The first in a series of Dimentia 13 download reissue exclusives, featuring Brad Warner! Brad of course is the renowned author of Hardcore Zen, Sit Down and Shut Up, and Zen Wrapped in Karma Dipped in Chocolate as well as the bassist of 0DFX. Dimetia 13 was Brad's mid-80's/early 90's psych garage outfit who managed some fine releases on Midnight Records.
Here's what Brad told us about this reissue:
Disturb The Air was the third Dimentia 13 album, but it was the first to be recorded with
a real band. I had played pretty much all of the instruments on the first two records with
the exception of a couple of keyboard parts. But by the time it came to record the third
album I had moved from Akron, Ohio to Chicago and had been playing live there with a
band consisting of Louanne Varholick on bass and Witold Janczak (pronounced Vee-told
Yan-chak) on drums.
I’d gotten word that Glenn Rehse of the band Plasticland liked the first two Dimentia 13
albums a lot and wanted to work with us. I was already a huge fan of Plasticland and this
seemed like a dream come true. Glenn was just a couple hours drive north in Milwaukee,
so we met and talked and decided it could be done.
At the time I wrote and demoed these songs, my favorite record was Bob Dylan’s album,
John Wesley Harding. I envisioned the album to be something like that, very stripped
down and bare with just the band playing the songs. Glenn, on the other hand, wanted a
huge Phil Spector-like production. Since I liked that style of production as well, and since
I knew Glenn had worked that kind of magic on the Plasticland records, I agreed to go
that direction.
Even so, I was initially shocked when I heard his mixes. There was so much reverb and
echo, so many effects, so many overdubs of organs, percussion and Mellotrons. It
sounded nothing like the rough mixes I’d taken home just after we recorded. It took me a
while to get used to it. (By the way, there are no synthesizers on this album, as some
reviewers at the time mistakenly concluded. All the keyboards were played by Glenn on a
vintage Farfisa Combo Organ and a massive Mellotron.)
Witold, our drummer, absolutely hated the production. But then again, there were some
weird things going on with him that had nothing to do with Gelnn Rehse’s Mellotron
overdubs. He’d insisted on bringing his mother to the recording sessions. I think he had
some need to prove to her he’d made it in music or something. She sat there bored out of
her skull in the corner as we blasted away whatever was left of her hearing on take after
take. I really felt sorry for her. Witold was no longer in the band by the time the record
came out, which is why he’s credited differently from the rest of the band. I can’t
remember what happened, but I think he refused to play a gig we’d booked because it
was below his dignity or some such thing.
Once I got used to the way the album sounded it became one of my all-time favorite
records, bar none. I guess it sounds egotistical to rank one of your own records as one of
the all-time greats in rock history and I know that’s not a widely held opinion given that
the record initially sold only a few thousand copies. But I started making records because
the kind of music I wanted to listen to wasn’t being made by anybody else. With this
album I finally felt like I’d gotten close to the sound I’d always wanted to hear.
With the passing of time, I feel less personally involved and I can listen to Disturb The
Air with almost as much detachment as I can listen to an album made by someone else.
I’m not the person I was twenty years ago. I still think it’s a great record and I’m glad it’s
available again for people to enjoy.
| 
Cart is empty