Category: Rock/Pop, Psychedelic, RockIota's biography is a short read and its discography even shorter. Hailing from El Paso, TX, this four-piece was active in the late '60s and early '70s. It recorded a studio session in 1971 for the Suemi label, out of which two singles came out. Success -- and the projected LP -- never materialized. Thanks to Suemi's archiving care, the Shadoks imprint was able to retrieve this lost album in 2003. Iota had little money and Suemi spent little more on them: The eight-track tapes sound thin and under-produced, but the music features enough original quirks to catch the interest of '70s psychedelic/acid rock collectors.
To the standard post-Cream power trio, Iota added Hammond organ (played by Steve Phipps), which takes the group's sound closer to early Deep Purple, especially in "Sing for You." The highlight of the set is "Precincts," the group's first single A-side. A dark, moody song mixed with lots of cavernous bass, it is unusual even by heavy psych rock standards and features a gripping melody delivered with much drama by leader Carl Neer. "Love Come Wicked," "Bottle Baby," and "Better Place" also stand as nicely written songs and walk the line separating blues-rock and psych rock. More overtly pop, "I'm Gonna Be a Man" and "Our Love So Warm" are less successful. ~ François Couture Recorded between 1971 & 1972.
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A customer;
4.0 out of 5 stars Great Texas psych album from 1969!!
By Tuco
Iota was an El Paso band formed in the late sixties and their style was hard psych with some nice organ work to keep it groovin '69 style, but still a bit dark and gloomy.
Originally, the band only released two singles from their sessions but never got out a full album. They broke up in 1972. All of the unreleased tracks from their sessions were added in 2003 to create the album release that you're looking at here.
I would say their sound falls somewhere between Pretty Things and Blue Cheer and some early Deep Purple thrown in for good measure. Psych fans will not want to pass on this record if you're into heavy melodic psych with dual guitars(fuzz to wah) and a heavy Hammond organ sound. I'm glad to have this lost artifact in my small collection of *rare and listenable* late 60's/early 70's rock!!
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Track Listing
1. Precincts
2. Glympses
3. R.I.P.
4. Love Come Wicked
5. Bottle Baby
6. Sing for You
7. Better Place
8. The Words Are True
9. I'm Gonna Be a Man
10. Our Love So Warm
Iota:
Carl Neer (vocals, bass);
Mark Evans (guitar);
Steve Phipps (organ);
Rich Ramaka (drums).
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First posted by Val on Between Hel & Heaven
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