Curt Boettcher - Misty Mirage [Japan] (CD)

All Music Guide

Following their collaboration on the first Sagittarius album, Curt Boettcher and Gary Usher set up shop with their own Together label, before Boettcher and friends formed the Millennium and recorded their landmark 1968 album. When the band disintegrated, Boettcher began his own experimental sessions with the possible intention of putting out a solo album on Together. By that point, the label's distributor was already beginning to falter, but not before Boettcher spent a considerable amount of time in the studio laying down the basic tracks, which ultimately went unreleased until this exceptional Poptones archival release collecting those sessions, including demos, outtakes, instrumental versions, and even a few commercial spots.Boettcher had already placed many of the songs on Misty Mirage elsewhere in the two or three preceding years. "I Just Want to Be Your Friend" and "The Know It All" were recorded by the Millennium, while "Baby It's Real" and "Share With Me" were slated for the ba...nd's never-recorded second album. "Another Time" and "You Know I've Found a Way" were first featured on Sagittarius' Present Tense. "Misty Mirage" and "Astral Cowboy" had shown up on the obscure Boettcher-produced album by Michele, while "That's the Way It's Gonna Be" was a Lee Mallory 45. Others make their first appearances on record. Boettcher was clearly in an experimental and playfully weird mood when these sessions were made, since both characteristics are embodied in his alternately creepy and kaleidoscopically appealing take on the 1934 Sons of the Pioneers hit "Tumbling Tumbleweeds," which opens the album. But these recordings do not have the dreamy luminescence that marks much of his previous oeuvre; for example, compare his acoustic "Another Time" to the original Sagittarius version. This is partly due to a less complex production and partly because songs like the title track, only a year or so removed from Sagittarius and the Millennium, had already relinquished some of their guileless innocence and taken on a patina of maturity and experience. The snarling "That's the Way It's Gonna Be," for instance, is surprisingly dour (not unlike "I'm Not Living Here" from Present Tense), although tinged with a characteristic ray of optimism, and "Wearing Levis" shows more of a grungy, Paul McCartney-style rock influence (think "Helter Skelter") than Boettcher had ever displayed before. Those primarily drawn to the innocence in Boettcher's music might find themselves taken aback at first. Still, Misty Mirage has its own sort of shimmer and retains the heart-on-sleeve romanticism, particularly in the lyrics. "Astral Cowboy," too, reveals that Boettcher is still cosmically inclined. Boettcher trying on different timbres and textures and frequently scaling back on the production, whether purposefully or because the recordings were left unfinished. If it is the former, with the benefit of hindsight one can place Misty Mirage alongside records like the White Album, Wild Honey, and John Wesley Harding -- an example of a former production prodigy returning to the basics (although the basics for Boettcher were always much more opulent and involved than for most other producers). Regardless, it is a blessing that this music has finally found its way to the public, both to round out and extend Boettcher's already considerable legacy. A fascinating listening experience. - Stanton Swihart, All Music Guide Read more Less