21. Demon Fuzz, Afreaka! (1970)

I did not catch up with the strange and wonderful Demon Fuzz and their only LP Afreaka! during the classic psychedelic period of 1966 to 1970. They came up for me instead in this century, during the short-lived (too short!) downloading era. But I knew what I had right away—jazz-rock with horns and a potent voodoo drone at the bottom, driving relentlessly. Details online about the band still seem scarce. The members moved to London in the ‘60s from otherwise mostly unspecified “Commonwealth countries,” which I take to be remnants of the UK empire. The band’s name has something to do with police brutality. At least one principal, Paddy Corea (saxes, flute, vibes, congas), is from “the Caribbean.” Indeed, they may all have been from the West Indies originally, but there’s little about the band that sounds like calypso, ska, or reggae. Instead, their self-declared primary influences, from a sort of crossroads trip the band took, come from Morocco. I can also hear strains of an obscure British jazz-rock band I did know circa 1971, named If—that’s mostly in the horn arrangements and the way they are fitted against a rock band. “Another Country” is typical of what Demon Fuzz is selling. It’s over eight minutes long and starts with a bit of horn-driven throat clearing and some verse-chorus sing-songy pastiche (Smokey Adams gets the vocals credit). At about 2:20, it settles into its methodical monster groove of choice. The tempo slows, bassist Sleepy Jack Joseph plays a simple hypnotic figure. Ray Rhoden plays an uninterrupted chord on the organ, quiet but forceful. Corea takes out his sax and cobbles up a solo—it’s jazz, but the droning bottom carries the mood, somber, exalted, alluring, menacing, beatific. On the album opener “Past, Present, and Future” (9:56) they get down to business even more quickly. And they carry on similarly all over—“Hymn to Mother Earth,” “Mercy (Variation No. 1),” “Fuzz Oriental Blues.” Generally the longer songs are the better songs, and you can skip the Screamin’ Jay Hawkins cover. I wouldn’t say they understand the song. Afreaka! is a bit up and down perhaps, dated or conventional in certain ways (their management also handled Mungo Jerry, if that tells us anything). But at its highest points it’s nearly as high as anyone can get.