1968 MONO THE DEVIL'S ANVIL HARD Exotic FUZZ psych

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1968 MONO 360 Sound Columbia ORIGINAL                                               

        The Devil's Anvil

        HARD ROCK FROM

        THE MIDDLE EAST

              USA - 360 Sound COLUMBIA RECORDS - CL - 2664 - MONOPHONIC

One of the more obscure, always been hard to find 1968 hard garagerock albums released by Columbia Records ...here the first pressing MONO on the highly sought after 360 Sound label a real rarity, by the way, this in mono is a special find, as by the end of 1967 record companies had phased out monaural productions, so it is really hard to find a mono release from 1968....

The ill-fated Middle Eastern sounding rock group, The Devil’s Anvil were discovered by record producer Felix Pappalardi (Cream’s Disraeli Gears)) playing in a New York City cafe in 1967. Pappalardi got the band signed to Columbia Records and played bass on the their album.

The Devil’s Anvil, were Steve Knight (rhythm guitar, bass, bouzouki), Jerry Satpir (lead guitar, vocals), Elierzer Adoram (accordion), and Kareem Issaq (oud, vocals). Hard Rock from the Middle East would be their only record. Despite their truly original sound—which pre-dated “World Beat” by many years—luck was not on the side of The Devil’s Anvil, for on the very same day that Hard Rock from the Middle East streeted, the 1967 Arab-Israeli War broke out, too and no radio station would touch it!

Pappalardi later went on to form Mountain with Knight and Leslie West.

For a late 1960's album, the sound is a weird mix of old and contemporary at the same time. The songs are mainly sung in Arabic with either Middle Eastern or Westernised instrumentation but in the rock style of the time. If you can imagine a mix of The Beatles startling "Revolver" mixed with Cream's "Disraeli Gears" with the iconic Arab singer Farid Al-Atrache, then you will have some idea of what this album sounds like. Psychedelic guitars through fuzz pedals are seamlessly matched to the Arabic oud and darbuka. The energy of 60's style garage rock mean that the songs go much faster than the Arabic tunes of the time and the whole eleven songs swish by.

Highlights include the single "Karakadon" which flopped on its' release in 1966. Heaven knows what listeners at the time thought of such a tune. It sounds like a bizarre fusion of The Beatles' "Taxman" with Arabic lyrics. "Shisheler" sounds very Middle Eastern in every aspect (it's sung in Turkish) but at the same time totally representative of 1960s's garage punk a la "Nuggets" or "Pebbles". The song "Kley" is sung in Greek but sounds to my ears a bit like traditional Ukrainian music. The second Greek tune ""Treea Pethya" uses more complex time structures with the melody played on electric guitar rather than the traditional bouzouki. Finally, it all comes to an end with an odd English language version of "Misirlou", sounding very like Cream.

1. Wala Dai
2. Nahna Ou Diab
3. Karkadon
4. Selim Alai
5. Isme
6. Besaha
7. Shisheler
8. Kley
9. Hala Laya
10. Treea Pethya
11. Misirlou

CONDITION: The cover is one of those fairly clean and at the same time very acceptable VG++ grade that show just a little starting wear but not anything that noticable or not even close to disturbing. All solid seams, no bends, no writing. keeper

The vinyl is VG+ to VG++ having a few superfical scuff lines on one side, a few more on the other, but nothing deep or that you can feel, both sides have glossy surfaces, plays really enjoyable...

      A cool addition to anyone's music library!

SEE: SELLERS OTher items for similar cool sounds for "head" people...

EFFICIENT/CAREFUL GRADING

All imperfections are noted both cover & record