any
color that was not inherent in the natural sound. Combined with the
disjointed, angular and obtuse performances on their instruments, the
band created a sound not dissimilar to what would come out of New York
ten years later with the “No Wave” scene, which incorporated many of the
same stylistic cues of free jazz improvisation, atonal musical
structures and stark minimalism.
At the time of its release, it
was completely misunderstood by fans and critics and it sold
exceptionally poorly compared to their previous record. Yet in the
ensuing years since its release, it has become recognized as a critical
touchstone for bands which would become cutting edge with a decade of
musical evolution behind them to provide context. For this album, when
it hit the record shops in 1968, there was literally ZERO context for
anyone to relate it to and try to understand what was going on. It was
simply unprecedented.
