East of Eden - Mercator Projected

Bass lines in stereo

I did go back to this album having listened to 'Snafu'. The one track I want to mention isn't the 'Wowie Zowie....' selected 'Communion' but rather 'Centaur Woman' which starts as a simple rock-blues with naive harmonica and then turns respectably jazzy with a classic and perfectly played 'walking' bass line. What happens next was, as I listened then, such a nostalgic and pleasant surprise. The bass playing is transported into one of those late 60s/early 70s virtuoso solos you rarely get today - like drum solos that would last for twenty minutes or more giving you time to headbang into a drugless transcendence - and a bass solo augmented with the studio-inspired addition of celebration stereo: you know what I mean, the bass line oscillating between and across the speakers in a frantic channel-switching reverie. Oh those early and glorious days of simple audio experimentation.....