Henry Kaiser left a copy of Ultraviolet Licorice on my doorstep while I was at the ball game yesterday.
I love the title – seems to me it’s derived from Bob Bralove‘s Infrared Roses and Jerry Garcia’s oft-quoted statement that the Grateful Dead is like licorice – you either love it or you don’t.
Michael Zelner forwarded this review to the GD Hour mailing list:
HENRY KAISER/BOB BRALOVE – Ultraviolet Licorice (Blove; USA)
Featuring Henry Kaiser on electric & acoustic guitars and Bob Bralove on acoustic piano and synths. Both Henry Kaiser and Bob Bralove have worked with members of the Grateful Dead at different times. Henry has sat in with Phil Lesh & Friends and Mr. Bralove played live with The Dead for a number of years during the drums and/or space segments. Hence, both of these men know the power of psychedelic jamming. Right from the gitgo of “Concrete Nebula”, those cosmic space/rock sounds and vibes are flowing. There is a strong give and take between both musicians, as well as an uplifting, transcendent wash of warm pastel colors. Even when both musicians play acoustic instruments, their sound is still quietly cosmic. When Henry switches to that fuzz/wah wah tone on “Red Queen”, you just want it to go on forever. It sounds as if the duo is playing during a thunder storm on “Heavenly Plaster” and it fits just right. Mr. Bralove seems to favor his acoustic piano and uses his synth selectively to create moods or set the scenes of the journeys these men take us on. If any of you out there have a problem with the Dead, please forget any references that I made here since this music is still wonderful, engaging and transformative. In the olden days (of the seventies), one might call this space music or perhaps early krautrock. Either way, it is consistently mesmerizing.
I spent the day listening to some recent and early period live Grateful Dead discs. I got to hear two versions of “New Potato Caboose” (my current favorite early Dead song), one from this year and one from 1968. I bring this up since it was fellow Dead fan Henry Kaiser who hipped me to the early live version. I also bring this up since keyboard wiz, Bob Bralove, has worked with The Dead for eight years, even producing a couple of their albums.
– Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery
Do let us know when/where we can buy this!
The album is on Bob’s independent label (BLove) and doesn’t appear to have wide distribution. But it is available now from NYC’s Downtown Music Gallery. The link is in the album title at the top of the review, above.
Henry laid the cd on me the other nite-and i lov it.
from crunchee fuzzed out to acoustica that has a pointed point(?)
great to listen to while…
“Not everybody likes licorice, but the people who like licorice REALLY like licorice.”