Thee Hypnotics were one of those late 80s/early 90s bands that dug deep into the roots of rock (and presumably the re-issues  and 2^nd hand sections of their local record store.)  Downright heavier than those MTV hair-bands that conveniently ‘discovered’ the blues and retro rock around the time of it’s acceptance by the yuppie generation, Thee Hypnotics filled the retro/garage shaped gap between alternative rock and metal.

They originated from High Wycombe, a small town in the UK home counties well known for its connections to the infamous Hellfire Club, an alleged 18^th Century secret society of prominent land-owners and politicians rumoured to engage in drunken orgies and other church worrying behaviour within a labyrinth of caves and tunnels on the outskirts of the town.  Perhaps inspired by this legacy of rock n roll behaviour, Thee Hypnotics set about tearing up the local music scene (legend has it that during those early years singer Jim Jones used to model himself on a life-sized cardboard cut out of Mick Jagger) before spreading their disease across England and beyond, with tours of the USA and Europe, and a major label release for Chris Robinson-of-the-Black-Crowes produced album ‘The Very Crystal Speed Machine’.  More information regarding Thee Hypnotics career is provided elsewhere on this very website for those who are interested.  So I’ll cut to the chase and summarise that despite the popularity of the retro-rock revival, they never had a big hit to take them to the next level, perhaps lacking a song big, dumb and obvious to propel them into the radars of the mainstream radio programmers.

One morning during the late 1990s, I was in High Wycombe and spotted a hastily made A4 poster advertising ‘Live Tonight – Thee Hypnotics’ at the local college bar.  Having thought they’d split up some years before I asked around and was pleased to hear that they were indeed back on tour with a new line-up.  That nights gig was awesome – this was at a time when every other band was either employing some DJ on ‘decks’ and all but apologising for using guitars, or otherwise playing some other variation of rap-metal or hardcore.  In contrast, Thee Hypnotics blazed through an entire set of fiery fuzzed up garage rock, with Marshall stacks, fuzz pedals, windmill armed guitar poses, and not a rapper or DJ in sight. Unfortunately the brilliance of this was lost on many of the crowd – it was another 3 or 4 years before MTV, Radio 1, and the NME told them that they could enjoy this sort of thing.  But for a handful of us in the room that night, this was the first band we’d seen all year that was playing what we wanted to hear.  We shouted for old classic ‘Revolution Stone’ (the nine-minute centrepiece of their ‘Livr Than God’ album) and the band seemed genuinely surprised by this – adding it to the set announcing it as ‘here’s one we haven’t played in a long time’.   And it sounded awesome, ten times better even than on the album, guitarist Ray Hanson carving out thick slabs of blues-grunge and the whole band jamming to create some kind of uplifting sonic alchemy. 

Not long afterwards, I read in Kerrang! magazine that a new Thee Hypnotics single ‘Earth Blues ‘99’ had been released (7inch vinyl only), and awarded the coveted title of ‘single of the week’. So I went straight down to the record shop and bought a copy. 

A sonic maelstrom of dirty soul blues, proto punk, and mind expanding psychedelia.  Three parts loose n’ loud garage rock n roll to one part mind expanding grungedelic progpunk, on this single Thee Hypnotics produced the kind of uplifting vibe that most of the big-league rock n rollers had lost years ago, and most of the newer bar-room gutter rock and tripped out psyche revivalists could only dream of.

If I was to get really carried away at this point I’d describe it as a shuffling snake-hipped bar-room brawl honkytonk sleaze collided with a loved up spiritual declaration of allegiance to the book of rock n roll in a thick fuzzy stabbing funk soul orgy. 

But getting straight to the heart of Thee Hypnotics bliss drenched sonic shakedown, I’ll just say track 1 ‘Earth Blues ’99 ‘ sets the scene coming on like a pilled up rock bitch whose just experienced spiritual enlightenment on the dancefloor at one of those London nightclubs where they play all that 60s garage rock jive.  Then just when you think things can’t get any better, flip this sucker over and B-side ‘Thing 4 U’ provides the money shot, taking this bad machine to a higher plane on a loose limbed beat. 

You want reference points? Think along the lines of The Doors, The Who, MC5, Blue Cheer, The Sonics, and The Stones mixed up with some of the better sounds that came out of Seattle (Hendrix, even some of those fuzzy grunge bands).  I’d also add Atomic Rooster……yes Atomic Rooster…..which is really cool in my book, because apart from Thee Hypnotics I can’t think of any-one else that even comes close to matching the Roosters uplifting but sinister, energetic but mellow soul vibe.

This single appears to be the last thing they ever did despite the enclosed flyer advertising a forthcoming five track mini album.  The record label ‘Rocket Recordings’ doesn’t seem to be traceable and singer Jim Jones now appears to be fronting a band called Black Moses.  I also hear original drummer Will Pepper turned up in a Brit pop band during the 1990s.

In summary, if you like your rock n’ roll tight but loose then I recommend you hunt this sucker down. 

Check out:

To buy this single:

http://www.invadashop.co.uk/cgi-bin/gate.htm

Official Rocket Recordings record company website:

http://www.rocketrecordings.com/

Rocket Recordings on myspace.com:

 http://www.myspace.com/ROCKETRECORDINGS

More Thee Hypnotics on Sleazegrinder.com:

http://www.sleazegrinder.com/flashmetalhypnotics.htm

New band featuring ex-Thee Hypnotics singer and bass player:

www.blackmoses.co.uk

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