Search - Ramases :: Space Hymns

Long lost prog/rock gem

John P. Lennon | Windsor Locks, CT | 06/24/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If you grew up in the 70's and you eschewed the normal pabulum coming out of album rock radio stations, but still had your feet grounded in the prog/rock genre, like I was, then you must have a special milk crate of LP's set aside that contain certain vinyl gems that you knew then would never come to pass this way again. In the mid-70's I came to know Hartford's WRTC Alien Rock DJ Michael Clare. He told me a few secrets about Ramases that you couldn't glean from the album covers.

First off, Space Hymns, the first album featured Kevin Godley and Lol Crème who worked plenty with Brian Eno (check out "L") and later they formed 10CC. This music, as stated in earlier reviews, is nothing like that. It's spacey electronic folk rock with its own agenda. And therein lies the secret. The lead singer, Ramases, whose head is shaven, claims, along with his wife Sel, who also sings are aliens from another planet and are trapped on Earth. This music, Ramases claims, is the music of their world. The original album cover on Vertigo Records opened up to a giant poster of the cover art, which was the steeple of a church as a rocket blasting off towards space. Folded 3 times it became a cardboard 12 x 12 album cover. Unique and rare. I never saw another cover like that again.

Next, their second album, Glass Top Coffin, minus Godley & Crème, was a standard gatefold cover holding a single LP. The cover picture was a yellow chromatic shift of a star field with the silhouette of a human shape cut out of the front to reveal part of a drawing on the inside gatefold. The mural-like drawing was that of an alien bird landing on an alien shore. Again, pretty and intriguing. Again, inside, the music was beautiful spacey prog/rock. The second album production had a neater and cleaner sound. The secret here was that Ramases and Sel claim to have found transport home and are leaving Earth and Glass Top Coffin was their swan song. I don't know where Michael got his information. Perhaps it was published somewhere in the British press, but this is the story he told me. No one has heard from this musical couple ever since. The albums were difficult to acquire in the first place. I had to wait two years to get my hands on Glass Top Coffin. But, I thought it was a fun legend to carry around these 30 years or so. In 1990, Repertoire Records reissued Space Hymns on CD. Fans are still waiting for the reissue of Glass Top Coffin.

"

Space/folk/rock excellence

R. Cowley | 09/11/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Superb example of space/folk/rock music. Not boring at all, despite what the other reviewers comments say - I liked the LP when it was released 35 years ago, and unlike the other reviewer who has not heard it in a very long time, I have the CD. Repertoire have done an excellent job of the reissue. Two of the band members went on to 10cc after this - music is very different to 10cc though. I just wish the second Ramases album "Glass Top Coffin" would be remastered and rereleased."

Shrouded in mystery

Elliot Knapp | Seattle, Washington United States | 10/30/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"There are many rumors and legends regarding Ramases and his wife, Sel; they were from another planet and departed Earth soon after their second album, Glass Top Coffin, was recorded; Ramases believed he was the reincarnation of the ancient Egyptian god; Ramases eventually killed himself in the 90's. With a bunch of stories like these, there was only one label crazy enough to produce this first Ramases album--Vertigo, and they did. With some of what was to become 10CC backing them, Ramases and his wife, who had been struggling to break into the late 60's psychedelic singles market, recorded the first fully-formed realization of his religious/environmentalist/alien vision. It remains today a wholly successful (albeit predictably strange) venture, and if it doesn't fully live up to the bizarre mythology Ramases invented for himself, it's still interesting and compelling to listen to as an artifact from different days.



Spacey sound effects fade into audibility at the beginning of "Life Child," followed by a grooving acoustic guitar riff. When the band kicks in, it really starts grooving, and when the bassist cranks up the overdrive on his amp, it downright rocks. Ramases bitingly spits out a list of humanity's failings as stewards of the earth, mockingly but sadly referring to us all as "life child." After this opener, you know you're in for a pretty entertaining trip. "Oh Mister" is a lot folkier, with Sel's vocals in the background more noticeable. Hand drums give this one a nice groove, and though the lyrics aren't substantial, they reinforce the first track's implication that Ramases is an observer from afar, trying to make sense of the way human civilization works, and why we do the self-contradictory things we do--probably the most fascinating and dominating concept of the entire album. "Oh Mister" also introduces a couple of the elements of Ramases' sound that get a little grating eventually--Sel's vocals are a bit rough; she often sings in unison with Ramases in a nasaly voice, which makes me wish she'd either not sing, or at least pick out a simple harmony part to soften it up a bit. The other thing is that many of the lyrics on the album are repetitions of the same line, which can sometimes seem a bit boring and lazy, though sometimes it works to great effect.



"And the Whole World" is a really hippie-folk apocalyptic ballad, not unlike the Bee Gees' "I Started a Joke," reaching some surprisingly emotionally accessible heights. "Quasar One" seems to be a hymn to the "home world," and features some gnarly backing from the inventive studio musicians. "You're The Only One" is blasted by another review here, since the lyrics repeat "You're the only one, Joe, the only one" over and over. Yeah, if you're not listening closely this is simply annoying. But in the context of Ramases' conceptual framework, the song eerily illustrates that feeling we all get sometimes--the feeling that you are the only one who is really alive, really real--with a creepy immediacy that makes it one of the most effective cuts on the album. The modal, chant-style "Molecular Delusions" is a pretty ominous depiction of Ramases' quite interesting belief that "We are most probably existing on a molecule inside the material of, perhaps, a living thing in the next size up," though it's repetitive and seems to go on a bit too long.



"Balloon" is moderately catchy folk-rock (which didn't stop the single version from disappearing immediately), and "Jesus" is the kind of generic hippie-Christian folk rock (complete with some really un-adventurous rhymes) that you wouldn't really expect from an alien. The album's closer, though, "Journey To The Inside," is one of the most interesting and trippy tracks, full of spacey synthesizers, pulsing with energy. It ends in turbulence, with clips of Ramases extolling some of his mystical beliefs.



In the end, Space Hymns is a very rewarding experience, full of interesting sounds (thanks to the very creative backing of the studio musicians, which adds many layers to the singer's songs) and some excellent ideas. I wish more of it rocked as hard as "Life Child," which ends up being one of the strongest songs on the album--at the very beginning. It's best listened to closely, on headphones or a decent stereo--otherwise, it may seem less interesting, subtly compelling, and sonically-detailed than it actually is. Repertoire's reissue is typical of their sound and packaging quality--excellent remastering, a beautiful digipak booklet with a small poster of the awesome church/spaceship cover art, and 4 bonus tracks, none of which are essential, as is usually the case with bonus tracks. Recommended for adventurous folk rock fans, and people interested in weirder prog and spacey 70's music. Maybe someday Repertoire will release Ramases' second album, Glass Top Coffin, which has never seen CD reissue...we can only hope and wait."