Record: The Parable of Arable Land
Label: International Artists
Year of Release: 1967
Sounds like: Art Rock, Space Rock, ProtoPunk, Psychedelic Rock, Noise.
United States
The Red Krayola is one of the most iconic acts gestated during the chaotic explosion of Psychedelia in the decade of six and zero,in the United States. Its leader was the eccentric Mayo Thompson who also worked with Pere Ubu and who was responsible of the production of the early records of bands such as The Fall, The Raincoats and Cabaret Voltaire.
Alongside with Silver Apples, The Velvet Underground and Rocky Erickson and his 13th Floor Elevators, The Krayola were part of a massive boom of uncomfortable experimentation and dizziness in the contemporary rock scene. Parable of Arable Land was their debut album,.When you listen to it, you wonder if Tom Verlaine of Televison ran into it at a drunk party or if David Byrne started covering the Crayola before getting famous with his Talking Heads. The genealogy of music few times is so visible and tangible like happens in this case,
Regina Says: Parable of Arable Land is an extreme vision of music, from any point you want to look at it. Its importance and legacy are unquestionable, however, in terms of enjoyment, Red Krayola (and maybe Captain Beefheart) were for music what Thomas Pynchon was for the modern American fiction. It was music beyond any docile and average perception of rock. The common person who wants to listen to something nice and shareable, should stay far from this album, it is very solid and constant album but it's almost like reading about Greek mythology, it's part of the DNA of rock and its genes, and you must have the heart of a hungry scientist (kind of) to understand and study that DNA.
Anyway, it is not a UFO, though, it's the closest thing to it. It requires a good pair of headphones, some decent amount of patience, dedication and only there you will turn your headlights and you will see the highway of music evolution, clearly and simply like no other record has allowed you to do so.
Rate:Extraordinary
Hugo Menanth Says:
Krayola's sound in their debut record is far from the most gnarled performances witnessed in that Psychedelic explosion mentioned lines above. Perhaps it could be defined with the aesthetic adjectives coined thirty years later.
The album intercalates heterophonic episodes called ''free form freakouts'', composed of nonsense and accumulation of discordant sounds produced by a can of sardines or by a water whistle (What do I know?). Among these absurdities, there are lyrical and lax stories, in minor and crepuscular tones, seasoned with distortions, treacherous detunements, screams, blurred sonorities and mininalism; A nervous and dark voice, that of Thompson sings above all that unfathomable but fascinating mass.
What for many was the hysterical coolness of the No Wave from New York, the unhealthy depression of Goth Rock, the improvisational spirit of the post-rock and the saturation of noise, ever came from the same plunger called Red Crayola.
Rate: Imprescindible