This is a reissue of Monster Magnet’s second EP, ‘Tab’, which although released after the debut album ‘Spine of God’ was recorded prior, and was only released to capitalise on that success. This reissue has removed the additional songs that can be found on some reissues, and instead has taken us back to the original. For those who are used to hearing Monster Magnet being a stoner band with songs of “normal” length then this EP is something of a shock, with the opening title cut coming in at more than 32 minutes! In some ways, it is strange to see this always referred to as an EP, as it is more than 56 minutes long, quite different to many of the albums that inspired this. What we have here is a stoner rock album that has been heavily inspired by the psychedelic wave of the late Sixties/early Seventies and then combined that with early Hawkwind to create something that is quite special indeed. It is the same line-up as the debut album, and I found this release fascinating (not having come across it at the time), as I never expected the band to sound anything like this. It is progressive, it is tripping, it is over the top, and I am convinced that it will be the perfect accompaniment to an acid trip (not that I am ever condoning the use of drugs of course). Surely it was recorded live in the studio, as I can’t imagine anyone tracking this, but instead just let the tapes roll and capture the madness that was going on in the studio.
More than 25 years on, this is both a comforting and quite frightening EP which is stretching boundaries of what is musically acceptable to a mass public and is all the better for it. Well worth hearing.
