Whales, Lizards and Mirrors
Way back in the incense-fogged, swirling yesterdays of 1985 Dimentia 13 unveiled their first album, which was released on the ever alternative Midnight records label of New York, USA. There were many records released that year that purported to be of a psychedelic nature, yet this release was the perhaps the most psychedelic record to enter the listening circus since Pearls Before Swine took their 'One Nation Underground' in '67. Housed in a beautifully hideous sleeve, depicting a mutating opium-drunk Eastern God, Dimentia 13 somehow managed to capture the spirit of that sweet psychedelic wine that flows, like liquid lights, from the grooves of some of the best mind-expanding discs of our time. The music, a fusion of Garage, Acid Rock and lonesome acoustic folk (with a touch of the psychotically surreal), appealed to the lysergic fans all and sundry. Just a quick glance at the undulating script on the sleeve revealed all, with homage paid to The Moving Sidewalks, The Mothers, Jimi Hendrix, The Electric Prunes and Dimentia 13's contemporaries such as Plan 9, The Meat Puppets, and the Vipers. This record could be described as "a trip" in the truest sense of the term. Dimentia 13's debut record still sounds as fresh today as the day it was born, as one side opens in a wah-wah wave of "We Are". The lead vocalists voice is oddly out of key, more so than Syd as his most discordant and interwoven around this ethereal phantom-like utterance is a cascading run of oh-so-electric guitar. "I Think I Should Know" side-steps strangely by, eccentric and offbeat, in an acoustic soft of way, while "Farmer Brown" is sheer Psycho-Candy delight. The thriving Seeds like beat is powered by a slightly Hendrix, slightly unknown glowing guitar riff and some punchy keyboards. "look out of your window and I'm sure you'll see Farmer Brown, in his psychedelic Chevy he just came into town..."
Fans of white light guitar fuzz will be enraptured by the rolling licks of 'Lysergic Mental Vibrations', one of the heaviest tracks on the album, a number which is followed by perhaps the crown of the whole collection "I Am A Whale". Words cannot do this wonderful piece of 80's psychedelia justice. As the first chords of a gently strummed guitar ripple over keyboard and synth lines, that odd voice sings in a slow spiral: "if seeing is believing, then tell me it's not true,'cos I just saw the walls melting, and the room is turning blue". The song slowly develops and seems to turn and fold in on itself, beneath the repeated refrain "I am a whale, I am a dolphin, I swim in the sea without a porpoise" while in the background a fuzz guitar goes distortion crazy. Wonderful!
Side two of the record, likewise, has its fair share of classics. "Politician" is a fuzz stomper that makes some cutting remarks about the political life, while "Last in Line" is a ragged lurching punker with a great fuzz riff bubbling up from beneath. "Colors" is another aquatic adventure embellished with acoustic guitar, backward noises and voices ("It's no use playing backwards. For better results, please play in a clockwise direction"), while heavy Acid rock reappears in the form of "Psilocybin Spot", and extremely intense instrumental piece that sounds like an electric shock set to music -OW! Lastly, "The Lizard" is a psychedelic ballad that tells of the singers strange mind expanding journey into uncertainty. The center section is a very weird barrage of feedback voices, chimes and noises. If you've ever read those books about Don Juan and his cactus friends, you may well appreciate this tale of enlightenment. Another stunner!
Thus Dimentia 13's first album found its way to the day-go niche in the halls of Psychedelia. However, the identity of the band remained a complete mystery, the only clue being the name of the producer, Brad Warner and the engineer Scot Goodman. Midnight were certainly not giving the game away, and in 1987, two years later, a second LP appeared in an amazing mirror sleeve. The LP was, appropriately, called "Mirror Mind" and depicted on its silver jacket was a many eyed brain holding a looking glass and a one eyed spider made out of fingers!
The music was equally bizarre, although not perhaps as varied in its composition. Highlights of side one include "Mezmerized", with its pulsing keyboard motif, and the haunting "Mushroom Season" that has an almost otherworldly atmosphere permeated with strange, delicate sitar, harpsichord, tabla and church organ -like sounds. The vocals are as ever almost discorporate: "The crux of the matter is fading into dreams". The 'Avalon Ballroom' sounds of the instrumental "Bug Soup (I Will Miss You)" conjures up images of vibrating light shows and thick reefer smoke with its flowing guitar licks and very psychedelic bass rhythms. On side two we find the brooding punk of "Psychedelic Mushroom Cloud Explosion" and "She's Alright", sandwiched either side of the almost folk-rock "20 Years Before My Time". The best cut here, however, is "Naked Truth", which closes the LP, and recalls "I Am A Whale" on the first LP. Beautiful backward guitar lines fly around a gently meandering acoustic guitar pattern that is in turn ushered onward by tabla beats. More exquisite lyrics evoke dreamy images:-" Opening backwards someone must have come that way long ago....how many ways do I have to tell the story of the naked truth I once beheld?" The creator of these records certainly means business, as far as mind expanding is concerned.
