1. Chaz Haz Imploded (Hildreth) 3:53 [RA 3.0 @ 28.8]
2. The Only Peace I Know (Wagner) 8:06
3. Cellophane Mary (Wagner) 8:06
4. A Letter to St. Paul (Wagner) 13:07 [TrueSpeech Clip]
5. Gaddzooks (Wagner) 5:42 [TrueSpeech Clip]
6. The Color of a Mirror (Wagner) 2:50
7. Jimmy the Spock (Hildreth) 11:50 [TrueSpeech Clip]
8. Joy (Wagner) 8:30 [TrueSpeech Clip]

Produced by Java Men

You can order this cassette online from:

The A-B-C Music Shop!

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Some CDs are still available at the following:

• North Country Distribution ~ E-Mail
• ZNR Records
• Bertus, Netherlands
• Zero Communications, Osaka, Japan
• Some Tower outlets
• The following stores:

Arizona
  Tempe          Zia Records

California
  Los Angeles    Aron's
  Sunnyvale      CD Warehouse
  Ventura        Salzers

Colorado
  Aruada         Black and Read

Florida
  Winter Park    Park Avenue

Illinois
  Chicago        Rock Records
  Downer's Grove Music Warehouse
  Midolithian    Discount Records

Indiana
  Bloomington    Roscoe's
  Bloomington    CD Exchange

Kentucky
  Lexington      Cut Corner
  Lexington      Joseph Beth Booksellers
  Lexington      Disk Jockey

Massachusetts
  Boston         Newbury Comics

Maryland
  Silversprings  Wayside

Michigan
  Troy           Harmony House

Minnesota
  Minneapolis    Electric Fetus

Missouri
  Kansas City    Recycled Sounds

North Carolina
  Cary           Schoolkids

Oklahoma
  Oklahoma City  Rainbow

South Carolina
  Columbia       Manifest Discs

Tennessee
  Nashville      Lucy's Records

Texas
  Austin         Waterloo

Wisconsin
  Brown Deer     Exclusive

Since the turn of the decade, organ combos have made a bit of a comeback. So, maybe the time has come for the Java Men, a group hailing out of Louisville, Kentucky. But, they are an organ combo with a difference. Rather than aping the groovin'-on-a-hot-summer-night sweaty prototype, they play a breezy, energetic variant on it. Todd Hildreth does not rely on the clichés set down by Jimmy Smith, Groove Holmes and Johnny Hammond. Thankfully, there's not an endless trill over a walking bassline in sight. Hildreth tends to play his instrument with a straight, vibrato-less tone, reeling off spiralling, Coltrane-ish lines. He also explores the unique, sonic properties that a Hammond can provide. Craig Wagner's guitar is similarly unaffected. His solos develop from clean, single-line runs into dense chordal patches with a strong rhythmic crunch. There's also a bit of country twang to his tone, most notable on "Jimmy the Spock". Ray Rizzo's drumming holds it together, going from a cool swing to a strong funky backbeat.

The music runs the gamut from the tricky and tuneful ("The Only Peace I Know"/"Cellophane Mary") to the mysterious ("The Color Of A Mirror" which bears a bizarre resemblance to late-period Tom Waits) to the absurd ("Gaddzooks", which crosses a dancing, juju flavor with a drunken mariachi chorus). Throughout, there's an exuberance to this music that makes it well worth investigating.

Robert Iannapollo - Cadence 1/97 (p. 101)