INTERSECTING NIHILISM : The Oho Basement Experience

"We’re going to rape you first, then kill you." These words greeted me as I lugged my equipment into Mark’s rusted-out "ohomobile." It was January, 1975 and I had already chalked-up one Oho basement recording experience, from late Fall,1974. So, although I didn’t know Mark O’Connor or Steve Heck all that well, I didn’t think they were capable of rape or murder. In fact, the Oho guys were ok. They were catholic boys, well-lapsed. Nice guy nihilists, they loved the Orioles and Friedrich Nietzsche.

I first heard the music of Oho in a local Towson record store in the Summer of ‘74. Singer-guitarist Jay Graboski was auditioning the Okinawa album for his friends. I thought I was hearing a new Family album, because of the vocals (Mark’s). I was surprised to find that the recording had been made in Baltimore by a local band. There was hope.

I dreamed of becoming a recording engineer. Having recently graduated from high school, I was finding that breaking into the recording "industry" in Baltimore was virtually impossible. So I decided to start my own recording studio (parents’ basement) and, of course, a progressive rock band (in parents’ basement). I saved money from my summer job and bought the new Teac 3340-S four track tape recorder, just introduced the year before. It had "simulsync" which meant that you could overdub tracks (a first for a consumer tape machine.) I also got some decent mics, cords and stands. Unfortunately, at that time, there was no "home recording" sub-industry and no one made a reasonably priced mixer, let alone, a compressor or reverb.

To get some recording experience, I contacted the program director at the local college FM station, WCVT, Towson. I would engineer and produce recordings of local bands playing their original music. The music would be recorded "live" at one of their gigs and then played as a weekly Sunday night radio show. However, there were precious few bands in Baltimore doing their own music. I frequently wound up lugging my gear to some foul nightclub and waiting for the band to play their one or two "originals" to a roomful of disinterested drunks. Is there still a "Golden 40 Inn?"

Some of the bands were ok. I still have tapes of Pen Lucy, Coyote, The Royal Five Plus One, Orange Wedge and several others whose names are lost in the ether. But I was excited to get a call from Mark O’Connor about taping Oho for the show. I knew that Oho owned a Mellotron- one of the few in town -and I couldn’t wait to hear and record it! Plus, I already knew that their music would be interesting.

The band didn’t have any shows lined-up in the near future, so I opted to record them "live" as they ran through a practice set in Joe’s basement. They had neat equipment. Unintentionally vintage, like Mark’s Elka Panther organ and Heck’s Hagstrom bass. They told me that, until earlier that year, Joe used a Sears Silvertone guitar. But then Mark also had an ARP Odyssey synthesizer and the mellotron.

I don’t think the lads were too excited about my equipment. They had already recorded in two of the best studios in town. They had recently completed all but one track from their incredible Vitamin Oho album, an impeccable recording, filled with great songs.

I set up the tape machine in the furnace room of the basement. I ran mic cables to the instruments and amps just outside the door. For those interested, I wound up miking everyone’s amps at the first session. I really wanted to go direct with Mark’s keyboards, but quickly realized that I would have no way of mixing the mellotron, synth, Wurlitzer electric piano and clavinet. Additionally, Mark ran the Panther organ through a phase shifter, which gave the organ a truly unique sound. I believe I used three mics on Jeff’s drums-two Sony condenser mics on the snare and toms and a dynamic on the kick.

The group had no PA, which meant that I would overdub the vocals after the instrumental tracks were laid down. I would use two tracks for an "on the fly" stereo mix of the instruments and one separate track for Joe’s guitar, leaving the remaining track for vocals. I mixed the drums and bass down to mono using a four input Shure mixer. In theory, the mono sound would appear to be placed in the center of the stereo mix. In fact, as I had been learning, the sound would pretty much go wherever it wanted. There was no reverb, eq, compressing or limiting.

The band began by running through a few takes of Nocturnal Recurrence, which gave me an opportunity to set levels. Soon, they were on their way. They did a final take of the song and then launched into other tracks such as Fwombat, No Fewer Days and Tinker’s Damn. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. This was some of the best music that I had ever heard. Lois Jane and Hogshead were completely mind blowing! I was a prog fan, but this was all once in a lifetime.

They finished off their set, I believe, with The Plague-complete with Blue Cheer style ending! I told them that this was some of the best stuff I had ever heard. They offered half- hearted thanks and commented (unbelievably) that they weren’t very happy with the way that they had played!

So far, I had only heard the instrumental tracks and they could have stopped there as far as I was concerned. But it was time to overdub vocals. I had to ride gain on the vocals without hearing the instrumental tracks (they needed the headphones to lay down the vocals) and without ever having heard the lyrics. When I heard the whacked-out lyrics and and whisper to scream dynamics, at first I thought they were joking. But they were dead serious! Those were the lyrics and that's how they were sung! It would take some getting used to. I seem to remember a bunch of beer bottles being broken on the basement floor during the vocal overdub of Cragwheel-for atmosphere?

Later on, we listened back over Mark’s stereo. I sensed they were not too excited about the sound quality (or their playing). They wanted a rematch. I would come back after the holidays and we’d all try again. They played me their mixes of Vitamin Oho to show me what they were truly capable of. Now, it made more sense. The recordings and performances on Vitamin Oho were incredible. They also gave me a copy of Okinawa that evening.

When I got back home, I played back the tapes. I thought they were pretty good, all things considered. I also played the Okinawa album. Wow! Another surprise. It sounded nothing like Vitamin Oho! Dadaistic lyrics coupled with stripped-down song structures and arrangements placed against an inexplicable "modern jazz "drum style. Jay later explained that they had no drummer at the time, but were hell-bent to record, anyway. The studio set them up with Larry Bright, a well- regarded local jazz drummer.

I went back to record again in January,1975. There would be no more recordings in nightclubs. I had seen Paris and would not stay on the farm. The January session was similar to the earlier one. This time, I managed to use one of the guy’s amp heads as a mixer so that reverb could be added selectively, ( meaning all the way up).

They had some new, incredible songs, such as Parade Charade and Here Come the Oysters. I have to admit that I prefer my recordings of those two songs over the later studio versions. The January session caught Oho at a creative peak. Other Oho classics such as Lez Lee were just around the corner.

It’s hard to describe why I have loved these basement tapes so much over the years. I think it’s because the music is fun, challenging and, thankfully, not perfect. It appeals to that part of the mind that enjoys making order out of chaos- but, not too much order.

The tapes have been "cleaned-up" a bit for this CD. Later day Oho producer Steve Carr has added some much needed compression and a dash of echo to the vocal tracks. But despite this modernization, you will still hear and , hopefully, experience the feelings I felt when I heard those songs for the first time.

Paul Rieger

November 22,1998