Every now and then I take a leap of faith that really pays off.
I’ve been a fan of the Sundazed label for quite a long time now – starting with some early surf collections, they’ve produced some of my favorite reissues. Why they’re headquartered in Coxsackie, NY, not far from my old hometown, I’ve never known – it’s possible their entire operation is some guy working from his garage, but they put out some wonderful stuff. So I always pay attention when they send out their latest releases and check the website for things I may want/need.
They also have an associated label, Modern Harmonic, which puts out even weirder and more eclectic stuff than Sundazed does. And perusing their catalog, I was for some reason intrigued by a disc by a group called Hypnosonics, so I played the sample, and I almost couldn’t hit the order button fast enough.
Now, I knew nothing about Hypnosonics, which was apparently an occasional side project of a Boston area musician named Mark Sandman. I also knew nothing about Mark
Sandman, or his other band, Morphine. But from the description and the samples on the Modern Harmonic website, I was just wowed by this – what would you call it? Art funk? It’s low key, funky, fascinating. There are only two full albums by the band, and writing this up reminds me that I simply must have the other. It’s really unique. There’s a Boston Herald article that explains the group’s history better than I could:
Bought this back in 2020. That’s how long it’s been since I was on the ‘H’ section of my record collection. My, how this project is dragging. If I ever get caught back up, we’ll finally get to the N’s.
