Apothecary Hymns, huh? Could there be drugs involved? All signs point to hell yes. If you’re looking for a rave, however, you’re in the wrong place.
The closest you’re likely to get from Alex Stimmel, AKA Apothecary Hymns, is an Acid Test. This is psychedelia from the old school, mostly delicate psyche-folk, some sweetly crunchy guitar textures here and there with the occasional foray into full-on feedback get-the-thorazine-dude freakout.
Trowel and Era teems with banjo, acoustic guitar, recorder, and organ, with a few flatulent analogue synths (hey, it’s the nature of the instrument) thrown in for a little variety. Says here there’s a glockenspiel and an autoharp on board, too. Guess I missed 'em.
Do not let the lyrics of the opening track, “Abandoned Factories”, frighten you off. Yeah, it’s pretty dire stuff – "Abandoned factories are ghostly mirrored minds / their corners tuck away all clarity / Deep within gray areas, and lost between the lines / lie clouded crystal shards of memory” - but just think of Stimmel’s warm, Eno-esque voice as simply another instrument in the mix, let it carry you along, and all will be fine. (“Warm and Eno-esque” is not an oxymoron, by the way. Go back and listen to some of Brian Eno’s vocal work, both solo and with, say, 801, and you’ll see what I’m talking about. The lyrics may be cold, but the voice is not.)
Lyrics are not really the strong point here, with the exception of “The Human Abstraction”, and it’s William Blake set to music (organ, banjo & recorder). Not really a fair comparison, is it?
No, what makes the disc in question worthwhile are the sonic textures on display. Listening to this album, I’m put in mind of nothing so much as that most precious relic of the psychedelic era, Spirit’s 1971 opus, The Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus – only the greatest album of its day* and certainly one of the top five of all time. Not that Trowel and Era is that good, mind you, but it would hold up relatively well played back to back with it.
Article comments
1 - Temple Stark
bmarkey, This work of yours now has another venue for success, glory and taking control of the world :-) - and many more eyes - at the Advance.net Web sites, a place affiliated with about 12 newspapers.
One such site is here.
Also please let your contact know, if you had one, that this article, is published at one more place. That helps a lot.
Thank you.
Temple Stark