Mort Garson "Black Mass/ Lucifer" (UNI, 73111, 1971)
A great proto-prog (okay, okay — I’m really just making terms up now) Moog album from 1971 that’s been fairly well documented elsewhere on the web, this was the brainchild of Mr. Mort Garson, working under the conceptual name of “Lucifer”. While I know it’s mostly just hard to imagine a major label running with something this “out there” today (making it an excellent companion to Louise Huebner’s “Seduction Through Witchcraft” LP from 1969), the real surprise for a lot of the folks I’ve played it for is the compositional tightness of the songs, and how enjoyably it all works as a whole. Not just a cultural artifact from the early 70’s, it’s got some genuine creepiness to it as well that could easily be seen as pre-figuring a lot of the sounds Goblin would employ only a few years later.
Note: As a bonus for folks who may already have this in their collection I’ve also included scans of the complete liner notes in with the zip file. Written by Michael Owen Jones Ph.D. (still a professor of History and Folklore at UCLA), they never seem to make the rounds when this record is shared, which is a shame as they’re almost half the fun.
Link Removed
Heh. I remember buying this album at the local record shoppe back in 1979 and getting a lecture on “bad vibes” from the hippie behind the counter.
“Bad vibes?” those were the days! But Jason, this posting just makes me wonder if you might own/share the album ‘Fantasy For Pipe Organ’ by Georges Montalba.
Legend has it that, on his death bed Anton LaVey claimed that the album was atually a recording of his own organ stylings…
Wow! I’ve been waiting on this one! Great job, Jason!
Thanks for this, I’d never actually heard it, though I remember seeing it in the shops. Guess I just didn’t want any bad vibes back then.
Here’s a reveiw of that Georges Montalba piece — and while it looks like it may be a great record, it seems it wasn’t LaVey but ‘Bob Hunter’.
http://www.dustedmagazine.com/reviews/829
~JZ
WOW what a flashback, thanks so much!
Black Mass Lucifer, I have this LP in almost mint condition.
I am pagan and have no way to play it on the LP version I still *possess* pardon the pun.
I forget about Scarstuff and my friend mentioned something being here by a *real witch* and I can again and then I saw Black Mass and I am sitting here now listening away to my hearts content on this night the dead are best seen the eve of Samhain.
Blessed Be,
Mistress Reba
also on
Blogstream.com
“Bad vibes?” I’m certain that if the hippie would’ve actually listened to it after he’d toked up, he would’ve loved the album. Doesn’t seem particularly Satanic to me, but it’s utterly wonderful electronica. Sorta reminds me of Wendy Carlos (who scored A Clockwork Orange & Tron).
i love this stuff!! does anyone know if Mort Garson is still alive? If so, let me know at jonny.yuma@gmail.com
Another fantastic post — any chance you could re-up this? Would be much obliged.
Yes, it would be great if the zip could be posted once again for a small time: airairairhair@yahoo.com
I just read about this in the book “Lords of Chaos” and I’m pretty curious to hear this too.
Could you please repost the zip.
atofclubs@madasafish.com
Yes, please please please repost the ZIP!!! Lots of great (and silly) memories of this one.
Please?
Repost Please:(
For all that is unholy! Please reseed this post….. Or may “Bad vibes” follow you the rest of your days….
WOW Jason !!!
Indeed I owe you many thanks again this year for Black Mass Lucifer…
Blessed Samhain…
You are a God/Dess send…
Peace~
Mistress Reba
Mistress Reba
A friend pointed to this site for me to DL this wonderful album that I have not heard in years. What a treat! Mort Garson had numerous LPs out there in the late 60’s and early 70’s including Ataraxia. If anyone knows where that one is and can upload it, please do. It’s also a great album. I wish the master tapes would have been absorbed by someone as a CD of this on perhaps a small label like Lalaland Records would be nice to see. My friend Dominic Frontiere has music on that label. What they do is release 3000 copies, which makes the music, like say from a rare soundtrack, all the more rare by limiting the number of copies. It also saves money for the label. Dom’s music averages around $30 a CD now as a result. That helps the artist indirectly as it makes his work collectible. Anyways, thank you for making this Mort Garson masterpiece available! I love it!
James
Thank you! I used to listen to this quite a bit in the late 70’s. By todays standards it would be considered Ambient/Space music. If people think this stuff is dark sounding they haven’t listend to Steve Roach, the ruler of all things ambient!
Alonzo
Just did a Goodle Blog Search. There’sa bunch more Mort Garson downloads here:
666 Chambers of Death or ?.
Dave
I’ve had this downloaded from soul seek for a while. It’s great to have the liner notes to this fantastic album. I love Wozard of IZ as well. Going to try to dig up some more stuff now. Thanks!
Apparently 666 Chambers of Death is no longer around. I didn’t know that that blog required a password, but I guess it did, because I need one to extract the Zodiac album. If anyone happens to know the password or feels like uploading Mort Garson’s Zodiac album, please, I would really appreciate it.
misterfvckhead(AT)yahoo(DOT)com
Here you may find this album and some other by Mort Garson. Enjoy!
http://stigmarestroom.blogspot.com/search?q=garson
FANTASTIC!
Great blog full of obscure gems. Thanks for sharing this masterpiece. I am sharing The Montalba – Fantaisie album on my blog.
http://doyouspeakenglishradio.blogspot.com/search/label/Georges%20Montalba
GREAT album. I have this one and through the years it has become horribly scratched. Thanks for the music. Have you ever listened to The Unexplained?