Rating:
Genre:
Rock
Release Date: 02/05/2008
Probably the most well-known album by
Father Yod and his musical family
Ya Ho Wa 13, 1974's
Penetration: An Aquarian Symphony is about as accessible as this legendary cult (literally) band ever got, largely because
Father Yod (a heavyset, bearded ex-Marine born James Edward Baker) engages in comparatively little of his trademark quasi-Native American chanting and atonal
Yoko Ono-style vocalizations, preferring instead to concentrate on kettle drum and gong. (
Father Yod does drive the first half of the closing
"Ya Ho Wa 13" with a lengthy and unexpectedly melodic whistling solo at times weirdly evocative of
Martin Denny's old exotica albums, or perhaps
Ennio Morricone's spaghetti western themes.) The core trio of musicians, guitarist
Djin Aquarian, bassist
Sunflower Aquarian, and drummer
Octavious Aquarian, are fully in control of this album as opposed to the free-form anarchy of some
Father Yod-related releases, and so the four tracks are, while entirely improvised and recorded live without overdubs in the band tradition, more structured and coherent than usual. Shades of
Meddle-era
Pink Floyd, free-form prog rockers
Gong, and several of the contemporaneous Krautrock bands ripple through these space rock instrumentals, which have a hard, doomy edge even at their most pastoral. (At first, it looks like the title phrase is spelled out of the album cover in bamboo, like one might find at a strip mall Chinese restaurant; closer inspection reveals that it's actually spelled in bullets, which gives the album title a more violent edge than the sexual connotations originally implied.) Guitarist
Djin in particular drives this album, veering from loud, almost metallic crunch to pealing psychedelic shimmer and back throughout the 40-minute playback. Newcomers to the world of
Ya Ho Wa 13 are strongly encouraged to start here; in fact, all but the most die-hard psych-noise fans might want to end here as well.
~Stewart Mason, All Music Guide
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