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LP
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JPR 7105LP
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"Yodeling Astrologer (aka: Color By The Number) could be considered an anomaly, a one-off or a miracle of circumstance in the history of psychedelic pop music. Mij, a.k.a. Jim Holmberg was discovered by ESP owners while playing in Washington Square Park in the summer of 1968. His style and persona mesmerized the label heads, and he explained to them a recent auto accident had fractured his skull but left him changed. He perceived sound, color and vision differently and he had funneled this new world of perception directly into his music. All this was enough to warrant getting Mij into the studio to lay down a record of his rambly, cosmic folk songs. The entire album was recorded in three hours, first-takes and impromptu production intact, then pressed up and introduced to the world shortly thereafter. To focus on the yodeling aspect of the Yodeling Astrologer would miss some of the depth of this album. Not just a hippie novelty act of the time, this is a truly thoughtful and somewhat frenzied document. Like Buffy St. Marie's Meditations, Linda Perhacs' Parallelograms or Cold Fact by Rodriguez, this is an album of sincere folk songs colored with subtle psychedelic touches. Uneasy reverberations and soft echoes glide over Holmberg's breezy songs, creating a consistent sonic environment as spontaneous as it is intriguing. Available on vinyl for the first time since an incredibly limited original pressing in 1969 on ESP Disk."
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CD
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ESPDISK 1098CD
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One the real folk/oddity classics of the ESP-Disk catalog, in a league with the best of Ed Askew. When MIJ, aka Jim Holmberg was found by ESP, yodeling by the fountain in Washington Square Park, on a hot, summer Sunday afternoon, he explained that an auto accident had fractured his skull and impaired his hearing. But it had also altered his perceptions and enabled him to do things that he did not understand, but which worked musically. The next day ESP sent him into the studio. With Onno Scholtze's help, Mij explored the possibilities of multiple reverb to provide a series of echoes for his yodeling. When the project was completed, both participants continued to reverberate. They may be reverberating still.
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