RAMASES

RAMASES (real name Kimberley Barrington Frost) adopted his name after claiming to have been visited by the Egyptian Pharaoh Ramesses sometime during a car journey near his home in Sheffield, England. He began dressing and behaving in an eccentric manner, wearing silk robes and shaving his head, in the style of the Hare Krishna religious sect. He recorded his sublime "Space Hymns" (1971) album at Strawberry Hill Studios at Stockport near Manchester with his wife Dorothy (who he renamed Selket), together with the musicians Eric Stewart, Graham Gouldman, Kevin Godley and Lol Creme, who famously went on to form the Pop/Rock band 10cc, although this religiously-inspired album is far removed from anything 10cc ever recorded. Renowned album cover artist Roger Dean designed the spacey album cover. A second album "Glass Top Coffin" followed in 1975 which failed to achieve commercial success. Tragically, Kimberley Barrington Frost took his own life in 1976 in a fit of depression, aged 42, which makes this marvellous legacy of music he left behind all the more poignant in its appeal.

"Space Hymns" - The final frontier! Prepare to blast off into orbit with an out-of-this-world collection of 11 devotional space- themed songs where Ramases boldly (or baldly!) goes where no album has gone before. The countdown has begun..... Five!.....Four!.....Three!.....Two!.....One!.....We have lift-off!..... Launching us into orbit in spectacular style on this 11-stage rocket is "Life Child", which opens in suitably atmospheric style with some spacey sound effects. The spaced-out song takes us on a wild acid guitar trip, where the singer tells us with a religiously-inspired passion for the environment that..... "The sun is fading from Your city, Life Child, From where I stand it ain't so pretty, Life Child, I see Your sun is going down, I see Your wreckage on the ground, Life Child, Your seas are full of poisoned water, Life Child......" Taking us through the stratosphere and up into orbit comes "Hello Mister", which sounds like a devotional Hare Krishna chant, with the title words of the song chanted seemingly ad finitum, although that's no bad thing. Achieving orbit now, and along comes Space Hymn No. 3, "And the Whole World", another Hare Krishna inspired song with the pleasant harmonies blending nicely with the gentle sound of the acoustic instruments. You can almost picture the singers gathered half-naked around a campfire at night with their eyes pointed towards the heavens. "Quasar One" continues our journey around the Earth in similar devotional style with much chanting and featuring a whole jamboree of acoustic instruments. "You're The Only One Joe" follows next, where the only lyrics are the song title repeated endlessly for 2 minutes, which does become rather repetitive and you're left wondering who on Earth Joe is. The next song "Earth People" features a beautiful female vocal lead and represents one of the highlights of the album. It's a delightful song to listen to at night with the lights turned down low where you can be carried away into a higher orbit, or failing that, you can drift off to sleep and have pleasant dreams of drifting through endless space with the magnificent Earth down below. The next song "Molecular Delusion" is probably the most religious-inspired of all of the Space Hymns on the album. It's an acid-tinged song George Harrison might have recorded during one of his more meditative moments after visiting the Indian guru, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Next up is "Balloon", where the singer imploringly sings "Don't burst your bubble, or you're in trouble." which doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but who cares, because it's a fun lyric and a great song. The intriguingly titled "Dying Swan Year 2000" is a short little a capella album filler before "Jesus Come Back", an unapologetically devotional song that wears its religious heart on its sleeve with these words, "Have you got fears for the future, my friend Jesus, Jesus come back". It's *almost* enough to turn a confirmed atheist into a devout follower of Jesus. Who needs Jehovah's Witnesses knocking at their door when there's devotional music as good as this to inspire you!? Finally, we return to Earth with "Journey To The Inside" to close out the album. It's a weird 6-minute-long, drug-induced acid trip, which is nothing less than you'd expect from a religiously-inspired album drenched in psychedelic colours.

If you want to get all religious without going to church and fancy listening to some gentle and devotional Prog-Folk songs with a sprinkle of psychedelic flower-power, then this is the album for you. The album will have special appeal if you like the idea of dancing naked around a tree under a star-filled moonlit sky with some flowers in your hair. "Space Hymns" features enchanting harmonies and various acoustic delights designed to transport you to musical heaven on Earth.

After your death your body's placed in a coffin whose lid is made entirely of transparent glass, a "glass-top coffin" if you will. Dead, you can't move a muscle- but the world continues anyway. People walk their walk of life and society moves on without you. Your friends slowly forget about you, and even the memory you've put in the minds of your family becomes hazy. The only imprint of you that you've put on this earth slowly gets pulled away by time, the unstoppable enemy. The worst part? Your dead eyes see every bit of it. You can see through your coffin, right?

