Steve Farmer - Journey To The Darkside Of The Mind (1999)
Reviewer: A music fan (London, England)
I saw the Amboy Dukes perform several times in the late 60s in a London club - the 'British' Amboy Dukes, who did a cover of 'Judy in Disguise', that is. The 'American' band were, and remain, very little-known in England, unfortunately.
Because I never knew the sound of the original band, this particular album by Steve Farmer was completely new to my ears. It's very well-performed rock/psychedelic material, with - in places - a very strong sound indeed. As a keyboard player myself, I thought 'Wow!' when I heard 'The Stone', and it made me realise that 1960s Farfisa-type organ sounds can still work very well in rock. As an earlier reviewer has already noted, the keyboard work is a bit of a mystery, because it seems to have a Babylonian Tiles dimension, and I found on their website a reference to this album being originally conceived as a Babylonian Tiles release, prior to Steve Farmer getting involved. So the status of the record is not entirely clear, and that's re-inforced by the title 'HipDeathGoddess' - supposedly belonging to the Babylonian Tiles' singer/keyboard player - being attributed to another female on the CD booklet! Which is all very odd...
As far as the songs are concerned, they're strong enough to support repeated listening, and I don't think this is the sort of CD you'd buy, play just once, and then file away. I think it's great, and you definately don't need to be a fan of the Amboy Dukes from decades ago to enjoy it. There's supposedly a 'live' version of the album on its way at some stage, and as far as I'm concerend, the more Steve Farmer that's available, the better. If you knew the original Dukes, this has to be a 'must'. But there's enough excellent material here to make it a very sound purchase anyway. I think it's worth getting for the first three or four tracks alone. The production was done by Victor Peraino, who runs the Diversion studio, who was the synth/keyboard man in the final line-up of Arthur Brown's Kingdom Come back in 72/73; Victor also does some synth work on the CD. Old hippies re-living their pasts? No way!
1. Journey To The DakSide Of The Mind
2. Shadows On The Wall
3. Journey (Sojourn Soul)
4. Detroit After Dark
5. The Stone
6. Hiroshima
7. Ivory Castles
8. Death Is Life
9. Saint Phillips Friend
10. A Perfect Day
11. Sir Thomas Sonnet
12. Hip Death Goddess
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