Acid Nightmare Records 2011. NEW/mint condition. Black vinyl, ltd. 400.
Crystal Haze are a band mostly shrouded in mystery, they formed in the Decatur, Illinois area in 1975. Basically comprised of high school friends, Crystal Haze tracked their sole album mostly live in the studio. After a rather slipshod attempt at mixing, the album was pressed as is, limited to a mere 100 copies. The album featured a blank white sleeve with a piece of paper glued with the basic info typewrited. Since the rather low-key release of their album, very little has ever been heard of Crystal Haze though the band continued to gig around the area for another year before dissolving. "Crystal Haze" is certainly one of the most elusive mid-70's recordings in existence, fetching insane prices in collector's circles. What about the music though? Well, let me just say that the fretwork is fantastic. Excellent guitar tones & 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. 2011 Acid Nightmare reissue of 400 copies, sees this monster rare Hard Rock Psych record revamped with an exclusive mystical artwork. A must for anyone into bands like Truth and Janey, Alkana, Oda, Totty and other U.S. underground Hard Rock. 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. [Info from Blood and Iron Records catalogue]