Lothar and The Hand People. Where to start?
They were the first band to use synthesiser's on tour.
They were possibly being checked out by Chas Chandler when he was caught in traffic and missed their first show. He promised he would stay for their second show that evening but left after signing up Jimi Hendrix and being blown away by his show that evening.
At that point the world gained a Mind Blowing guitar player but lost an experimental group that would eventually give up after 2 albums.
These 2 albums are available as a single release these days but that is not what I have. I have 2 seperate rips for these.
So - Who is Lothar? Well Lothar is an IT. An instrument called a Theremin (An early electronic music instrument, invented, in the early decades of the 20th Century, by Russian engineer Leon Termen ("Theremin" was a French transliteration of the Cyrillic, IIRC). You play it by moving your hands around it - the spatial location of one hand controls pitch, while the other controls volume. It was used to create weird sound effects in radio dramas and sci-fi films. Some play it as a proper instrument - e.g. Clara Rockmore, when she was alive. Still sounds weird.) PHEW.
Tracks that stand up really well are 01 - Machines from Presenting (sort of King Crimson ish) and 10 - Space Hymn from "Space Hymn" about which I read one person saying on the net that they used to take acid and if ever they listened to Space Hymn they always had a sweet trip. Hehehe - that is the FIRST song and the LAST song. I assure you there are some great ones in between.
This band are Turned On. I have the scans for "Presenting" but not for "Space Hymn" which is a pity but not a disaster. This final image is from their website and has a touch of Eye Candy. :o)
Space Hymn: http://www.tiny.cc/x8grF
ReplyDeletePresenting:
http://www.tiny.cc/u2F5D
Man, these bring back some great memories. It's tragic that they never got the recognition they deserved.
ReplyDeleteyo :
ReplyDeletegreat blog , most of your stuff is way too esoteric for me , but i know of these guys!
thanks ao much
aka`
Thank you for this great post! One of my favorite psych albums.
ReplyDeleteThank you man,
ReplyDeleteI've been looking for Presenting for years. I had my first psychedelic experiences listening to space hymns...thanxs.
Thankyou very much! This music is very much in my taste!
ReplyDelete"Presenting" was the album that launched me on a quest for more unusual and hard-to-find psychedelic music.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't around in the 60s and I guess I thought that the underground was something that wasn't "invented" until later, with bands like the Velvets being the most "obscure" things around in the 60s.
Lothar opened me up to a whole lot of fantastic sounds. I remember the old hippie guy at the used record shop: "Where the hell did you hear of Lothar and the Hand people?"
Thanks much for this great pair!