Entrance Records & Tapes
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Visit product page →Entrance Records & Tapes is pleased to present the resurrection of "Prayer of Death" which has been out of print and off the grid since 2016.
Released in 2006, the spiritual rock opera moved Pitchfork to hail Entrance (aka Guy Blakeslee) as "a psychedelic shaman bringing us news from other planes of existence."
Recorded on tape in Chicago in the winter of 2005 by David Vandervelde as the followup to 2004's mostly acoustic acid-tinged country blues saga "Wandering Stranger" (Fat Possum), the self-produced and privately pressed "Prayer of Death" saw Blakeslee expanding his sound with heavy doses of electricity and eastern psychedelia, and drawing from influences as diverse as Charley Patton, Sandy Bull, the Stooges, Sufi poetry and the Tibetan Book of the Dead . Blakeslee's in-studio alchemy with Paz Lenchantin (now of the Pixies) and drummer Derek James would lead to the formation of The Entrance Band.
The rebirth of this underground cult classic , originally inspired by "the daily Death Vibrations of the Modern World," could not come at a more appropriate time, given the state of our civilization.
For Blakeslee, death is the ultimate psychedelic, erasing the mind completely instead of expanding it-- and by the closing track, he has made some sort of peace with the idea, which makes the album sound like a journey instead of a tract. His final words are "When you think about death every morning, don't you ever be afraid!" If only it were that easy. - Pitchfork
Tracklisting:
1. Grim Reaper Of Death
2. Silence On A Crowded Train
3. Requiem For Sandy Bull (R.I.P)
4. Valium Blues
5. Pretty Baby
6. Prayer Of Death
7. Lost In The Dark
8. Never Be Afraid -
Visit product page →What if Rimbaud met Roy Orbison, on acid in a room full of synthesizers, after a late night wander through the haunted streets of New Orleans? Is getting lost the only way to ever be found? At what point does the hero's journey become a fool's errand?
Nearly two decades into a lifer's voyage of shapeshifting through shadowy realms of the American underground, Guy Blakeslee, poses these and other conundrums on his dramatic new album, Postcards From The Edge (Entrance Records).
Perhaps best known as the upside-down, guitar-wielding frontman of psych-legends The Entrance Band, and solo albums released under the ENTRANCE moniker, notably 2004's country blues epic Wandering Stranger (Fat Possum), 2006's self-released cult classic, Prayer of Death ( which led to the formation of The Entrance Band), and most recently 2017's Book of Changes (Thrill Jockey), Blakeslee has typically used his own name to release his most experimental and confounding records. Postcards From The Edge is no exception.
Recorded in New Orleans at the house studio of Preservation Hall Jazz Band, with former Sonic Ranch engineer and producer, Enrique Tena Padilla (Oh Sees, Wand), and featuring appearances from singers Lael Neale, Hale May, Rachel Fannan, and drummer Derek James of The Entrance Band,
Postcards From The Edge is electrified by the spirit of sonic experimentation, and the fervent desire to chart a map into unknown territory. Across the record's seven tracks, Blakeslee's questing lyrics teem with stormy emotion, his plaintive voice finding succor in richly-textured melodies that soar over lushly-produced soundscapes, always on the verge of collapse.
Tracklisting:
1. Sometimes
2. Postcards from the Edge
3. Faces
4. Giving up the Ghost
5. Hungry Heart
6. What Love Can Do
7. Blue Butterfly
