Perry Leopold - Experiment In Metaphysics (Reissue, Remastered) (1970/1999)

Experiment in Metaphysics is one of the rarest and most sought-after artifacts of the hippie era. Recorded live during a five-hour session in the basement of a shoe-repair shop in June of 1970, most of the 300 original copies of Experiment in Metaphysics were simply given away in one afternoon, yet, inexplicably, bootleg copies of the album later sprang up half-way around the world. The reason for the album's staying power is apparent: the music is gorgeous, first-rate progressive folk. In fact, Side Two of the original LP's label was given the title "Acid-Folk" (the other side was called "Kommercial"), probably one of the very first uses of that term. Perry Leopold creates a proto-gothic ambience full of dark and brooding imagery that is much less cartoonish than most of what passes as "acid," while maintaining that music's visceral punch. Like much of the youth countercultural scene of the times, Leopold can occasionally give into mystical pretentiousness. Experiment in Metaphysics has moments -- namely the spoken-word monologue in the middle of the mostly stellar opening cut, "The Absurd Paranoid" -- of philosophical meandering. Still, even those moments maintain a period charm. Experiment in Metaphysics is exquisitely intelligent and forward-looking. Leopold's mood is much more pious than most music that came out of the psychedelic era, and, indeed, extreme piety tends to be a product of youth, yet there is something aged and wise about Leopold's music. The "Kommercial" side, cryptically subtitled "SMOKE," is conceptually bleak, and after "The Absurd Paranoid," it takes on a much more palpable quality, grounded in experience ("Cold in Philadelphia" and the gorgeous "The 35th of May"). The "Acid-Folk" side (subtitled "DROP") opens with the stark, multi-part title track. Each of the three songs in this section is a virtual mini-suite, with the closing cut, "The U.S.S. Commercial," standing as the album's magnum opus. Experiment in Metaphysics shows some truly progressive and experimental songwriting, even for the time period. Each song, even the instrumental cuts, feels like a story, with beginnings and endings and all kinds of interesting ideas and storylines sandwiched in between. The album is a relic that has not lost one iota of its power.