The Sand Pebbles - Ghost Transmissions flac album

There’s a backstory to the Sand Pebbles that’s possibly as colourful as the band’s music … hanging out with Jeff Bridges in L.A., pulling down screamers the MCG, writing scripts for television soap operas, with one member even attending high school with Julian Assange, all contributing to a totally aesthetic experience that comes off more like an intriguing novel that you simply can’t put down.The Sand Pebbles are truly a multi-generational band, everyone’s at a completely different stage in their life, where to that end, their sound spans fifty years of music that merges and blends some of the best and most influential aspect of these sounds in order to create bright infectious dream-pop and neo-psychedelic songs with sensational pop edges, that for the most part are all encompassing and totally rewarding.Ghost Transmissions was originally released as a CD back in 2004 and recently re-issued on vinyl in 2017, sounding more like an inspired mysterious enigmatic composite piece in this formate, rather than a mere collection of songs. Part of the reason for this cohesiveness time-trip is the cover of the Skip Spence (60’s member of Moby Grape, Jefferson Airplane and Quicksilver Messenger Service) number “All My Life (I Love You), giving the album a solid foundation for that psychedelic vibe, along with the shrouded mystery surrounding Skip Spence that leaks out around the edges. That being said, their twelve minute unforgettable slow burning hypnotic opus “The Day Summer Fell,” is nothing short of pure intoxication, one of those epic numbers that comes along once in a generation, built on snaking guitar licks and emancipated sonic flavors that are nothing short of a heady delight that often comes across sound rare and beautiful.In short, what these folks create though inimitable guitar signatures and rounded yet irregular rhythms, is a series of breathable textures on top of a series of textures that are in no hurry to turn into dynamic songs. Their material ebbs and flows, enhanced by vintage guitars tethered to modern pedals and effects, gradually morphing into ethereal moon-kissed melodies that are all encompassing, dressed up with lyrics laced with vivid shimmering and imaginative imagery … a musical path laden with jewels aplenty. The Sand Pebbles can’t help but write psychedelic music, as they are truly psychedelic personalities, defying categorization. NOTEWORTHY: The download card does not simply offer the album in and of itself, also included is an extensive series of bonus material that is sure to waste your soul.SONICALLY: After consulting with others, there is static sounding surface noise in places, though not bad nevertheless present, sounding like the runout groove sounds in a couple of places. I was surprised that with a pressing of only 350, that 180 gram vinyl was not used, along with more care taken for a pure pressing. (laughing) The spindle hole is the smallest I've experience in 40 years. I attempted to enlarge it no less than 4 times. (Considerations taken from playing on a McIntosh System with B&W 801 Speakers)Limited Edition black vinyl pressing of 350 copies.*** The Fun Facts: The demographic spread of the members of the Sand Pebbles’ is inspiring, with the arrival of Holland on drums, it was quickly realized that the Sand Pebbles had members born in the 50s (Andrew Tanner), 60s (Ben Michael), 70s (Chris Hollow), 80s (Tor Larsen) and 90s (Holland).Sand Pebbles was formed on the set of notorious Australian soap “Neighbors” by two of the shows scriptwriters, Ben Michael X and Christopher Hollow.During the band’s hiatus, guitarist Ben Michael X co-wrote, co-produced and helped soundtrack the independent Australian feature film “Is This the Real World”, starring Sean Keenan, Susie Porter along with rapper 360.Singer and guitarist Andrew Tanner once recorded an album with legendary producer T-Bone Burnett and wrote a song at a Hollywood party with actor Jeff Bridges. Review by Jenell Kesler