I was listening to the Viva Los Angeles comp the other night. Hidden amongst other LA experimental bands like Savage Republic, Bay of Pigs & 17 Pygmies is the gem "Festival of Healing" by Drowning Pool. I had forgotten this band but remembered that the great Woody Dumas of C'est la Mort Records had once recommended them (high praise, in my opinion). He had featured their song "Black Baghdad" (at that time unreleased) as the opening track for Doctor Death's Volume III - Les Péchés De L'amant.
Woodrow states:
"I arranged the tracks on this LP as if I were doing a radio show, & none set the tone as well as "Black Baghdad"...Although not signed to C'est la Mort, they really could be. For this is the type of timeless sound I'm looking for."
I dragged out what I had & started giving the band a serious listen. I decided that I needed to share them here.
Drowning Pool is a quartet (mainly) from Costa Mesa, CA. Adam Elesh - guitars, Andrew Crane - vocals, keyboards, & percussion, Brett Smith - bass, & Jon Thomas - drums & percussion. They create a clean & essential sound expressed through melancholically ritualistic music. They make atmospheres of mysterious evocativeness with delicate guitar weavings, fluid vocals, & a discreet use of electronic keyboards. Their pool is dark & surreal. They have been hailed as existential psychedelia.
After several cassette-only releases shared with friends (Uncork the Mind, Muted Streak, Toy Soldier), they began hitting the vinyl. Their first, Drowning Pool - Untitled, released on the Viva label (the Italian label responsible for Viva Los Angeles), is a great place to jump into the pool. It features the song that stated this sojourn. It is also the portrait of a band with their musickal shit together painted by an exceptional artist.
Lato A -
Ritual Regeneration / Toy Soldiers
Festival of Healing
Song to the Chumash
Lato B -
Weaving Petals
Muted Streak
Art of Waiting
Fired from Within
Their second self-titled LP is a much darker swim.
Drowning Pool - Drowning Pool, Scarface Charley Records DP31187, 1987.
Face Side -
Romans
What of Singing Birds
Open Palms
Pogrum
Dance Side -
Broken Jawed Woman Sings (featuring Kirra Vollman)
New Tremblin Fingers
Edith, Hold Out Your Hand
P. E. 26
Paradise Found
Once again on Viva for their third, with tributes to Native Americans (sound bites of Little Big Man, Dan George, William S. Burroughs)...Nierika..."doorway within our minds that usually remains hidden & secret until the time of death'.
At this point, the band is at both their pinnacle & unravelling at the same time. The title track encapsulates the essence of Drowning Pool.
NØ sez: "One of the finest songs I know."
Drowning Pool - Nierika, Viva Records REVI 004, 1988.
This Side -
House of Dreams
Trueblood
Shadows
Other Side -
Master Bebra
Nierika
House of Dreams (reprise)
This drug, my friends, is highly psychedelic. Better living through Musick.
About this time, the Pool had become engorged with water & overflowed its banks. Things kinda flowed off in different directions, as feathers or smoke or water or thoughts sometimes do.
With the departure of singer Andrew Crane, Aphonia (in medicine: loss of ability to speak through disease of or damage to the larynx or mouth) is an instrumental release from Drowning Pool (though not without wonderful voices). It is a shifting collage of sounds, meditational rhythms of nature. There are layers of music that overlap, drifting in & out of one another yet never overpowering a beautiful sense of space within the textures. The guitar work of Adam Elesh is as captivating as David Sylvain, as eccentric as Robert Fripp & occasionally as beautifully self-indulgent as Phil Manzanera.
"Welcome back, listeners, to SEZØ -FM, to the radio program that plays all the latest hits none of the time. Woody, here at the turntable, starting off tonights soundfunfest set with the song that's been sweeping none of the dance floor anywhere, Black Bgahdad by Drowning Pool."
Drowning Pool - Aphonia, Fundamental SAVE 72 CD, 1988.
Side 1 -
Black Baghdad
Tap Tap
Shimmy
Water
Side 2 -
Din
Chevalier MacGregor
The Italian Pop Song
With or without Andrew Crane, Drowning Pool are exceptionally fine. Yet I often think of what "Din" might have sounded like with Crane on board. If you want a taste of Drowning Pool with another singer (Kelly Ray), search out Mumbles - Two Clouds. It was released on Viva with a run of 1000 so it's been hard to come by, but I think Adam Elesh re-issued a remastered version around 2006. I've heard it but don't have it, even digitally so if any dear reader has, please honor me.
Elesh & Crane were subsequently in the band (āc'orn.) who released one album, Sustenance (Smith & Thomas from Drowning Pool are also seven of the ten tracks)...
Viva Las Pool,
NØ
