Friday, 1 March 2019

Beatlesque Pop Rock; Athanor - Flashback (2013 Guerssen)



Chicago, early '70s. Greg Herriges is obsessed with Lennon, 12-string guitars, and far-out psychedelic sounds. Rick Vittenson is a Beach Boys-Hollies-Who fanatic who writes for Crawdaddy! magazine. Both had previously played in several garage college bands during the '60s. Combining their mutual love for '60s music, Athanor was born.

 With the help of top studio musicians, they recorded and self-released three 45s between 1973 and 1975 (the first one produced by Mark Breyer, with whom Rick had played in pre-Skooshny band Brevity) which are now highly sought-after by fans of obscure psychedelic pop.

 All of them are featured here in stellar sound taken from the master tapes along with previously-unreleased studio tracks and superb-sounding home demos (1973-1981), plus a new song recorded in 2006 in the same vein as their vintage recordings.

Athanor's music features impressive songwriting and musicianship, a collision of Beatlesque harmony vocals, Rickenbacker and Guild 12-string guitars, occasional fuzz-wah leads, Fender Rhodes, and studio effects. Psychedelic proto power-pop highly recommended to anyone into Lazy Smoke, Badfinger, Only Ones, Emitt Rhodes, Rockin' Horse, or Creme Soda. (forcedexposure.com)


You can't get past the Beatles when you hear Athanor. Some things remind of Lennon influenced Beatles songs. But it's okay for me because I'm Beatles fanatic anyway and everything that sounds like well done, catchy pop/rock music (as in the case of Athanor) always wins with me. Recommendable. Enjoy.(Frank)

FLAC (New Link)
mp3@320 


 

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