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Crystal Haze are mostly shrouded in mystery, however it is known that the band sprang from the Decatur, Illinois sometime in 1975. Basically comprised of high school friends, Crystal Haze tracked their sole album mostly live in the studio with vocal duties being split between the two guitarists, Greg Bickers and Dave Ellis. After a rather slipshod attempt at mixing, the album was pressed as is in extremely limited numbers. It is rumoured that only 100 copies were ever pressed. Since the rather low-key release of their debut album, very little has ever been heard of Crystal Haze though it is believed the band continued to gig around the area for another year before disolving.
Crystal Haze is certainly one of the most elusive mid-70’s recordings in existence, fetching insane prices in collector’s circles. From a rarity perspective, I can certainly understand the fervor often raised by this album, given how rarely it ever surfaces. What about the music though? Well, let me just say that the fretwork is fantastic. Excellent guitar tones and fiery performances abound here. Overall, the musicianship is pretty solid considering how young the players were at the time. There’s some cool dual guitar work here and there as well, which elevates the intensity another notch. Standouts include the opening instrumental, “Flame” as well as two of the mellower tracks, “In the night” and “Goodnight”. The recording of this album was a live in the studio experience, not perfect at times: in a few moments theres some bottom tape hiss that appears in 3 tracks caused by the poor quality of the master tapes where it was recorded. Its a master tape problem and it would corrupt the original sound if restored. So you get the recording as it was released back in 1977.
2011 Acid Nightmare vinyl reissue limited to 400 copies, includes new exclusive artwork to replace the original edition sleeve that came out with no artwork in a plain white sleeve with a small paper glued with credits and tracklist. This time Acid Nightmare revamps one of the most hard to find records of the U.S. Psychedelic Hard Rock scene of the 70’s!
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