LOST NATION Paradise Lost 1970 ORIG HEAVY DOOMY PROG PSYCH MASTERPIECE LP LISTEN

$

25

LOST NATION "PARADISE LOST" LP

Original 1970 LP on the RARE EARTH label

Vinyl plays VG++ to EXCELLENT, occasional light swishes

COVER in EXCELLENT shape, small sawcut

Tremendous heavy guitar psych with big doomy apocalyptic aspirations.  Don’t just this book by its cover – despite the “deep” graffiti, you’d swear this lot was the hillbilly Buckinghams by lookin’ at ‘em.  Or maybe the backwoods Byrds, paying homage to the Notorious Byrd Brothers cover without having to substitute a horse’s ass for one of their guitarists.  No sirree, this was actually a big (and pleasant) surprise for me – surprised because it’s nice to know that, this late in the game, I can still get blown away by something I’ve overlooked all these years.  Paradise Lost is just such a record.  Opener “Ivory Castle” pushes all the right psych-o-delic buttons – trippy distorted vocals, an instantly likable and memorable melody, and a killer bass/organ rhythm line.  It’s one of those moments where you hear a song for the first time and you know you’re gonna play it another twenty times.  As great as “Ivory Castle” is, though, the Lost Nation boys wanna play it heavy when they can.  So the cosmic hippie psych gives way to what they’re really good at on second track “Rome,” and that’s a full, constricted, roaring Sabbath/Deep Purple-like heavy sound.  Everything here is as epic as the empire they’re singing about – a big ol’ hairy skull-crushing guitar riff, frenetic thrash-n-burn drums, Cream-like wailing background vocals, and plenty of soaring flash guitar solos for you bedroom air guitar players.  Things get even more epic – as in Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse Holy S*** Is This The Rapture epic – on the 7-minute “Images,” which closely resembles Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid.”  A simple but powerful Satanic guitar riff anchors things, while big swaths of Jon Lord organ bathe it in a Wagnerian grandeur, breaking only for a few trippy, moody interludes where we can only guess the invading Viking horde are taking short yoga breaks.  At seven long, throat-grabbing minutes, “Images” is a breathtaking monster, a “Kashmir” for the small label crowd, a bona fide heavy sludge rock masterpiece.  More evil Gotterdammerung guitar riffs return on the sinister “Shadows Within You,” and then they throw two more bones to the psych crowd, starting with the 7:14 “She’ll Take You.”  With its mad Russian Cossack dance midsection and big bridge-collapsing fuzzy power chords, it’s the very definition of “heavy psych.”  The last and final track, “Falling Through My Mind,” also tops the seven-minute mark, but never once noodles around with needless showoffy solos.  Instead it maintains a quiet, meditative reflective psych prog vibe the whole way, patient and trippy like the best acid-drenched krautrock.  Like I said, it’s been a long time since an entire album knocked me for a loop like this one did, and Lost Nation’s Paradise Lost is about as great a heavy psych prog album as you’re likely to hear, and that includes the ones from the big label boys.  It’s punishing, but like Lucy Lawless in EuroTrip, it’s a thrashing you’ll thoroughly enjoy.

HEAR IT!

The less exciting stuff

Media mail shipping with delivery confirmation starts at $4.00 in the US, with each additional record only $1 additional shipping.  Overseas shipping has, unfortunately, gone way up in the fast few months, which translates to $15 for the first LP to Canada ($3 each one thereafter) and $24 for the first LP everywhere else in the world, with each add'l LP an extra $5 (so it pays to buy more, nudge nudge wink wink).   I accept payments through Paypal. 

I try to grade as best as I can, and I list as many blemishes/imperfections I can find (writing, ringwear, scuff marks, etc.) – Also, please note that I DO listen to these albums – I may not listen to every track, but my grades are based on LISTENING, not just looking at it, since chances are you’ll be listening to the record you buy, not just looking at it.  Most of the albums I sell are the ones I’ve enjoyed for years – and I treat my records with kid gloves.  But sounds speak louder than words, so check out the sound clips below – they’re from the actual record you’re bidding on. 

SHIPPING AND PACKAGING

Listen, I buy a bunch of records too (when I’m not getting outbid at the last second, which is more often than not) – and I know what it’s like to get a rare, one-of-a-kind album packaged dangerously in a flimsy bubblewrap package.  I hate that too.  So rest assured, I ALWAYS package albums with stiff cardboard reinforcements, same for 45s.  And yes, the records are removed from the sleeves (for albums).  I ship out once a week, every Friday, because I have a regular day job.  But I’d be willing to give that up if you’d all be so kind as to bid my items up to stupidly high amounts. 

 For more security and international tracking, you may request GLOBAL PRIORITY MAIL - but bear in mind the cost of this service is upwards of $30.  For expensive items, however, it may be well worth it.  Unfortunately, there isn’t a cost-effective way of tracking parcels to foreign countries yet, and shipping times vary depending on your country’s postal system.   Italy in particular seems to be really bad at delivering packages quickly, or delivering packages at all, now that you mention it.  I will always email you when your package ships, but once it’s on its way, please don’t ask me when it will arrive because I don’t know.  If the world’s postal systems can ever agree on a universal tracking system that’s affordable, I’ll be the first to use it.

NOW IT’S YOUR TURN…

I will always leave positive feedback for successful transactions, and would appreciate the same in return.  All I ask of you is the following – please pay for your items within 14 days of the close of auction.  Compared to other sellers, that’s a generous amount of time, so if you don’t pay within 2 weeks, then I have to assume something’s wrong.  You’ll get an Ebay payment reminder at that point, and possibly a decapitated horse head in your bed.  If, after 30 days, you still haven’t forked up the cash, I’ll relist the item and yell at you if I ever see you in town.