Blues Creation

Back to it.

I've been neglecting this page, but the good news is I have a full catalog of (relative) obscurities to post about and share. So we're kicking it off with one of my favorite lesser known psych bands- Blues Creation! Not the Creation and not the blues explosion, we're talking Japanese Hard Psych!

When the fuzzed out tones of 60s psychedelic rock resonated in ears world wide, it did what all good music does, it inspired imitation. Musicians could appropriate the sounds they heard into a new mixture of ideas and sounds from their own culture and thank God. Hardcore fans of the genre will be no strangers to Blues Creation and for good reason. Inspired by the popular American Blues Rock as well as the sludgy riffs of Black Sabbath Blues Creation formed in the late 60s/early 70s. By 1971 they had recorded two albums, but it was their second album "Demon & Eleven Children" that would solidify them in Psychedelic Rock history and lead to an eventual collaboration with Felix Pappalardi (of Mountain). But that is another story.

"Demon & Eleven Children" opens with a sample of lightning and thunder, horses crying out in the storm, giving way to a spiraling electric guitar which swells until the band bursts out of the haze and into a tight and heavy blues rock groove. It is a great introduction to a band that seems to come out of the elements like the psychedelic Japanese priests they were. As soon as you get comfortable with a groove or the band starts to fall into comfortable territory they immediately turn the opposite direction jumping back and forth between styles and tempos alike.

The song "Mississippi Mountain Blues" the second track on the album turns from a traditional acoustic blues song, with harmonica and all the other trappings, and jumps into an electric, ascending run that goes off-kilter before going right back into a more comfortable blues progression. Other tracks like "Just I Was Born" and "Brain Buster" hint at proto punk power fused with the psychedelic guitar wankery that would become a tradition of Japanese Psych. They even mellow it out on the dreamy, slow tempo "One Summer Day". The album could be considered Prog it jumps around so much.

If you love guitar based music this band is a must.  If you are looking for something out of the ordinary this is it.  It may not seem out of this world anymore, but it must have in 1971.

Unfortunately it seems all of "Demon and Eleven Children" has been removed from youtube, otherwise I'd link it.  But here's this--

http://youtu.be/rh1DreByNFQ