24 Hours (Vinyl LP)

A super rare specimen, only three hundred copies of Ant Trip Ceremony's "24 Hours" were cut upon its initial release in early 1968. But the album has been revived on a few occasions throughout the years, so psychedelic fanatics like us don't have to spend entire paychecks to encounter its charms. The best of these reissues is this package, which aside from the cool music of course, is wholly legitimate and contains in-depth liner notes and previously unpublished photos.

The first version of Ant Trip Ceremony was formed when guitarist Steve Detray, who attended Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio, visited his brother in Logan, Utah. When Steve returned to school in the summer of 1967, a new incarnation of the band was born, which featured lead singer Roger Goodman, bassist Gary Rosen, drummer Jeff Williams and percussionist Mark Stein. Prior to recording what would be their lone album, "24 Hours," the band had already obtained a devoted fan base via local live gigs.

Sharing an alliance with acts such as the Grateful Dead, Quicksilver Messenger Service, and Country Joe and the Fish, with touches of the Byrds periodically cropping up, Ant Trip Ceremony put a serious premium on experimentation and improvisation. A genre-blending journey, "24 Hours" slaps together bits and bobs of jazz, rock, folk, Middle Eastern motifs, and blues to a mind-numbing aftermath. As is usually the case with the greatest art, attitude over aptitude is the key here. Each track on "24 Hours" bottles and seals the band's love and enthusiasm for what they were doing to contagious effects.

Charted of rumbling raga rock rhythms and breezy flute frequencies, "Elaborations" definitely weighs in as the highlight of the album, while other original compositions such as the slow and spooky "Pale Shades Of Gray," the jangly wobble of "Outskirts," the fractured jazzy pop of "Locomotive Lamp," the spellbinding repetition of "Four In The Morning," and the haunting pitch of "Riverdawn" also reveal Ant Trip Ceremony's flair for installing unique twirls and curls into their material. Brash and bluesy, complete with howling harmonica drills and a needling drum solo, "Sometimes I Wonder" is a memorable tune as well, The loose and carefree vocals fit perfectly with the "anyway the wind blows" vision of the material, which shuttles back and forth between mellow moodiness and concentrated intensity. As far as covers go, Allen Toussaint's "Get Out Of My Life Woman" favors a ragged and jagged crust, Eric Anderson's "Violets Of Dawn" is airy and ghostly, and the garage band staple "Hey Joe" nails jazz flavored figures to a hard rocking romp.

Strewn with unconventional tactics, "24 Hours" fully represents the jamming good mentality of the era, and is therefore a minor masterpiece of its acid-stained stripe.

Condition
Media: Mint (M)
Sleeve: Mint (M)

Our Grading Standards
We grade all vinyl using the Goldmine standard:
Mint (M): Perfect, unplayed condition.
Near Mint (NM): Nearly perfect with minimal signs of handling.
Very Good Plus (VG+): Shows light signs of play but plays with minimal surface noise. The most common grade for collectable vinyl.
Very Good (VG): Noticeable marks and some surface noise, but still an enjoyable listen.
Good (G): Heavy wear — for collectors only.

All records are graded visually and by play. Media and sleeve are graded separately.

About Peckham Soul

Visit our physical store at Linnégatan 2, 413 04 Göteborg.
Mon–Tue 11:00–18:00 · Wed–Thu 11:00–18:30 · Fri 11:00–20:30 · Sat 11:00–17:00 · Sun Closed.

We're a specialist vintage vinyl shop with roots in Peckham, London. From our Swedish store we ship across Europe and the EU. Every record in our collection is individually sourced, inspected, and graded. We stock soul, funk, jazz, reggae, punk, indie, psych and beyond — always original pressings, always honestly described.

Shipping & Returns
We ship carefully packed in rigid mailers to protect your record in transit. If a record arrives not as described, we'll sort it — no hassle.