Already commercially successful as tune-smiths for teenyboppers, Austin Grasmere and Brian Elliot approached Bernard Stollman looking to focus their talents on something more original and unrestrained. Stollman asked, “What would be your theme?” and Elliot replied: “Everything is one.” Bernard said, “Go do it.” What followed was Cromagnon's (Grasmere, Elliot and the Connecticut Tribe) non-linear journey through the subconscious, weaving together bizarre instrumentation and meter with a psychotic blending of musical styles. Bagpipes, pounding percussion, blood-curdling yelps, chanting, laughing, and billowing subterranean rumblings create the otherworldly soundscape that is Cave Rock. Heralded as one of the best freak-out records of all time, Cave Rock was ridiculously ahead of its time and brings to mind the savage sound-fuckery of Nurse with Wound and Throbbing Gristle as well as the hallucinations of early Red Krayola.
Personnel
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Austin Grasmere (lead vocals, music)
Brian Elliot (lead vocals, music)
Connecticut Tribe:
Peter Bennett (bass)
Jimmy Bennett (guitar, bagpipes)
Vinnie Howley (guitar)
Sal Salgado (percussion)
Nelle Tresselt (honorary tribe member)
Mark Payuk (vocals)
Gary Leslie (vocals, multi-sound effects)
Track Listing
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1. Caledonia
2. Ritual Feast Of The Libido
3. Organic Sundown
4. Fantasy
5. Crow Of The Black Tree
6. Genitalia
7. Toth, Scribe I
8. First World Of Bronze
All compositions by Austin Grasmere
Except Caledonia by Austin Grasmere & Brian Elliot
ESP Disk Ltd. ASCAP
* also issued on ESPCD 2001 entitled "Orgasm"
Credits
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Recorded 1969, A1 Sound Studio, New York City
Co-produced by Austin Grasmere and Brian Elliot
Engineered by Onno Scholtze
Original cover illustration: Howard Bernstein
Original cover art from the collection of Gregor Kessler
Production Manager: Adam Downey
Digital remastering by Douglas McGregor
Design by Miles Bachman
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Press Quotes
"An aural stew of experimental vocal sounds (tribal chanting, eerie whispering, animal-like screeching, monster sounding growls, ghostly howls, outright screaming, violent puking sounds, etc), various effects (over-dubbed sound bites played backwards, old sirens, common household sounds, manipulated electronics, field recordings) and the occasional use of a conventional instrument (spooky bagpipes, frantic rhythm guitar, scratchy fiddle) that are all meshed and held together with various forms of primitive percussion. A couple tracks have no rhythm instruments and are simply gravity defying acts of freeform music. Surprisingly, after being subjected to over 30 minutes of unintelligible voices, Cromagnon finally reap the benefits of evolution and use coherent words from the English language on the final two songs on the album. Cromagnon is ominous and experimental tribal music for the bad acid trip." J Scott Brubig, The Acid Archives
“An anomaly, even on the always far out ESP label, Cromagnon was the brainchild of Brian Eliot and Austin Grasmere,...They made a truly inspired music, a sort of Dadaist psychedelic folk, tribal and raw, ridiculous but enchanting. It's hard to believe that a record as completely far-out as Orgasm was recorded in 1969. Bands these days can't be this whacked even if they try, especially if they try." – Andee Connors
History
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LP 290 West End Avenue.
CD
Via Re-issue CD
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