A terrifying prospect, is it not? Well Britain's nutcase duo named their second work after it. You may have heard the name Space Hymns somewhere circulated about the rock circle during the 90's, along with the tragic but also sort of poetic death of Kimberly Barrington Frost. The truth is a year before his death Frost and his wife Dorothy Laflin released a second album titled Glass Top Coffin. This certain release is very different compared to Space Hymns, as it features a completely different tone compared to it's predecessor. While many chastise Hymns for being amateur and very disjointed (at least those were my criticisms), Glass Top is completely different.

Sure, it may sound very similar, but when you get down to it's not. Glass Top is far more refined, infinitely more mature, and there is a tinge of tragedy to it. You see, Laflin and Frost both thought themselves to be the descendants of the gods Ramses and Serket from Egyptian mythology. This was happily expressed and flaunted on Space Hymns, and to many people's distaste. Four years pass however after a slew of unsuccess came with Hymns' release in '71. This is complete conjecture, but it is my belief that there was a moment of epiphany for the two, a realization that they weren't living in some dream where they could say they were godsends and that would be the word of law. This epiphany I believe started some time after Space Hymns ('73 or '74) and ended with Frost's death in '76. If we take this as true this album becomes a whole lot more meaningful, as it occupies that middle space in time shortly before Frost went into a state of isolation and disconsolation. Now after we've laid that base, let's actually take a look at the album.

Glass Top Coffin, like I said before, is much more mature in structure than the meandering Space Hymns. The songs are quieter and more secluded, and do not tend to become too energetic. Even at times where you feel the album should kick up a notch it does so very slightly (with the exception of the upbeat rocking title-track). Also noticed is a certain, dark motif that comes to light during the album, and that is one of death and solitude. These may not seem clear at first, for they are a bit cryptic and/or minimalist in nature. Some of the more clear cut examples of this are 'Only the Loneliest Feeling', a short, atmospheric tune consisting only of ambient sound and a lone warbling falsetto by Frost. The opener 'Golden Landing' is a soaring almost angelic strings/choral piece that's tinged with a sense of dread, which is very strange for an opening. But of all these the most interesting I found was 'Sweet Reason', a wonderful tune where, like before, has a tinge of sorrow in it. Here Frost inquires to the listener their thoughts of certain aspects of life, including friends, family, nature, and of course, those passed away. It really is a bittersweet tune that actually brought me close to tears at one point. Even the rocking title track I mentioned before, 'Glass Top Coffin', ends with an almost manic but completely flustered intensity, something not expected by a happy-go-lucky song you thought it would be in the beginning, only to abruptly bleed into 'Golden Landing, Pt. 2', which marks the end to our long journey. It ends with the tumultuous words of Frost: "I can see! / I can feel! / I can breathe! / I'm still myself!".

This is already way longer than I would have wanted, but it is an album that truly deserves more respect. Sure it's not particularly a 'concept album', but it's main theme is executed so well that I am in haste to recommend it. If you're looking for examples of music that transcend boundaries, then this is one for the books. Check it out.

Rameses - Space Hymns (1971)

Together with Alphataurus this vinyl reprint has perhaps the most inpressive artwork in my collection. When folded out you get to see a spaceship that was part of a big church in a romantic scene. But what's the music about?

Psychedelic folk songs with some space-influences and many repetive vocal parts, sometimes a bit like chanting. The first and the last track have some progressive rock leanings. The lyrics are actually the weak point, though some lines are catchy like the slightly freakish "What to say to the Earth people?". I actually like the concept of finding some catchy psychedelic/folky phrase and giving it some time to settle in. I like it when atmospheres aren't ruined by needless interventions, like so often happens in progressive rock music. Some people mention the weaker tracks, but I myself only dislike the second track 'Hello Mister' which is a bit too simple and repetitive. Other songs like the often critisized like 'Balloon' and 'Jesus Come Back' I really liked, the latter reminds me a bit of Pearls Before Swine. The recording and soundeffects are really good.

Conclusion. Well let's be honest, how many psychedelic folk records with space rock influences are there? Just give it try! It's not hard to digest. Three stars, add a star if you like to listen to rare music.

This album was recorded by Ramases and Selket, a British couple who claimed to have been visited by dead Egyptians, and took their names (go figure). What helped them immensely was their back up band, the original members of 10CC, who had just recently had some airplay from the album they had recorded as "Hotlegs".

The sound, to me, is a blend of late 60's psychedelia, like Jefferson Airplane, and the trippy space rock of Daevid Allen's Gong. And while the music is fair, especially where the 10CC sound manages to get through, the proto new age and possible acid induced naive lyrics tend to make this effort mostly tedious. In fact, the insipid Come Back Jesus is simply painful to listen to.

