This album, The Electronic Hole (1970), is listed under the band name, The Electronic Hole, on Apple Music. Upon closer inspection on the album’s listing on Discogs, it seems that the album was released by The Beat Of The Earth. Just last night when I listened to Relatively Clean Rivers, I learned that Phil Pearlman was a driving force behind the album I listened to last night, as well as the music from The Beat Of The Earth. This album consists of a total of two suites of songs, with side A being “The Golden Hill” and side B being “Love Will Find A Way”. On the Discogs page for this album, the genre is listed under psychedelic rock and garage rock, which when combined with the listening experience that was the Relatively Clean Rivers album that I checked out last night makes me super stoked to check out this album. With that said, I’m going to jump on into the music.
“The Golden Hour I” starts out with some really groovy keyboards, which almost create a bit of a folksy melody at the start with a psychedelic rock style that feels reminiscent of groups from the latter 1960s. Oh wow, the track picks up some syncopation and gradually becomes more shamanic and introspective in nature, as if the music is guiding you through your own stream of consciousness. Super groovy start to the album, and I’m excited to hear more.
“The Golden Hour II” starts out with a droning bass note accompanied by some psychedelic strings from an acoustic guitar and a sitar. The track reminds me a bit of “Tomorrow Never Knows” by The Beatles. Oh wow, I’m really digging this track so far. There’s a heavy inclination towards raga with the melody of the acoustic guitar, the droning bass notes, and the sitar notes that seemingly ease into the soundscape while still creating tension. Super sweet track.
Oh wow, “The Golden Hour III” has a really groovy psychedelic rock flavor that reminds me a lot of The Rolling Stones’ “Paint It Black” with the song’s dark, raga-inflected psychedelic garage rock style. Oh wow, I really dig the bass line in this track, as the bass seems to glide in the background of the soundscape alongside the beat of the drum and the raw psychedelic guitar notes. Oh wow, the tempo changes up in a really flavorful manner, getting the band into a super sweet groove as the track comes to an end. Super sweet tune.
Oh wow, “The Golden Hour IV” starts out with some super groovy flavors with the bright and light psychedelic garage rock guitars. Holy smokes, there’s a harmonica for a few moments that somehow dials up the flavor even higher as it harmonizes with the rapid guitar notes and flows alongside the grooving bass guitar, creating an orchestrated psychedelic chaos that reminds me of the Count Five’s song, “Psychotic Reaction”. Oh wow, the jams in this track keep growing and flowing as layers are added and developed. Oh wow, the tune seems to mellow at for a moment as only a lightly distorted guitar is left to melt into the soundscape, and then the rest of the instrumentation comes back into the soundscape a bit downtempo from before the guitar break. Oh wow, the vocals come in and are nearly drowned out by the instrumentation in a really groovy way. Wow, I’m really digging this jam track, and am almost reminded a bit of the early years of the Grateful Dead. Great track.
Oh wow, “Love Will Find A Way I” starts out with a super sweet guitar part, followed shortly by some vocals that seem to meld with the guitar work in a sweet distortion that you might hear in records from this time period. Holy smokes, the band gets into a bit of a jam for a moment, and the guitar gets some super sweet psychedelic licks in. Oh wow, there’s almost a strange polka feel in the rhythm of the track at the moment, and I’m really digging it. Super groovy tune.
Holy smokes, “Love Will Find A Way II” starts out with some fuzzed-out guitars and an easy groove that feels like the acid rock stylings of Iron Butterfly. I really dig that the vocals almost seem like a background instrument in this track, as though they are subtly guiding the voyage that is this song while letting the other instrumentation do most of the heavy lifting. Oh wow, the guitar work continues to develop as the track continues, keeping a lot of the flavorfully repetitious framework the same throughout the track thus far, but adding some really groovy accentuations that develop the song as it continues. I’m sort of reminded of the track “Arkansas Revisited” by The Brian Jonestown Massacre off of their EP, Bringing It All Back Home – Again (1999), if the tune were an acid rock song. Super groovy track.
“Love Will Find A Way III” begins with a bit of feedback, as though the band just turned on their amps with the volume dialed up to 11. Holy smokes, the super crunchy distortion on the electric guitar seems to walk a line between raga rock and acid rock, and I’m really digging the sound so far. It almost sounds like Iron Butterfly took a trip to India like The Beatles did. Oh wow, the slow tempo combined with the massive distortion on the guitars and smooth grooves from the bass create an absolutely humungous wall of psychedelia that almost seems to come in super groovy waves. I’m really digging this track so far. Super groovy track and a great way to end the listening experience.
Wow, this album is super sweet. I really ought to check out more of Phil Pearlman’s and more of The Beat Of The Earth’s discography. The album evolved in a really steady manner from a sort of folksy psychedelic rock to raga-inflected psychedelic garage rock jams and then to massive acid rock grooves. If you’re a fan of groups like Iron Butterfly and the mid-to-late 1960s Rolling Stones, you might want to consider checking out this album. If you do decide to give this album a listen, I sincerely hope that you enjoy the listening experience at least as much as I did.
-A