OSCURO FILES: HIGH SPEED & THE AFFLICTED MAN

The kind gentleman who runs Holy Mountain records actually tried to turn me onto the HIGH SPEED & THE AFFLICTED MAN record called “Get Stoned EZY”, a couple years before I was ready to open my cranium to it. I don’t know why this severe fuzzorama guitar-damage LP didn’t do me right on the first go-round, but it didn’t. Now only mere seconds into the incredible side-long track “Sun Sun” and it’s careful with that axe, Eugene. Steve Hall is the guy behind this one – I did some research and realized that one of the all-time great mp3 blogs, CRUD CRUD, already posted (and subsequently deleted) this track in 2007.

His write-up – which swipes from Tom Lax’s write-up – tells the tale better than I ever could:

“Among DIY psych & private press enthusiasts, The Afflicted Man (AKA Steve Hall) is pretty legendary. To the uninitiated, his is just a name. Maybe you might read a reference to it, some review by the Bull Tongue duo name drops Steve Hall or you see an Afflicted Man comparison in a Forced Exposure listing. You note the name and keep going. But, if you are like me, it is a name you never encounter in the record bin, because, hell, this shit is impossible to find. Even rabid music freaks are eluded by gems like Get Stoned Ezy. Too bad, because this stuff is dynamite. Grenchingly rabid guitar fuzz squall is what High Speed & the Afflicted Man is all about, perfect for the High Rise/Mainliner/Monoshock set. So what is the background on The Afflicted Man. I'll let my friend and colleague Roland Woodbe tell you. This from The Siltblog:

Afflicted Man (or Afflicted) was the charming moniker of a Londoner by the name've Steve Hall. Up to this outing, Afflicted Man's style could best described at stock-in-trade Brit DIY w/an almost Street Level sort've quality to it. Then at some point Hall lost the Afflicted tag & went on to the Accursed, which was a decidedly Nation Front styled punk trio who knocked out (at least) 2 lp's. And somewhere between that transformation came this amazing anomaly. Too freaked out for punks, too punked out for freaks, 'Get Stoned Ezy' is a bloodbath of pedal stomping carnage. Recorded & (originally) released in 1982, it must've felt like a rusty safety pin stuck straight through the heart of whatever DIY fanbase Hall had acquired. And for all the Pink Fairies or Hawkwind type's that mighta come across it, it was too primitive & animalistic for their quid. And forget about the psych & prog clowns. To them this must've seemed like a soundtrack to the Manson Family. In a country where the pigeonhole is everything, this record wouldn't play by the rules, was deemed "esoteric" & banished into the fog. See ya!"

Love it. “A bloodbath of pedal stomping carnage”. That tells you everything you need to know, sports fans – that and downloading the track below.

Play High Speed & The Afflicted Man, “Sun Sun”

Download HIGH SPEED & THE AFFLICTED MAN – “Sun Sun” (from 1982 “Get Stoned EZY” LP)