Artist: Cotton Mather - Album: Kontiki

When I first heard Big Star’s Radio City, I heard a lot of things I felt when I was blasting out my favorite ‘60s rock-pop records as a kid, but often didn’t actually hear on those records.  I could only describe the feeling like the music gave me the energy of an exploding AM radio speaker. Radio City turned a lot of those feelings into articulated sounds (especially on “Back Of A Car”) but I wanted to sonically blow up things more and still have great melodies and harmonies. I don’t know if that makes sense …. but I’m trying here. 

Over the years, various bands and artists contributed to conveying some of those feelings into sound. The Grifters and Guided By Voices have had some of those moments of visceral immediacy, but one album that captured that with consistently strong songs was the 1997 album Kontiki by Austin, TX band Cotton Mather. 

From the opening moments of “Camp Hill Rail Operator,” Kontiki charges out of the station like a runaway train that can barely stay on the tracks, and it brilliantly delivers that in-your-face feeling I’ve always sought. Robert Harrison’s nasally voice channels a vari-speeded Lennon, Dylan and McGuinn spirit agitated by a high-voltage wire, while much of Kontiki feels like a bizarre mash-up between The Beatles Sgt Peppers and the White Album turned up to distorto-intensity. Not only does the music capture that spirit I sometimes crave, the lyrics are wonderfully Syd Barrett - Robyn Hitchcock - psychedelic John Lennon twisted. It is the stuff that would thrill record store geeks in the original High Fidelity. 

Here’s a sample lyric from “Camp Hill Rail Operator.”

“Is she speaking from the heart?

Maybe blasting from another world?

Or just the emissary of a higher court inside the body of a girl?

Does she want to take control?

When her eight-track breaks down

Will she take my bus home?

In care of his contraption

Mad camp hill rail operator woman

Is this some sort of reverie for the 

One woman Jan and Dean

Heading for the crash?

Is she half who she ought to be

Or a overdue prodigy

Whose unsolicited view of your present's confused with her past?”

Sheesh!!!

There are so many special tracks on this album, but if you only took the time to hear a few to get an idea, check out “My Before And After,” “Homefront Cameo,” “Spin My Wheels” and “Camp Hill Rail Operator.” If you like what you hear, you’ll love this album.