I am going to make a claim which, to my knowledge, has never been made before: Mazinga Phaser’s Cruising in the Neon Glories of the New American Night is one of the greatest albums ever made.
Few albums — if any — can match it in terms of sheer trance-inducing majesty. It’s a mystical, hallucinatory, phantasmagoric nightmare that seems to alter the constructs of reality itself. It’s arguably the culmination of the glorious Texas psychedelic scene — a scene which also spawned masterpieces such as The Big Saturday Illusion (Furry Things), Destroy Me Lover (Pain Teens), and the first several Butthole Surfers albums. Mazinga Phaser, however, were more unearthly than any of the bands listed above.
Infinity for Now is sheer hypnosis. Dub Sonic (the track listing is slightly confusing) is sublimely powerful. Glass of Glycerine starts out as a simple lullaby before deteriorating into an ether of eerie keyboard sounds. This is a jarring and abrasive record, which perhaps explains its lack of an audience. In this respect, Mazinga Phaser seem to harken back to the era of The Red Crayola — perhaps the strangest Texas psychedelic band of them all.
The music of Mazinga Phaser is a journey into a musical netherworld — one that is at times difficult to grasp. They are the anti-Beatles. The Beatles wanted to hold your hand; Mazinga Phaser wanted to open portals to other universes. The album flows as one extended composition, full of strange structures and sounds.
Unfortunately, Mazinga Phaser never reached the same heights again. The followup album, Abandinallhope, wasn’t as lame as the title suggests, but was nonetheless a massive disappointment. Wanz Dover — the mastermind behind the group — left after that album. The other members continued on and recorded Dissatisfied Customers Of Hallucination, which was a respectable effort but nothing to write home about. The group disbanded shortly thereafter; Dover formed Falcon Project.
The music of Mazinga Phaser has sadly faded into oblivion. The Butthole Surfers are household names and even 7% Solution get a nod or two, but Mazinga Phaser (along with Furry Things and Pain Teens) remain all but unknown. Perhaps a future advanced civilization will re-discover Texas psychedelia and give it the re-appraisal it deserves.
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Brett Abrahamsen is a lifelong connoisseur of the experimental and obscure. He is also a science fiction writer (and an amateur philosopher of sorts). He resides in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
