Saturday, October 31, 2015

Euclid - "Heavy Equipment" 1970

Euclid's one and only album is among the very best of late 60's-early 70's heavy rock albums of all time. Based out of Haverhill, Mass. The musicians themselves were of an excellent caliber and very experienced, coming from a diverse New England garage & psych rock background. Harold Perino Jr. (a.k.a. "Marris") came from The Ones, a central Mass. garage band who also has a rare garage L.P. on the Ashwood House label. The other members were from Southern Maine. Garage rockers Gary Leavitt (lead vocals /guitar), his brother Jay Leavitt (drums), were in The Cobras together, Mark Mazzota from the psych-tinged Maine group Lazy Smoke, is outright dazzling on lead guitar. One of the coolest things about this album is the overall experience of it's group members various background influence on it. Pedigree aside, this is a powerful psychedelic heavy rock album that stands strong on it's own merit. There's a raw and ferocious Garage element mixed with a very
clear and real psychedelic conviction. These overshadowing characteristics combined with their new heavy/hard rock discipline & focus, resulted in one of the best heavy rock albums recorded in the U.S. The combined contributions of the groups various instrumental contributions are matched by their crystalline vocal input.Very much living up to the bands namesake, the guitar, bass, and drums on this record, in typical earth moving fashion, musically command the attention of the listener & level all resistance in their path.
Euclid was signed to Bob Theil's Flying Dutchman Records subsidiary label Amsterdam Records, distributed by Mainstream Records, and was one of the few, if not only, "Rock" releases on either label.
The album itself to this day stands as a perfect monument of that which musically represents the US transition from hard psych to hard rock. With it's in-your-face rumbling fuzzed out riffs, screaming solos, backwards bits, pounding drums, and oddly-effected vocals, the album, produced by the legendary Bobby Herne, with finishing touches to the mix by Les Paul Jr., stands proudly with one foot in the 60's and the other in the 70's, crafting their sound with a heavy metallic attitude.
Euclid were one of the overseen "unsung" cornerstones that helped pave the way for the up and coming U.S. FM heavy rock movement. Reissues do exist. But unfortunately only on CD.









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