Alan Dearling shares the psychedelic vibes
Joe Hollick was performing under the name, Human Hand: A solo acoustic set. Joe came to the stage strangely apologetic for being alone for a solo gig on a bustling Friday night, saying, “I’m meant to have a band with me tonight, but thanks for indulging me.”
In reality, Joe held the crowd mesmerised with his intense thumb-picking style. A gently lilting sound, amplified with harmonics, and added locomotive guitar shuffle, a haze of fuzz distortion. This was a truly psychedelic concoction, full of strange but magical musical meanderings, really rather reminiscent of guitar maestros like John Fahey, Danny Kirwan, Peter Green and Peter Case. Idiosyncratic – an immaculate conception, indeed! Many layers of mystical, complex guitar sounds.
Here is ‘Madrigal Wagon’ from Joe Hollick’s recent solo guitar album, ‘Rest Lessness’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T38l9BfSyok
Joe is best known for his playing an extreme fuzzed-up Gibson Firebird in the cult psychedelic rock band, Wolf People. But he loves acoustic guitar and is a real expert. In fact, something of an acoustic adventurer. His record label, Cardinal Fuzz says: “Joe effortlessly combines influences from British Folk, Krautrock and Mali Blues.” Dave Cambridge (Cardinal Fuzz) adds, “Each of the meticulous notes Joe plays has a feeling of wide open space and exploration – like the flow of a gentle stream as it makes it way up to a waterflow whereupon the echoing growl and twang brings forth a sublime dissonance”.
Project Gemini: Here’s what the advance publicity announced: “A live show truly not to be missed, for lovers of guitar-heavy funk, acid-folk, Anatolian rock, ‘60s psych and dusty breaks. If 2022’s ‘The Children of Scorpio’ was the debut album that turned people onto the world of Project Gemini aka Paul Osborne, 2024’s ‘Colours & Light’ is the body of work that will be buried deep into their hearts. It is a majestic album, bringing together the worlds of folk rock, psych soundtracks and hazy cinematic funk.”
https://projectgemini.bandcamp.com/
Colours & Light video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjnQURQb9mI
From 2022, Children of Scorpio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwxf696_FK4
From the opening number, ‘Forest Creeper’ their first single, project Gemini hit the stage at speed. A locomotive guitar shuffle, symphonic, cinematic soundscapes. Aural dreamscapes evoking the deep void of travelling across space and time. And as the set moved into the material from the recent album, ‘Colours & Light’, the band really hit their impressive, individualistic stride. This new sound is described by Paul Osborne, the bass-playing cornerstone of Project Gemini, as being, “…more layered and diverse…with a more outward looking, global sound.”
They are purveyors of great tunes, true believers in the psych-flame of life. Soaring music that is simply beatific. Very, very reminiscent of raga-like syncopations of the Grateful Dead, Electric Prunes and other great ‘out there’ bands of the late ‘60s/early ‘70s West Coast scene.
On Spotify there’s even a 44 track playlist of music that inspired Paul Osborne to create ‘Colours & Light’. Music from Pentangle to a mix of Anatolian psychedelic bands, Trees to Pierre Cavelli. And for the first Project Gemini album, ‘Children of Scorpio’ the publicity for it says that, “The album draws on iconic classics such as the masterful cinematic funk of Lalo Schifrin’s ‘Dirty Harry’, Ennio Morricone’s ‘Vergogna Schifosi’ and Luis Bacalov’s ‘The Summertime Killer’, to name but a few. You can also hear the folk sounds of Mark Fry’s iconic ‘Dreaming With Alice’.”
Paul and his bandmates performing live as Project Gemini featured Jack Sharp (Large Plants/Wolf People) on guitar, Tony Coote (Little Barrie/PP Arnold/Greg Foat/Steve Craddock) on drums and Bert Page (The Cromagnon Band) on keys. Plus Joe Hollick joining the band for a memorable closing musical explosion!
Here they are live at the Night Owl: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTLGxiWneYQ
My friend, Catherine Moore, takes up the ‘story’ of this really rather intriguing gig:
“Project Gemini started their set off with classic tracks featuring prominent bass and drums. They opened with nostalgic sounds that brought together psychedelic rock and folk sounds that I found reminiscent of the glory days of ‘70s cinematic soundscapes.
A few tracks in, and the whole feel tightened up and become much more of a creative, spontaneous and unified sound with all the individual members of the constellation of the band having their place in a multi-layered, beautiful and textural landscape. The vocal harmonies added extra layers of interesting diverse complexity conjuring otherworldly images.
Once they moved onto the tracks from their latest album, ‘Colours& Light’, the confidence shifted and the stand out guitar sounds took more of a lead in shaping tracks that had something of a funk rhythm about them at times.
For the band’s ‘encore’, the magnificent Joe Hollick, used to playing with Jack Sharp from their days in Wolf People, joined on the electric guitar and introduced pure magic into the mix creating a beautifully noisy and raw sound, not unlike the Human Hand.”
Before, betwixt and between, and after the live music, DJs Sie Norfolk and Andy Votel were busy spinning some unusual and evocative vinyl for the delectation of the Golden Lion punters.