But...who is, was, or will be Dimentia 13? That is the question and that is the mystery that FREAKBEAT herein now reveals to third eyes everywhere....
The Naked Truth
Dimentia 13 is Brad Warner. Brad created all the sounds on the first two LP's together with his girlfriend Louanne Varholick. Brad, Ohio born and now living in Chicago, has been involved with music for a number of years. His first band '0.D.F.X.' (Zero Defex) he describes as a hardcore band in which he played bass and was the only member with hair. Brad: "I had long hair and everyone else was shaven headed. I was the only one who smiled on stage. They called me 'Brad No Sweat' because I was the only one in the band who did not sweat!"
Brad's interest in psychedelic music was nurtured when he thumbed through a couple of Rock encyclopedias in his school library and came across some groups that "sounded so cool" that he had to find their records. Fired by this new sound he decided to create 'Dimentia 13', an 80's psychedelic band, named after an old horror movie frequently shown on late night American TV. Unfortunately, he now regrets choosing the name due to the associations that go with it. Brad explains that there was no initial concept involved with Dimentia 13.
"There isn't really a concept as such, its just whatever I happen to be doing at the time musically. When I sent the tapes to Midnight, J.D. Martignon picked up on the Syd Barrett influences that were coming out, so I made a record along those lines, but there isn't a concept as such - it's just whatever happens!"
Originally, Brad wanted to pursue a solo psychedelic career however, at the time of the release of the first album, J.D. Martignon decided that it would be wise to adopt a group moniker, since solo artists were dropping like flies being associated, as they were, with the Elton John/ John Denver trip. As noted previously Brad had the assistance of Louanne Varholick, during the recording sessions, who added bass lines, and some fine keyboard work on "I am a Whale". The fabulous sleeve artwork was created by Vince Rancid who also designed the equally tripped out sleeve for the second album "Mirror Mind".
Brad: -"Vince is a guy I've known since my punk rock days in Ohio. He did some covers for MDC and Raw Power. Mostly punk stuff. When I asked him to do the first Dimentia 13 cover he was thinking "well, maybe I shouldn't because that's what I've become associated with" but I think he did a great job on both covers. I consider him a part of Dimentia 13. Unfortunately, circumstances forced us to use someone else for the new LP, but he's a very valuable person as far as we're concerned. He lives in a log cabin in West Virginia, with no electricity, a wife, a baby, a pond and some goats!"
Apart from being fascinated with 60's psychedelic bands Brad's rather strange musical direction was reinforced by the bland popular music of his youth in the 70's.
"The music that was available and liked by my friends was shit! It was absolute garbage! REO Speedwagon, Styx, Journey that kind of thing….. and I rejected it. I started going to used record stores and buying records by Blue Cheer and Frank Zappa. Psychedelic means 'mind expanding', if you look it up in the dictionary. I like music that strikes me in a deep way, which is why I like Syd Barrett a lot, because I find what he was doing to be extremely meaningful to me. There are other things that I like which I would consider mind expanding, that do not necessarily fall into the genre of psychedelia such as Frank Zappa or Bob Dylan. As far as the genre itself is concerned though, I like music with cryptic lyrics because I think life is cryptic!"
But what of that old paisley chestnut psychedelic drugs?
Brad:-" I don't do them! I did acid a few times, the last time being about five years ago. I did LSD for all the quasi-mystical experiences that were touted about psychedelics in various pieces of literature. Since I stopped doing them I've been into meditation and Buddhist oriented stuff, which I've found ultimately to be far better than the drugs, because the effects are more lasting."
The music of Dimentia 13 is certainly cryptic, especially when it comes to lyrics. "Farmer Brown" tells the tale of a guru or special person who people flock around and love and will take any sort of shit from. Hence the reference to the wheelbarrow in the story.
Brad:-"There's a particular person in Kent, Ohio, whom I have in mind now, but I don't know if I had him in mind when I wrote the song. There's maybe even a reference to the Hare Krishna movement which some friends of mine were into joining."
The psychoactive ditty "I am a Whale" Brad describes as a kind of nonsense in that it is not about anything in particular, but does have meanings unto itself, which are in part his own feelings about life. Three weeks prior to writing the song Brad saw the Monkees film 'Head' and instantly fell in love with the 'Porpoise Song'.
Brad:-"I remember thinking 'I'm going to write a song along those lines' and when I did I was sure that I had written the "Porpoise Song", so I stuffed the tape away in a drawer and when I finally got a record with the "Porpoise Song" on it I realised that "I am a Whale" was nothing like my song, so I put it out anyway! The demo recording, by the way, was exactly the same except it had no organ on it."
Finally, "The Lizard" is described by Brad as a rip off of Neil Young's "Last Trip to Tulsa".
