Altered Zones

According to collectors' circle folklore, only a few original pressings of Stan Hubbs' Crystal are known to exist. Recorded in Hubbs' living room in the Sonoma County hills with a hired band of youngsters in 1982, this confounding album remained in near-total obscurity until Companion Records resurrected it a few months ago. (According to the Acid Archives, recently quoted by WFMU, legend also has it that "a few years after making the LP, Stan Hubbs became one of the few persons in history to smoke so much pot that he died.") Muddling genre lines in and across songs (from prog, psychedelic, stoner, arena, and lo-fi bedroom rock to '70s punk and power ballads), Crystal holds its own against any of today's buzzing artist-curated "mixes." I would argue, however, that song collages this cohesive can only be born of the mind of a single, supremely inscrutable creator.

On "Golden Rose," gloomed-out keyboards, balmy feedback, and slo-mo guitar fuzz halo ensemble-style lyrics, devastatingly deadpan in their delivery while deeply affecting in their message. It's (pre-)stoner rock of the murk-pop variety. But instead of dragging us into a resin pit of gloom, the heavy guitar riffs smoke us into a levitating hypnoscape of thought-- giving rise to those questions that are seemingly rudimentary, but often overlooked. What is it, exactly, that "makes you happy?" --Mary Katherine Youngblood, Visitation Rites

MP3: Stan Hubbs: "Golden Rose"

Crystal LP is now sold out from Companion Records