This is my 500th review (unless my one and only rating without review messes the number). I haven't heard Space Hymns which is much more famous - thanks partly to the Roger Dean art work and the future 10cc playing on it. This one was a sad commercial failure and made Ramases (Martin Raphael) to withdraw himself from music business. Co-produced with keyboard player Barry Kirsch, it's a very charming, naiive, soft-folkish album and I'm surprised to see only three reviews of it!

The slow, majestic opener 'Golden Landing' has a female choir and orchestra. 'Long, Long Time' is a very atmospheric song, 'Now Mona Lisa' a solid folk song featuring both Ramases and Sel(ket) as vocalists. I had this kind of an association with this serene and fairly romantic album: dreamy folk hippies accompanied by Barclay James Harvest plus a light orchestra of Emmanuelle soundtracks. May not be very much progressive rock, but beautiful nevertheless. The title track with more biting rhythm breaks the mood a bit, as the ethearal 'Children of the Green Earth' has even the charming cliche of whispered backing vocals. I think this work captures well the fragile spirit of the artist, who committed suicide in 1978.

Apparently the Vertigo label sold sufficiently enough of Space Hymns for them to allow the weird Ramases to record a second and much more ambitious album with a consequent budget. Indeed Glass top Coffin is loaded with expensive and extensive strings arrangements, courtesy of both the London Symphonic Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, but also the Eddie Letter Chorale. Gone are the four future 10CC members (gone to found Hotlegs first), and most of the pop charm of the SH. Well the label was cautious enough not to spend anymore cash in creating such an ambitious six-folded artwork of the debut, but they still designed a cosmic gatefold sleeve with an even more amazing innerfold. BTW, if SH had been on the legendary "Swirl" label, GTC was released on the even better suited for the "Spaceship" Vertigo logo in 75 (four years after SH, but not much is known about their activities), but unfortunately never managed to be detected by the chart's radars.

Opening on the bookending Golden Landing with heavy strings, we are first lead to believe that The Moody Blues created a Nights Of The Past Future album, but this doesn't last past the track. Te following long time starts out as a slow acoustic piece gradually softly crescendoing with a cello and violin first, then once cruising speed reached, the strings come in for some cool enhancements. There are a few lesser tracks like syrupy Now Mona Lisa, then later Sweet Reason (Lisa is back) and still later the soppy and waterfall-soaked folky Stepping Stone.

Other tracks are rather cool like the religious-like chants of God Voice (again sonically the Moody Blues are not far away) or the spacewinds-filled Mind Island, where Nucleus' Bertles adds a soft sax parts. The Island's winds segue into cosmic blasts and cello drones, to lead Selket's plaintive voice in the ultra-slow Loneliest Feeling. Later in the album's course, Saler Man is an outstanding piece of symphonic prog that puts to shame Moodies or many others that dabbled with Orchestras. The awesome Children Of The Green Earth has some borderline-Spanish guitar and lush orchestrations than enhance the song, rather cheeseing it up. GTC's title track is quite a departure though, definitely the (almost hard-) rockiest song on GTC, it's almost shocking compared to the finesse of most tracks, but I guess it is the climax of the opera, before the calm second Golden Landing piece, filled with cheesy strings.

Not as immediate as their debut album, GTC is still quite worthy and is more in the space- rock realm than in the folk-rock genre of SH. In some ways GTC is proggier and could maybe be considered as a space opera. Like the previous Space Hymns, the album sank without a trace and the couple disappeared for good from the music scene (Ramases committed suicide later in that decade), but both album gathered big cult-following in Germany, enough to receive a few Hymns reissues and now finally the much-awaited for (and more mature) GTC on Esoteric records. And if you listen well enough, you won't be deceived.

This album has quite acoustic-oriented sound, starting with a guitar, percussion and flute leading to an amplified mellow psych rock grooving. The religious flavored spiritual folk elements resemble little The Incredible String Band's sound and style, some rarer heavier phases then maybe Uriah Heep with dense layers of cosmic synths, and the accessible compositions are done in the way of The Beatles. Fusion of British psych folk rock tones united with ethnic themes resemble the sound of early Jade Warrior records also. Some moments have nice atmospheres, few songs are then quite simple fun-having mostly. In addition of some more impressionistic moody tracks, there are also some quite straightforward songs on the album. For me especially folky "And The Whole World" was a pleasant moment for me as a pretty hippie anthem, "Earth People" had also nice sound ambiences with nice melodies, and mystical moods of "Molecular Delusion" were pleasant. A nice record, which somehow associates with Absolute Elsewhere's album, not so much musically, but both being supernatural & cosmic themed progressive rock curiosities.

