PABLO

Fully Baked

By Pablo

Independent music producer and mult-instrumentalist Paul “Pablo” Thomas has created a mind-melting new album called Fully Baked, which he refers to as “a radical musical antidote for popular culture.” In addition to the exotic instrumentation and rhythmic emphasis, Pablo’s ingredients include: several chunks of guitar, a litre (sic) full of keyboards, a healthy pinch of select Indian spices and a chunky slice of old movie and TV Ham! Themes of alienation, heartbreak and twisted social comment have been added for a multi flavoured (sic) offering. Once mixed up, Fully Baked is a more lyrical affair than Pablo’s previous albums with contributions from Thomas’s perennial collaborator Bobby Moon, of Spellbound.

Fully Baked represents the most fully realized Pablo vision…

Pablo "Fully Baked" [Selfish  Recordings]

Los Angeles-based artist and lover of everything psychedelic, Pablo releases his third album - Fully Baked - a true mind bending explosion of style, tone and color, a little akin to the infamous 1960s album White Noise.

Created as 'an alternative to consensus reality', multi-instrumentalist Paul 'Pablo' Thomas was sickened by media obsession with celebrity culture. Playing most of the instruments himself - including guitars, sitar, organ, Meinl Helix Bowl and percussion - the album is a roller coaster ride through a gamut of genres, from acid rock and garage through blissed-out ambience and trance, into psychedelic folk (with a cover version of Jerry Garcia's Bird Song). There's even a starngely atmospheric take on 1950s rock 'n' roll tune Got My Mojo Working.

TWISTING AND TURNING LIKE THE CHANGING PHASES OF AN ACID TRIP, FULLY BAKED OFFERS A COMPLETE PSYCHEDELIC EXPERIENCE. HOLD ON TIGHT!

Reviews

Pablo - Fully Baked (Selfish Recordings)

"Fully Baked" isn't the best title for any album, but it adds nothing to the summerizing of this one by Pablo, only suggesting to me that "half-baked" might be more accurate (after listening to ONLY the opening tracks, I must add). You can only get casually acquainted with it at first, as it meanders a path that incorporates Zappa homage, ambient electronica, '60's retro (a cover of "Psychotic Reaction", of all things), a song that could have been by Sly and the Family Stone called "Live To Trip (Another Day)", and if we ignore the mock glam of the first track we still have 10 tracks to cover! Initially, cohesion does not appear to be this band's strong point, and Pablo is almost a one-man band, named for Paul 'Pablo' Thomas, with one Bobby Moon as the other contributor.

None of the above remotely prepares you, though, for the following version of "Got My Mojo Working" which, to Pablo's great credit, manages to sound unlike any previous cover that has ever gone before. The duo turn this R&B classic into a psyche rock groove. I have no idea what "Braking Dub" (sic) could have been spawned by, although it's actually a cracker of a track, as is "Codi Can't Chill", in a similar yet entirely different vein...eh?

More monster psyche comes in the form of "Dumbing Down", the utterly glorious "Fuzzy", a brilliant take on The Dead's psyche folk classic "Bird Song", two more self-penned sizzlers, together with a cover of Bruce Cockburn's "Different When It Comes To You" - with added Middle Eastern 'edge' - say what?

In the word's (sic) of George Harrison it's "All Too Much", and if you want the definitive version of what I am trying to say, then go out and get a copy, and it will all make the most perfect sense. Bliss will be yours, and Pablo's profile will be deservedly be raised one more notch.

Kev A.

Pablo

Take Two

Indie

One of the most interesting CDs to cross my desk in the last little while is a true stoner classic. This is the type of CD that you don't expect too much from at first, but as you listen to it you start to get engulfed by its various trips and beats. It's impossible to label the sound of Take Two, as underground L.A. artist Pablo changes gears and genres track after exciting track. Given a chance each song seems to work well on their own, but by the CDs end you will have captured a full psychedelic experience. ML

Pablo – Take Two (Selfish Records)

Paul Thomas – Pablo -- es uno de los músicos más creativos que he conocido. Su nombre debe ser familiar para muchos de ustedes, pues en ocasión he reseñado compactos del dinámico grupo californiano Spellbound, el cual Paul lidera junto a Bobby Moon, su gran amigo.  Pero Paul no se puede estar quieto, y siempre tiene que estar creando, y su más reciente trabajo lo trae nuevamente como solista. El resultado: “Pablo – Take Two”, un álbum fascinante y ecléctico que revela la mente de este talentoso músico.

Aunque la producción de “Pablo – Take Two” es una labor conjunta entre Paul y Bobby, todos los instrumentos estuvieron a cargo de Paul Thomas, con excepción de un tema, donde Bryan Marye tocó la batería. Para disfrutar de este CD, hay que tener una mente sumamente abierta, debido a que Pablo usa cuanto ritmo tiene a su alcance, incluyendo los efectos especiales y sonidos electrónicos. Dicho esto, diría que me gustaron “Soto Street Taxi”, número sicodélico que nos da la impresión de estar en una jungla”;”The Drum”, interpretado por Danielle DeCosmo, que suena como un tema de Los Beatles; y “Lena Lâo-Vyu”, con un piano bien apasionado, provisto de un sabor sensual que me recordó a “Nights in White Satin”, de the Moody Blues, y que luego cambia a un vibrante boogaloo. También me gustaron “El Cuervo”, donde Pablo nos brinda un delicioso solo de piano; “Nepotism & payola Blues”, un blues sicodélico, con un fuerte y sarcástico mensaje contra la payola; y “If You would”, cantada por Bobby Moon, y dotado de un sabor del rock de finales de los 60, principio de los 70s; y “Lost in Surf”, que me trajo a la memoria la música de las películas de vaqueros italianas (spaghetti westerns).

Es de verdad un placer apoyar el trabajo de Pablo y el de Spellbound. Como mencioné anteriormente, Paul Thomas es un genio musical, de esos que llevan la música al próximo nivel. “Pablo – Take Two” dice eso y mucho más. (EEG)