Dutch composer and musician Jack ELLISTER have been around for some time now as a solo artist. Following his tenure in the Yordan Orchestra he has a handful of single and EP releases to his name, released from 2009 and onward. The curiously named “Tune up Your Ministers and Start Transmission From Pool Holes to Class O Hypergiants” is his first full length solo album, and was released by UK label Fruits de Mer Records in the late fall of 2015, through their Friends of the Fish imprint.
One interesting details about this debut album is that it is sold out, and was in fact sold out prior to it’s official release. That the album is a limited edition vinyl LP, produced in 111 copies only, is perhaps a selling point in itself these days, but it is still impressive that an album is sold out on pre-orders these days. If this indicates anything about Ellister’s fan base, he should have a rather dedicated core set of fans at least. Those who think they can be able to enjoy the music in a non-physical format can do so however, as the digital version remains available on the artist’s bandcamp site.
Musically we’re dealing with psychedelic rock, as one would expect from anything released by Fruits de Mer Records. In this case it is a rather difficult to place variety of it though, at least for someone without a deep knowledge about psychedelic rock, so specific pointers towards artists and eras isn’t something I’ll be able to produce with great amount of detail on this occasion.
I do suspect that the material here, by and large, revolves around subsets of this type of music as it was explored around 1970, and the compositions generally come across as somewhat rough and lo-fi in terms of sound, production and arrangements. An aspect of this album that does add something of an urgent feeling to many of the tracks, especially when the pace is up tempo, the vocals emotional laden and intense, and the liberal amounts of shrill, psychedelic dripping guitar solo runs and effects throughout rather emphasize that perception for me.
The songs as such follows several rather different tracks. You have creations alternating between gentler acoustic guitar and vocals driven passages and harder edged. loose and vibrant passages with keyboards, organ and electric guitars combining with firm and decisive bass-lines and drum patterns to form dramatic and at times wildly psychedelic sequences, but also a creation honing in on drones and dramatic instrument and vocals surges, a more careful intermediate affair with gliding, floating instrument details as a key feature, an Americana flavored psychedelic pop ballad and, for me at least, a highly compelling ghostly organ and sounds creation that adds some jazzy drum details into the mix as well. Concluding composition A Hunter Needs a Gun comes across as the song that assembles quite a few of the previous details into a more complete whole, opening in a sleepy, relaxed and subtly ghostly manner, growing firmer and more intense as it unfolds, with shrill, dramatic psychedelic guitar solo runs and effects steadily taking over more and more, the vocals getting more intense alongside the increased urgency of the instrumental backing.
As previously mentioned I can’t really pinpoint Jack Ellister’s specific place inside a psychedelic rock context. His music tends to be a bit rough and unpolished, often vibrant and untamed at that, and the general impression I get is that those fond of some of the more energetic psychedelic rock bands that operated sometime around 1970 should feel fairly comfortable in the environments explored by Ellister. Especially those among them that did record their material without too much studio polish applied.
My rating: 80/100
