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Reviews of the CHURCH of HED Debut CD!

Church of Hed Review/Interview from Aural Innovations

Sonic Curiosity

From Steve Roberts of ZNR Records...

"Quarkspace's drummer/leader has made a solo album under the name of 
Church of Hed. It is a dandy, every bit as good as anything the band 
have done. Shades of the usual suspects - Pink Floyd, Gong, Hillage, 
Hawkwind - and hints at dub & ambient styles, too. A very nice disc."


The following is from the All Music Guide and Francois Couture.

"Hiding under the moniker Church of Hed is Quarkspace drummer Paul Williams. Created to indulge the latter's electronic side, this project focuses on tighter songs and a synth-heavy sound. Lack of electric guitar aside, the music follows a path very similar to the group's own brand of trippy space rock. Williams, billed as “the nefarious HED," plays multi-layered synthesizers, loops, drums and even vocals on a couple of numbers. The Archbishop of Budweiser (who this reviewer suspects to be none other than Quarkspace's Stan Lyon) supplied bass lines for half of the tracks. Other group members may have popped their heads into the studio, but they hide under similarly puzzling pseudonyms. Despite the fact that the album is presented as an electronica affair, it covers more ground. The key factor to enjoy it resides in your appreciation of synth-based space music. Think Ozric Tentacles, but also Tangerine Dream, The Orb, even a touch of Stereolab. Stand-out tracks include the opener “The Lone Freak," the hypnotic “Cathedral Ice Revival" and the utterly strange “Alpha Century Leisuretime." The latter kicks off with a delicate electric piano motif, then turns to swirling synths backing a spoken intervention by Thom the World Poet — played backwards! The odd track is “Rock & Roll Song" where Williams shows how much he knows his Peter Hammill as he emulates his writing and arrangements. In short, this eponymous release makes a convincing debut." — François Couture

Sea of Tranquility (www.seaoftranquility.org) Care for some Hed? Church Of Hed's fusion of trance-electronica and 70s space-rock is now available in the form of a light, compact, self-titled mini-LP format CD. Loops, filter sweeps, and analog strangeness galore, the synthetic carousel encountered herein is complemented by real drums, bass, and lead vocals by C.o.H. stalwart and Quarkspace drummer Paul Williams. You won't hear any cheap- sounding patches or presets on this—Williams either utilizes faithfully warm emulations, or the real deal, or both. Members of Quarkspace, The Red Masque, Nomuzik and other groups join Williams on bass, synthesizers, and backing vocals—interesting credits, indeed: the Archbishop of Budweiser, Monsignor Nomuzik, Sister Mary Haruspex, etc. The last one should be a dead giveaway—that's Lynnette Shelley of The Red Masque, her pseudonym taken from the band's latest album. "The Lone Freak" freaks out into trance overdrive with potent efficiency, coming down with full force on bedsprings of gestating swells and gyrating rhythms. "Axiom One" is quite the opposite, calm without being somnolent, ripples of deep bass surging across the mix. Perhaps this track needs its own genre—space dub? The album's namesake track is a cautionary tone poem built on razor-sharp conveyor belt sequences and a probing square-wave lead. Williams' does the nigh-impossible and melds his live drumming with the otherworldly chaos—magnifico! The ambient space of "Requiem One" is the second cousin of Steve Roach's Structures From Silence with its insular freedom. One of the best tracks, the mesmeric "Cathedral Ice Revival" patterns itself after early 80s Tangerine Dream; Mellotron- like choirs and a static tempo are components of the Teutonic Blueprint—long-sustained notes and mechanical sequences extract their own designs. The web of warmth is dismantled by "Blue Freaky," a frenzied soup of clustered buzzing, whirring and clanging. An aptly analog lead graces "Requiem Two," a three-minute, thirty-second canvas on which Williams paints the virtues of raw analog power—listen to those filter sweeps. With a wonderfully minimalistic approach, and its tasty, authentic-sounding reverbed Rhodes, "Alpha Century Leisuretime" ushers the listener through eleventeen minutes of delectable electro-space; it could last for another nine minutes or twenty-nine, pure magic. Thom The World Poet (spelled backwards) cues in with an eerie spoken vocal bit. "Northern Songs" features vocals—very nice, but the sonic palette on Church Of Hed is so rich, it should've just been another instrumental. Added: February 26th 2003 Reviewer: Elias Granillo Score: ****

Zeitgeist (www.zeitgeist-scot.co.uk) Church Of Hed - eponymous (Eternity's Jest Records 2002, EJ0024) Cue a wide array of drummer jokes, for this is a solo album by Paul Williams, drummer from Quarkspace. Fortunately, Mr Williams also knows his way around a bank of keyboards, and with Quarkspace having some down time, here's the result.. At first listen, things seemm more robotic, less organic, and if there is a constant them, it appears to be one of alienation, with electronic beats to the fore throughout. If Quarkspace fans are looking for an easy way in, then they should start with Track 7, "Cathedral Ice Revival", an old stylee Quarkspace soundalike and program the rest of the CD around it. With a few helping hands to round out the sound, the Archbishop of Budweiser (aka Stan Lyon) on bass and spacecow, Sister Mary Haruspex (aka Lynnette Shelley from the Red Masque) on backing vocals, Monsignor Nomuzik (aka Carl Howard from Nomuzic) on analog box, Teop Dlrow Eht Moht (aka Thom the World Poet) on spoken words, Father Viv Bleating (aka Jay Swanson from Quarkspace) on freaky synth, and Cardinal Weimerheiner (aka Chet Santia from Quarkspace) on backing vocals, this veers from electronic freakbeat through traditional spacerock before heading off into intense, fiery riffology. Sometimes dazzling, sometimes mesmering, there is a lot for spacerockers to get their teeth into, be it blanga, trance or pure prog. An excellent offering

From The Chicken Fish Speaks  Church of Hed - Church of Hed - CD www.churchofhed.com Consisting of cheesy sci-fi synth instrumentals this CD literally gave me a headache. And when I say cheesy sci-fi, I don't mean in a good way like some of the stuff you might hear from Man or Astroman? It's more of in a bad way, like in sucks. There were a couple of tune where they tried to incorporate vocals into the mix that did little to help out. My opinion was confirmed when Grog called me while I was listening to this release and immediately asked "What the hell are you listening to?" {Mite}