1. Beers (03:14) 2. Love Is Just a Dream (03:38) 3. Taka (03:41) 4. Teenage Romance (02:16) 5. Creation (02:26) 6. Commercials (07:27)
Though Ted Stilles throws some “Beers” at you with an instrumental heavy guitar jammer as you first cue up his 1980 private press ‘Bhang’ LP it is obvious those brews have been dosed with acid. As soon as you hit track two things get very psychedelic and stay that way. Using a remarkably cohesive variety of flavors, everything about this LP has the sound and feeling of the vintage late ‘60s proto psychedelic hard rock pioneers first reaching new territory. In a blindfold test I could have guessed this came out circa 1970, a local Jersey dude in the wake of Jimi with his own ideas... but it is 1980 and that sense of sounding outside of time is what led collectors to ‘Bhang’ in the first place. In the early ‘80s before the internet globalized knowledge and the market for obscure private pressing records a secretive network of collectors and dealers were busy uncovering all the vintage local ‘60s and early ‘70s monsters that blow your mind today. While uncovering buried treasure from the original psychedelic rock era as it played out in their own neighborhoods they also came across more recent local gems that would appeal to the slowly growing underground fan base and market for this kinda stuff. Ted Stilles first achieved psychedelic cult fame under these circumstances not long after the LP came out when a pioneer New Jersey psych dealer Bill Paquin scored copies and hyped them towards collectors of the vintage era. This scenario played out often back in the ‘80s with monsters only a few years old at their time of discovery like George Brigman’s ‘Jungle Rot’, Ray Harlowe & Gyp Fox’s ‘First Rays’ or Marcus ‘From The House Of Trax’... uncovered, tracked down and unleashed by obsessive vintage psych collectors who had the ears to realize they deliver as potently as the first wave in a real, not retro way. In other words this slice of life sounds as alive now as when it was created and deserves it’s place amidst the earlier classics, 1970 and 1980 are the same year when looking back from 2024!
Bhang is a paste made of cannabis sativa used as a mood enhancing food additive. Ted Stilles sound rides a similar wave, plenty of heavy guitar action but more cosmic than aggressive, when he gets bluesy it has an otherworldly Jimi flavor, when he does vocals he really plays with your head. His brother Ed Stilles on bass and Brad Mabu Young on drums round out the basic trio, with guests on bass, percussion and piano on a couple tracks. You can check out more recent music from Ted online, he’s still creating 44 years after this impressive debut. An overseas Ted fan made the comment “It tastes like America, even has that bizarre after taste...” to which Ted replied “1980 was bubbling with bizarre”... and here is the proof!
SIDE ONE:
BEERS throws you a curveball right out of the gate although you don’t realize that until it is over. Terrific two chord instrumental jammer with some fluid Jimi action, garage immediacy, freaky bass moves near the end that are a gas and would have tragically been squelched had some fancy producer been involved. Beer works as a proper intoxicant for the opening track but the title becomes an ironic inside joke in my mind as things unexpectedly turn full blown psychedelic.
LOVE IS JUST A DREAM kicks in with a hypnotic bass pattern propelling time as layered spooky alienated vocals and phantasmic guitar hover in and out, closer to the Twilight Zone than the blues, conveying a haunted resignation to the meaning of the title. The entire track feels like you hallucinated it, every sound unified in creating an uneasy atmosphere of being lost walking in circles. Brilliant arrangement, the guitars and voices seem to come at you from multiple perspectives simultaneously.
TAKA ups the ante in the psychedelic guitar department with full blown mystic raga action after an almost DIY sounding solo guitar intro. The rhythmic trance groove underlying this feast of psychedelic guitar is similar to the feel of “All Tomorrow’s Parties” by the Velvet Underground, time seemingly moving forward and backwards simultaneously. Ted’s guitar moves take that vibe to the max, reaching experimental zones, filled with lyrical detail. Ted plays all instruments on this track, guitar, bass, drums... you really feel like you are inside his head here, just as inwards and outwards become the same direction. That is extremely psychedelic.
TEENAGE ROMANCE shifts gears entirely, closing out side one. Ted’s ability to float above the clouds on slide guitar takes this one into wide open spaces. A stately paced rhythm beneath with some guitar jangle, piano and percussion evokes an earthy natural outdoors ambience. It’s the ‘pretty’ track on the LP, celebratory in an unassuming way, fresh and full of life and anticipation capturing the walking-on-the- clouds feeling of a newly arisen teenage romance. Or the sense of possibility and new worlds opening up just as the acid starts to kick in.
SIDE TWO:
CREATION is the sort of creation that rarely occurs outside of the private pressing universe. The entire ‘Bhang’ LP exudes unfiltered and genuine vision recorded with a minimum of tinkering, real people taking cues from the rock scene at the time but making it entirely their own. The track opens with a psychedelic collage of voices and wiggy effects before sliding into a climbing riff groove shot through with multi weaving vocals that seem to sneak at you from over your shoulder. It is beyond genre, more fun than a barrel full of funhouse mirrors, confidently outrageous. All of the performances on the ‘Bhang’ LP have that sort of vivid energy but this track has the most appealingly preposterous experimental moves along with an uplifting positive attitude towards life the opposite of the other vocal track on the LP “Love Is Just A Dream” where things seem alienated and eerily futile.
COMMERCIALS is the epic closer clocking in at over seven minutes, basically a long jam with a repeated descending chord pattern and acres of heavy psych guitar, primitive but expansive. The jam gets going and out of nowhere a guy’s voice blurts “oh- oh! It’s the sun!” and you wonder, huh? The title of the track makes sense then as a sound clip from a skin cream commercial unfolds, followed by a girl selling make-up, a guy selling new suits and raincoats... in classic private pressing surprise fashion Ted decided to include some genuine product commercials in his jam titled “Commercials” and they fade away after a couple moments and the stellar psychedelic guitars ride it on out into the sunset. This is a concise trip... the whole program rolls by in about 23 minutes without a second wasted!
![Ted Stilles - Bhang (2024) [Hi-Res]](https://www.dibpic.com/uploads/posts/2024-06/1717307255_iu4cadkitc5na_600.jpg)