Finally available on CD after a long hiatus, the second studio album from Ramases comes to us via the excellent re-issue label Esoteric Recordings. Featuring a much more expansive sound that seems like the product of better recording facilities and a bigger budget, 'Glass Top Coffin' is a slicker, better-produced album than it's predecessor but one that unfortunately fails to learn from 'Space Hymns' mistakes. Originally a jobbing electrician from Sheffield(a northern town in the UK), Ramases was a strange figure obsessed by Egyptian gods and mythology who would eventually commit suicide in the mid 1980's. His first album was a zany, unfocused affair featuring at least one terrific song in the shape of the rocking 'Life Child', but little else of interest bar the superb Roger Dean artwork of a church- cum-space rocket launching into the stratosphere. However, the actual musicianship on 'Space Hymns' was top class thanks to the fact that our man was backed by the four musicians who would, in time, go on to form the successful pop band 10cc. But despite 'Life Child' the rest of the album would prove disappointing, made up as it was of strange little folk songs, slow ballads and weak psychedelia, all of it penned by Ramases and his equally nutty wife but played very professionally by the temporary backing band. Sadly, the 10cc foursome are absent on 'Glass Top Coffin', instead replaced by a syrupy, 1950's-style orchestra that proves both tacky and frustratingly slow. Again, like in 'Space Hymns', there is only one genuinely good song, this time in the form of the funky title-track , and that aside 'Glass Top Coffin' turns out to be nothing more than just another uninspiring slab of out-dated sci-fi themed psychedelic pop. Fans of 'Space Hymns' and all things quirky will probably delight in the fact that 'Glass Top Coffin' has finally been given a proper, remastered released; the rest of us will shrug our shoulders and move on to the next 'lost classic' from the Esoteric archives. STEFAN TURNER, LONDON, 2010

Space Hymns are a very repetitive type of hymn, almost like a mantra. Space Hymns are a very repetitive type of hymn, almost like a mantra. Space Hymns are a very repetitive type of hymn, almost like a mantra. Space Hymns are. Oh, I'm sorry, I fell into a kind of bored trance from listening to this album. This Ramases guy really repeats himself a lot. Most of the lyrics consist of one line being sung over and over and over and over, almost like a mantra. It is almost never offensive, only very boring. And, did I mention, repetitive?

The instruments involved are mainly acoustic guitars. But occasional drums, sitar and discrete Moog and flutes can be heard. The vocals are both male and female, and repetitive to extremes. Repetitive to extremes. Repetitive to extremes.

Ramases must be character hard to have any social interaction with, unless you have a lot of spare time and don't get bored easily. Maybe he lives by the philosophy that repetition is the mother of all knowledge? Well, despite all the repetition, I don't really remember anything about the music. And I most certainly did not learn anything from it! All the songs sound quite similar, so if you have heard one of them, you have heard them all basically.

I guess Ramases was on something when he created his Space Hymns, and I guess that the listener will have to be on the same thing in order to enjoy them.

Do yourself a favour and don't bother with these Space Hymns. Sorry Ramases!

One of those one-off albums that could only have been brewed-up in the heady musical atmosphere of the sixties, RAMASES(really a jobbing electrician from Sheffield) somehow managed to coalless most of the line-up of future eclecto-pop merchants 10cc(them of DREADLOCK HOLIDAY fame) into producing the wonderfully-titled and utterly bonkers SPACE HYMNS. Accompanied by Ramases' wife, the mystically-monikered 'Sen', SPACE HYMNS is, unfortunately, a fairly risible mixture of early prog, folk, psychedelic pop and bizarre spiritual meanderings. The words 'pretentious' and 'indulgent' spring to mind all too readily when attempting to encapsulate in a few media-friendly soundbites just how SPACE HYMNS comes across, but, happily, it's not all junk. In fact, opener 'Life Child' is a barnstormingly psychedelic, all-out freak-folk rocker featuring incredibly tight interplay between the soon-to-be popular backing band, and as the zen-like cod philosophy of the later cuts has yet to kick in, Ramases lyrics - something about a strange, space-age child - actually compliment the piece nicely. It's a shame, because the creators seemed to have decided to include this as their one-and-only proper rock-song, and the talent, invention and hunger of the musicians really shines right through all the murky babblings and cryptically-constructed passages. However, 'Life Child' asides, the rest of the album is a big disappointment. No-one seems to have told Ramases(or his wife Sen) to include actual tunes, and the remainder of the album is split between sub- donovan folk-vignettes and feeble psychedelic rock, complete with silly voices and stupid wordplay. Only 'Oh Mister', a kind of afro-inspired bongo-ditty, is worth perservering thru, and even that becomes slightly repetive towards it's chanting, pseudo-hippie end. 'Life Child', novelty-value and the stunning early Roger Dean sleeve aside, 'Space Hymns' is an album seriously lacking in focus. One wonders what a proper producer could have made of it.