HR005
The Skoptzies — Bearers Of The Imperial Seal
C90
Side A:
Intro
Elvis Will Live
Would Have Sand Wishes
Castration Inst.
Got That Man
You Don’t Know
Pull Down Your Panties
Dark Shade Over The City Inst.
White Doves Inst.
Side B:
No Scrotum Inst.
Blunt Instrument Inst.
Tell Me Why #2
Elvis Was My Friend
Skoptzies Reading
Cockroach Cha Cha
Meat Market
Mystery Trac
Intro
Elvis Will Live
Would Have Sand Wishes
Castration Inst.
Got That Man
You Don’t Know
Pull Down Your Panties
Dark Shade Over The City Inst.
White Doves Inst.
Side B:
No Scrotum Inst.
Blunt Instrument Inst.
Tell Me Why #2
Elvis Was My Friend
Skoptzies Reading
Cockroach Cha Cha
Meat Market
Mystery Trac
REVIEW by Jerry Kranitz
Skoptzies is the band that evolved out of Pungent Odor. Not only did they release several tapes, but the band also did several live performances. On Bearers Of The Imperial Seal, Skoptzies consisted of Chris Phinney, Dave Grave, Jim Duckworth, Mike Honeycutt, and Kim Kruger on two songs.
After a whimsical keys, plodding bass and bashing guitar jam intro, the band launch into ‘Elvis Will Live’, with its eerie swirling keys and ominous, trippily soloing guitar jam combo along with vocals that start off spoken and then descend into a kind of wailing chant. I’m really diggin’ the guitar/keys combo on ‘Would Have Sand Wishes’. The keys are wildly swirling/screaming, the guitars are crazy jam soloing, and the vocals are angry street poet, though the high intensity jamming dominates. Wild and fun!
There’s actually quite a lot happening on jams like ‘Castration Inst.’ It’s all totally free-wheeling and zany rocking, but it’s pretty tripped out and the band gel nicely as the music develops into all kinds of chaotically cool directions. The vocals on ‘Got That Man’ have a Lou Reed vibe. The music has an off- kilter funky punk groove that chugs along. There’s guitars and I guess keys too that keep abruptly crashing into the right channel which has a disturbing effect.
‘You Don’t Know’ is a zany country punk-psych tune with angst rant preacher-poet vocals. Cool bubbling space electronics launch it all into space as the guitar anchors it all by soloing away merrily. These guys do a good job of throwing a zillion bits and pieces into the cauldron and mixing things up nicely. ‘Pull Down Your Panties’ picks up right where the previous tune left off. The music is similar though it gets way spacier and tripped out. The vocals start off kind of punk-pop and then veer into the punk-poet style heard on other tracks. The music on this set is total jamming chaos but these guys make into a gloriously hectic freeform freakout.
‘Dark Shade Over The City Inst.’ and ‘White Doves Inst.’ Bleed into each other a bit, starting out comparatively sedate and reflective while building in intensity. I like the haunting symphonic, church organ, and frantic jamming keys. The guitar alternates between pleasantly melodic and aggressively punk jazzy and what seems like a gazillion other styles. There’s an awesomely chaotic avant-space rocking jam segment, and the grand finale is a brief boogie-woogie in the cosmos rocking bit followed by a psychedelic backwards freakout. These guys really mix it up! Crazy jamming that goes in all kinds of directions but seems to flow seamlessly in its let their hair down free-improv space-psych way.
‘No Scrotum Inst.’ and ‘Blunt Instrument Inst.’ both play as one to my ears. We’ve got freeform space rock jamming that goes every which way AND loose! Eventually it gets more sedately melodic (without sparing the chaos), then starts to rock out before receding into a noodling workout. Later there’s a jazzy edge to the fuzzed guitar for a while and cool space-swirling synths and whooshing/bubbling electronics. The synth attack gets pretty sci-fi soundtrack intense, and the bass briefly takes an interesting lead role. As usual, the band are twisting and turning all over the place but it all flows in a chaotically coherent and awesomely fucked up way.
Winding down the set of a series of fun and varied songs. ‘Tell Me Why #2’ is a cool grooving lo-fi space- industrial-dance tune. ‘Elvis Was My Friend’ is similar but more valium paced with redneck-poet vocals. It’s ideal for bleary eyed dancers. Lotsa Elvis titles from this MEMPHIS band! ‘Skoptzies Reading’ is a spoken word rant against.... I have no idea. Something about the Russians? All kinds of gory medical mutilation stuff? ‘Cockroach Cha Cha’ is chock full of whimsical brain-on-drugs space-punk La Cucaracha SWING... Wheeeeeeee!!! ‘Meat Market’ is in a similar spirit as Cha Cha. And ‘Mystery Trac’ features cool cheesy synth leads and a peppy groove with heavily efx’d spoken rant which gets nicely spaced out.
