May Blitz / May Blitz (Vinyl LP)

Description

Vinyl LP / Reissue – Ltd edition

180 gram (translucent brown) colored vinyl / Gatefold sleeve
2021 limited 100 copies pressing – Housed in a resealable plastic sleeve with golden sticker.
High Quality Sleeves / Virgin Vinyl Pressing

1970-UK/CAN

Format: Vinyl LP

#Ref: AK 253

Release date: 2021

Release notes

” The proto-metal period (roughly 1969/1973) was a time of dissolution of all the rules. The ecstatic feyness of the psychedelic ’60’s giving way to the bitter dissapointments and despondency of the Vietnam/heroin ’70’s. Rules fell apart, genre’s collapsed. In fact one of the most beautiful things about this time period is that bands we now call proto-metal, actually share very little in common in terms of sound, other than a desire to be heavy… Bang sounds nothing like High Tide, who have very little in common with the JPT Scare Band. And then there’s May Blitz.

Another out-in-left field obscurity from this period, May Blitz, on paper are actually the band that shoulda been. Signed to the Vertigo label, an awesome purveyor of early heavy music, after the success of that label’s releases of Black Sabbath and Juicy Lucy. Inspired by the heavy vibe they were discovering, Vertigo went out in a hurry and signed future legends Uriah Heap in 1970 and then rushed to bring on their next heavy act, May Blitz, certain that they’d found another winner. With James Black on guitar and vocals, Reid Hudson on bass, the three-piece was led by Tony Newman on drums, fresh after his stint replacing Aynsley Dunbar in the Jeff Beck Group where he played on the classic Beck-Ola album.

Despite this hefty pedigree, May Blitz’s success would never come, producing an entire recorded output of 2 albums, but what a freaked-out blitz of psychedelic proto-heaviness it is.

The entire vibe of this band can be summed up by the title of their stoned-out 8 minute 20 second opener, ” Smoking the Day Away.” This is massively, smoked-up and THC-d out stoner vibe, doomed-down psychedelic blues. Leading off with a haunting, foreboding guitar line, Newman’s drums percolate underneath, rising to the top like bubbles rising in the bong water. James Black was a talented guitar player, heavy into the Clapton blues vibe, with a voice vaguely reminiscent of the Slowhand man as well. Think Cream here, but slowed down and stoned to the point of near catatonia and fused with the darkness of a bad night on acid. Slightly buried in the mix, Newman’s drumming is nothing short of remarkable. This is slow, smoldering number, heavy in its feel, but not it’s drama. Dig the midway breakdown and redirection into another riff. Nicely done. Cool and smooth. Now, pass the roach please.

“I Don’t Know,” is a laid-back slab of hashish blues rock, with a nice bass breakdown leading into a blinding fuzzed out blues lead. Great middle section with the guitar, bass and excellent jazz-inflected drumming all exploring their own individual corners of drug nirvana, before bringing it all back together in time to gel before the tape runs out. “Dreaming,” a slower psychedelic number lays on a heavy vibe, making you realize that the dreams we’re talking about here are definitely some acid infected bad trip before “Squeet,” brings on the heavy rock funk, tipping over a descending bass line, some scat guitar and the rolling thunder of Newman banging on his skins. Perhaps Black’s best vocal performance even if I have absolutely no idea what he’s singing about when he bellows, “Squeet all over the walls.” Sounds like a job for the maid to me, or a new batch of drugs from the corner pusher. But still, dig that great bass breakdown, laying it on under Black’s extremely jazzy solo as it mutates into a full-on psych/blues freakout… Low burning slabs of stoned out blues-psych rock, heavy in its execution.

… If you can wrap your ears around a totally spaced out, lethargically aggressive attack of sheer acid-drenched blues, coated in the armor of that early anything-goes-and-everything’s-thrown-in experimentation of the proto-metal vibe, we’ve got another little, slightly bizarre treasure for you. It’s hard to call May Blitz originators, but believe me, they explored a muse that was entirely their own. An absolute oddity, yet a treasure all the same. ”

Tracklisting