On the cover of Predator Vision's second tape, mysteriously titled "II" Danny Glover is caught looking off into the distance, slightly to the left, sort of lost in thought. You would think it's because he's trying to hunt down and kill the predator in his second full length movie, but my guess is he's remembering being 16 and at his first Santana concert and feeling liberated by the "smell of pot" though he hasn't actually done any. He's staring off into the distance as the first jam lets loose a tight building kraut-style drumbeat with two guitars ripping and rolling solos on top of each other with waves of phase carrying each section into the next as the comes apart slightly only to reconfigure with some riffs structuring the final movement. Danny is staring up at the sky hard as if his neck is the sensory organ for hearing and he wants to expose it to the last riffs of the first side which sort of sounds like sweet leaf by sabbath, though the rest of the music sounded nothing like that.
there's a pause and the bass player jeremy pisani (red favorite) joins the trio of etienne dugay (real estate) on drums and ben daly and matt mondanile (real estate, ducktails) on guitars. things get a little weirder, glover's vision from staring at the sun is becoming less literal, the music has opened up; the drums remaining rhythmic but without the crisp disciplinary beat propelling it forward, instead the drums and bass now work as a "section," slightly syncopated while the guitar and occasional organ sounds float in a softer environment, one less defined by rigid shapes and more by pulsing color. Glover is into it. The mood builds and builds, lifting and sort of absorbing the influence of pisani's bass and heading back into what the three dudes feel most comfortable doing, letting it rip.
the music is abruptly stopped, like the tape ran out, or the cops broke up the show sending Glover on his way with a sort of distant, to the left, look on his face.
black and white art on tan paper
printed in an edition of 100
Still available from the label,
www.abandonshiprecords.com