Skoptzies is the band that evolved out of Pungent Odor. Not only did they release several tapes, but the band also did several live performances. On Bearers Of The Imperial Seal, Skoptzies consisted of Chris Phinney, Dave Grave, Jim Duckworth, Mike Honeycutt, and Kim Kruger on two songs.
After a whimsical keys, plodding bass and bashing guitar jam intro, the band launch into ‘Elvis Will Live’, with its eerie swirling keys and ominous, trippily soloing guitar jam combo along with vocals that start off spoken and then descend into a kind of wailing chant. I’m really diggin’ the guitar/keys combo on ‘Would Have Sand Wishes’. The keys are wildly swirling/screaming, the guitars are crazy jam soloing, and the vocals are angry street poet, though the high intensity jamming dominates. Wild and fun!
There’s actually quite a lot happening on jams like ‘Castration Inst.’ It’s all totally free-wheeling and zany rocking, but it’s pretty tripped out and the band gel nicely as the music develops into all kinds of chaotically cool directions. The vocals on ‘Got That Man’ have a Lou Reed vibe. The music has an off- kilter funky punk groove that chugs along. There’s guitars and I guess keys too that keep abruptly crashing into the right channel which has a disturbing effect.
‘You Don’t Know’ is a zany country punk-psych tune with angst rant preacher-poet vocals. Cool bubbling space electronics launch it all into space as the guitar anchors it all by soloing away merrily. These guys do a good job of throwing a zillion bits and pieces into the cauldron and mixing things up nicely. ‘Pull Down Your Panties’ picks up right where the previous tune left off. The music is similar though it gets way spacier and tripped out. The vocals start off kind of punk-pop and then veer into the punk-poet style heard on other tracks. The music on this set is total jamming chaos but these guys make into a gloriously hectic freeform freakout.
‘Dark Shade Over The City Inst.’ and ‘White Doves Inst.’ Bleed into each other a bit, starting out comparatively sedate and reflective while building in intensity. I like the haunting symphonic, church organ, and frantic jamming keys. The guitar alternates between pleasantly melodic and aggressively punk jazzy and what seems like a gazillion other styles. There’s an awesomely chaotic avant-space rocking jam segment, and the grand finale is a brief boogie-woogie in the cosmos rocking bit followed by a psychedelic backwards freakout. These guys really mix it up! Crazy jamming that goes in all kinds of directions but seems to flow seamlessly in its let their hair down free-improv space-psych way.
‘No Scrotum Inst.’ and ‘Blunt Instrument Inst.’ both play as one to my ears. We’ve got freeform space rock jamming that goes every which way AND loose! Eventually it gets more sedately melodic (without sparing the chaos), then starts to rock out before receding into a noodling workout. Later there’s a jazzy edge to the fuzzed guitar for a while and cool space-swirling synths and whooshing/bubbling electronics. The synth attack gets pretty sci-fi soundtrack intense, and the bass briefly takes an interesting lead role. As usual, the band are twisting and turning all over the place but it all flows in a chaotically coherent and awesomely fucked up way.
Winding down the set of a series of fun and varied songs. ‘Tell Me Why #2’ is a cool grooving lo-fi space- industrial-dance tune. ‘Elvis Was My Friend’ is similar but more valium paced with redneck-poet vocals. It’s ideal for bleary eyed dancers. Lotsa Elvis titles from this MEMPHIS band! ‘Skoptzies Reading’ is a spoken word rant against.... I have no idea. Something about the Russians? All kinds of gory medical mutilation stuff? ‘Cockroach Cha Cha’ is chock full of whimsical brain-on-drugs space-punk La Cucaracha SWING... Wheeeeeeee!!! ‘Meat Market’ is in a similar spirit as Cha Cha. And ‘Mystery Trac’ features cool cheesy synth leads and a peppy groove with heavily efx’d spoken rant which gets nicely spaced out.
Editor's Note:
According to Wikipedia, the band name Skoptzies came from the Russian heretical sect that practiced castration of men and mastectomy of women in accordance with their teachings against sexual lust.
According to Wikipedia, the band name Skoptzies came from the Russian heretical sect that practiced castration of men and mastectomy of women in accordance with their teachings against sexual lust.