Various Artists - Brown Acid: The Fifth Trip album review

Heavy Pebbles – boulders, if you will

Cover art for Various Artists - Brown Acid: The Fifth Trip album

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Culled from endless hours of sifting through dusty records in forgotten corners all over the globe by the tireless crew at RidingEasy, the Brown Acid series is a Nuggets for modern times, every volume a crucial collection of impossibly obscure heavy ’n’ hairy proto-metal from the age of Aquarius.

The fifth volume of anything is bound to show some wear and tear, and The Fifth Trip does have a few ho-hummers that would probably have been rejected from the first few volumes, most notably the pedestrian prog Clockwork by Cybernaut and the plodding stoner rock Mammoth and Zebra. But it also includes some serious head-spinners, from the neo-punk of Thor’s Lick It to the jarring epic Nothing In The Sun by never-weres Finch. NoOpener Reason by Captain Foam hits a similar band-out-of-time nerve.

Perhaps the most exciting revelation on this volume is the rediscovery of the toothsome Blowing Smoke, a lost single from George Brigman, a freaked-out, turned-on teen from Baltimore who self-produced an proto-punk monster of an album, Jungle Rot, back in ‘75.

If you like it heavy and weird, take the Brown Acid.

Sleazegrinder

Came from the sky like a 747. Classic Rock’s least-reputable byline-grabber since 2003. Several decades deep into the music industry. Got fired from an early incarnation of Anal C**t after one show. 30 years later, got fired from the New York Times after one week. Likes rock and hates everything else. Still believes in Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction, against all better judgment.