You can see forever with the Black Sun Ensemble."
-CMJ NEW MUSIC REPORT
(The Black Sun Ensemble)
"The steady rhythm section of John Brett & Mike Glidewell steps back to let Jesus rip out a freeform solo through primal fuzz. My vinyl copy trumps the CD reissue for mojo distortion, spitting white noise fused with the recorded tones. A severe epic in two and a half minutes. Headphones recommended. Followed by Blue Thunder, another beauty."
-Otto Terrorist, drummer
RUBY EYES OF CHINA
(The Black Sun Ensemble)
"My favorite...Ruby Eyes of China....lovely!"
-Jonathan Levitt, BSE videographer
DOVE OF THE DESERT
(The Black Sun Ensemble)
"For me, it is really hard to pick
an individual track of the Pyknotic release. It seems the whole album is just enveloped in this otherworldly space- somewhat attrubited to the drone of Jesus's tuning's, but something more that makes it sound like it is from the undefinable past. I would probably always come back to Dove of the
Desert, as it is the beginings of the clear anthem that touched every other album in one way or another. It gives a starting point (or an early representation of the song) and is interesting to reflect how Jesus has changed it over the years."
-Brian Maloney, sax
Pyknotic reissue
originally released in 1985,
reissued by Camera Obscura Records in 2000
Jesus Acedo - guitars
Michael Glidewell - bass
John Brett - drums
This legendary and extremely rare private pressing from 1985 precedes the first of the Reckless Records LP by a few years, and is little known and heard even by BSE fans, changing hands for in excess of US$100 in recent times. Even at this early juncture, guitarist Jesus Acedo's fret skills were extraordinary, sending out glistening, baroque cascades of semi-acoustic guitar joy across the mystical mescaline landscapes surrounding his Tucson, Arizona home base.
This reissue isn't exactly the same as the original, as two tracks for which the masters were lost have been replaced by two newly-discovered and totally unheard tracks from the same sessions. We think that this makes the two releases complementary and essential - the true BSE fan will want to track down both. Over to Byron Coley from his sleeve notes for the release: "It is difficult to think of a band that has ever produced psychedelic music that sounded even remotely like the original Black Sun's. Impossible to place either spatially or temporally (I defy anyone to name this album's regional origin or year of recording in a blindfold test), the music here still sounds as gorgeous to me as it did when I first stumbled across it. The magnificent weight of Jesus' guitar work is always a surprise. From the midst of the most gently-drawn sand waves he rises with his scimitar gleaming black in the hot desert sun to fulfil a mission whose orders only he can hear. What more could you ask for? I mean, really?"