Troyka - Troyka (1970)

One hesitates to jump to conclusions in case these guys were totally serious. But you wonder if Troyka was a real group or one just thrown together as a tax loss and/or a joke by Cotillion, such is the nonchalantly tossed-off, not-entirely-serious-sounding vibe of this 1970 obscurity. Whether intentional or not, it seems like the effort of a bunch of musicians told to hastily mimic some of the era's lowest-common-denominator psychedelicisms and blues-rock cliches. A couple of those get-down'n'dirty blues-rockers, "Natural" and "Rolling Down the Back Road," boast vocals so guttural that they're more cock-ups, as the British might say, than they are convincing cock rock. Most of the tracks are not so much conventional songs as basic riffs with some doofus-sounding (and improvised-sounding) vocals, as if guys who thought hard rock and psychedelic music was beneath them were told to supply guide vocals without a lyric sheet for reference, and decided to make a semi-mess of it when no one was looking. It's just on that edge, though, that makes it hard to determine whether they were trying to be satirical, or were genuinely thinking they might be coming up with something clever or far out. It ends up being something like a half-witted, blues-rock-leaning Mothers of Invention, with some detours into somewhat pretty Middle Eastern-influenced melodies. While there are actually some clever and funny moments, the totality isn't that clever or funny.

Tracklist :

1 Introduction 0:37
2 Natural 2:47
3 Early Morning 3:52
4 Life's OK 4:03
5 Burning of the Witch 2:54
6 Ruba-Dub-Dub Troyka in A-Tub 2:19
7 Troyka Lament 0:33
8 Troyka Solo 0:37
9 Rolloing Down the Back Road 4:04
10 Berry Picking 2:48
11 Dear Margaret (Malagosia) 2:33
12 Go East Young Man/Beautiful Eyes 6:12
13 Troyka Finale 0:30

Producer - Shel Kagan

personal:
Robert Edwards (guitar, mandolin)
Michael Richards (drums, vocals)
Ron Lukawitski (bass, bongos)