Brad:-"Maybe that's the only song I have that has anything to do with tripping. It starts out with a person saying 'I tried to go tripping but I knew it wouldn't last'. The sound effects in the middle were my tribute to The Moving Sidewalks. My parents think the song is about them moving down to Texas, when I stayed in Ohio. They take things personally!"
The second Dimentia 13 LP 'Mirror Mind' contained some equally fine songs encased in a rather more 60's punk styled overcoat. Brad admits that the style is more 60's than the first LP but is quick to point out that the intention was to create a kind of pop album. However it did not really come out as intended and he has yet to meet someone who as spotted the pop concept. Some of the songs are pretty tripped out, particularly "Mushroom Season" and "Naked Truth" in a way that is conducive to most people.
Brad:-"It's also a rip-off of Sgt. Peppers' - I'll let the readers figure out how!"
The psychedelic effects that materialised on Mirror Mind were achieved using some of the latest rock technology. Rather than hump a huge Farfisa around the studio, Brad sampled one, together with a Sitar sound taken from the emulator. The sampler was also used to create other weird effects.
Brad:-"In Ohio it was a studio with a lot of instruments lying around and I used to pick them up and play with 'em to see what they did. We had a double-neck 12 string + bass Rickenbacker, (which I used) a Mellotron, a set of chimes, and all sorts of other strange things which made their way onto the record. In fact for the first two records I hardly used any of my own instruments - nearly everything was either in the studio or borrowed!"
At the moment "live" Dimentia 13 performances are, unfortunately, rare. Generally, Brad does not like playing live because of the audiences that turn up, which quite often include drunks and people who have no idea what's going on. Sometimes Brad will play garage oriented shows, with garage type bands such as the now defunct Royal Nonesuch but Dimentia 13's music does not fit very well in this kind of musical bag.
Brad:-"It would be wonderful to go to England and play, but financially it's a problem. I know it was even impossible for Plasticland to go play there! I'd be interested in doing it and, since most of what we do on stage is improvisational, it might be fun!"
Disturbing the Air
Recently Dimentia 13 has been in the studio to record the third LP called 'Disturb the Air', which will be available on Midnight Records from about the end of March 1989. The new LP represents a step forward for Brad since the production is on a grander scale than anything that has been attempted in the studio so far. With the assistance of Glen Rehse, of Plasticland, acting as producer, Brad, Louanne and drummer Witold Janczak, have created a slice of 80's psychedelic rock that in future years will certainly be seen as one of the main representations of the genre. This is the first Dimentia 13 album to include musicians other than Brad and Louanne and it is a great pleasure to find guest appearances made by Glen Rehse (on keyboards) and John Fallon of The Steppes (who plays some superb raga rock guitar on "St. John Society's Children"). John Fallon's contribution came about by pure chance.
Brad:-"John happened to be in the US when we were recording the new album. He was staying in Chicago and got in contact with Glenn who told him about myself and the new recordings. He came down to the studio one day, while we were laying down some basic tracks, and kindly added some superb guitar work on a song I just happened to pick because it had a long instrumental passage in it. He did a wonderful job on "St. John Society's Children". It wasn't originally intended to be the close-out of the album until John came in a did his bit. I decided then that it sounded so good that nothing could possibly follow it!"
In addition to the guitar maelstrom of "St. John Society's Children" 'Disturb the Air' contains some sizzling psyched out passages of music that go hand-in-hand with some rather more laid back melodies. "Martyred Under Mary" rocks gently in the cradle of a beautiful, swooping bass line whereas "Do What You Will" and "Yesterday Will Never Tell" punch through to your subconscious with their sharp and dynamic acid-rock guitar lines. Amongst those guitar moments, mentioned previously, we find the very Barrettesque "It's Awfully Nice of You", the purely acoustic "Madrigal" and the ethereal floating astral navigations of "Disturb the Air" - the title track of the new LP that is given a fabulous keyboard embellishment by Mr. Rehse (who presumably also had some involvement with "Arousing Polaris", a song named after the pre-Plasticland group). Whether you like your psych bluesy, melodic, explosive or just plain weird that you will find something to satisfy your cravings here.
As far as the future is concerned Brad has a few plans forming in the back of Dimentia 13's ever inventive mind. One of them involves releasing some limited edition LPs on Midnight records which would consist of mainly home recordings - a project which would certainly be welcomed here in Freakbeat-land. Whatever may come to pass Brad is firm in the belief that Psychedelic music has a place in the 80's and is not an artifact of the 60's.
"I think that the whole psychedelic movement needs to get away from the idea, that a lot of people have, that it's a 60's revival thing. I think that what Dimentia 13 and a number of other bands are doing is just as valid and "Eighties" as anything else going on in the marketplace. It seems that no one will accept something as eighties unless it's got synthesisers and a disco beat on it! We've got to get away from that stigma!"
Too right we have!
Also included were two flexi discs, one of which includes the previously unreleased 'Mr. Blood Clot'!
All rights of this article belong to Freakbeat magazine. This article reproduced for informational purposes only.
