Originally released in 1970
CD reissue 2015 Lumpy Gravy Records

Sealed!


Randy Holden's first solo album (he wouldn't release any more music for about 25 years) was a strange bridge between psychedelia and heavy metal. At times these lurching, extended songs sound like sub-Jimi Hendrix noodling. But at the same time they sound genuinely more sinister and feverish than the by-the-numbers heavy metal soloing that would become so popular starting in the early 1970s. The slow, sometimes dirge-like tempos were a result of an adventurous two-man band situation in which Holden 's only accompanist was Chris Lockheed, who played drums and keyboards simultaneously and couldn't be expected to effectively keep rapid rhythms. Randy Holden is much more of a guitar player than a singer/songwriter, but these do have some smoking sustain passages, sometimes with a stratosphere-like wobbly bite, as on "Fruits and Icebergs."