PREMIERE: Unreleased Track By Lost Psych Legends Ramases

THE SWIRLING PSYCH EDDIES of Ramases’ 1971 album Space Hymns were hymned in MOJO magazine’s Buried Treasure column in 2014, a not-before-time celebration of its heady mix of spiritual rebirth, eco-conscious vibes and hippy forthrightness. One of a select coterie of contemporary converts was Swedish actor Peter Stormare – since then, an intimidating presence in Fargo, The Big Lebowski, and Prison Break. Currently the owner-operator of his own Stormvox album, he has declared his love for Ramases by facilitating a career-encompassing 6-disc box set, out today.

Here’s a taste of its arcane riches, in the shape of unreleased bonus track, This Was The World...

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Ramases was the creation and alter-ego of Barrington Frost, a former army PT instructor turned central heating engineer born in Sheffield. Adopting the persona of an Egyptian Pharaoh, the former jazz singer embarked on a pop career in earnest in 1968, involving wife Dorthy, renamed for the Egyptian goddess of cures and protection, Selket.

Interesting Herman’s Hermits manager Harvey Lisberg in their quirky, mystic chant-songs, the duo decamped to Strawberry Studios in Stockport to craft Space Hymns with the aid of the group Hotlegs – soon to be rather better known as 10cc. Sadly, Space Hymns, and a more skeletal and downbeat follow-up album, Glass Top Coffin (1975) failed to deliver widespread recognition and, bedevilled by mental health issues, Barrington Frost died by his own hand in 1978.

Available from today, the 6-disc Ramases set by Stormvox Records includes:
 1. Space Hymns (re-mastered); 
2. Space Hymns (rarities)
; 3. Glass Top Coffin (re-mastered)
; 4. Glass Top Coffin (rarities); 
5. Singles & Bonuses
; 6. A Tribute to... (covers)

For more information on Ramases and Stormvox Records visit 
www.stormvox.com

And here’s Stormare on the genius of Ramases...