Freedom North LP original Canadian psych fuzz garage 1970 issue
$
150
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Description
Ultra rare original 1970 Canadian issue of Freedom North's self-titled lp, AQR 501, on Aquarius Records.
Record is NM, sleeve is VG+ with a tiny punch-out hole in top right corner.
See pics for details, please take a look at my other rare psych rock LPs for sale this week!!!
Disregard eBay automatic shipping quote of $4.00. Shipping in North America is $15.00, shipping in Europe is $25.00.
Record ships the day after Paypal payment is received, thanks for looking!!
Montréal, Québec-based band. This band enjoyed a small hit with Ordinary Man. Franki Hart was later in Riverson. St. Jean and Kay were formerly with Exit 4 and Hill was ex-J.B. and The Playboys. When they split members went on variously to Life and Peter and The Pipers.
This was the first album released on the Aquarius label. This scarce Canadian LP is a pretty good one in the late 60s co-ed sweepstakes. They mix some horn-heavy soft pop and country rock with a bunch of nice fuzz-guitar-laden rock songs. A few songs really rock in a late garage style. The long “Lonely Man” is very strong, and “Dr. Tom” is even better, a should-have-been-hit with awesome fuzz guitar and evocative singing. (It was released as a single in the US and UK, under the band’s new name “Freedom of Choice,” and with a non-LP B-side. That was this band’s only release outside of their native Canada.)
Both the male and female vocals on the album are quite good. While a few songs end up being disappointingly out of place, even those kind of grow on you after a while, and a few have neat surprises (i.e. “Hey Carmen,” which starts as pure country and ends in a wash of fuzz guitar.) All in all, pretty cool.
-Allmusic
Only released in Canada, although they did release a single from the LP in the US and UK under the name "Freedom of Choice". A tough album to pigeonhole, although the high points here are worthy examples of heavy acid psych. And thankfully, the band likes fuzz guitar and laces each song liberally with the stuff. "Lonely Man" is one of the few songs with that title that actually manages to recreate the feeling musically - this is truly desolate, lonely, mysterious psychedelia.
On the other side, the behemoth acid psych of "Losing You" is like vintage Blue Cheer - a total glass-breaking mastodon of heavy acid rock. When the vocalist isn't shrieking and screaming, the acid guitar fills in with some shrieking of its own, and there's also some cool liquidy guitar riffs that sound like the effects Jimi Hendrix was working on with "Electric Ladyland".
A chuggin' slab o' Blue Cheer heavy psych madness! Even on the more "country" influenced tracks here, like "Hey Carmen", the band trip 'em out eventually, and what seemed like a straight country song at 1 minute in ends in a barrage of psychedelic fuzz guitar. If people say this album is schizophrenic, well then, so were the 60's and so still was the San Francisco West Coast sound, which this album does it's best to capture a couple years later.
Franki Hart: vocals, piano, recorder
Bill Hill: lead guitar
Rick St. Jean: rhythm guitar, vocals
Eddie Kaye: drums
Les Leroux: bass
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