Name: Mother Earth's Plantasia
Brand: Mort Garson

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

SBR3030lp-C1

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Colour

Green

Colour details

Green vinyl.

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Discogs ID

Format multiplier

Download code

Download code: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: Yes

Format detail

Format Music US

Limited edition

Release date

2019-06-21

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier US

Secre­tly

Tax rate US

Sales:8.875

UPC / Barcode

0843563116043

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Total Cap

Green LP

SBR3030CD

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Extended format: No

0843563116029

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1 / CD / Extended format: No / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No

Artist

Mort Garson

Genre US

60s & 70s

Label US

Sacred Bones Records

Mort Garson was a Canadian composer, bandleader, and songwriter. He was a classically trained musician and electronic researcher who started his career in the 1960s. Garson was among the first to experiment with the big Moog synthesizer and became known for his original sci-fi space age soundscapes.

His debut album, released in 1967, featured sonic analog-based compositions. In 1969, he released another album that showcased supernatural electronic moods, pulsating hypnotic effects, and moving synthesized textures. Garson's musical universe can be compared to kitsch moog pop soundscapes but with more mystical-cerebral-adventurous proportions.

In 1971, he released his most progressive album yet: lysergic electronic modulations met dark epic timbres. Mort Garson is considered one of the most notorious Canadian space electronic artists alongside other notable figures such as [Collaborated Artist] and [Collaborated Artist].

Reissues of the Year 2019

Vinyl variants, bonus material and signed editions exclusively available from Rough Trade.

In the mid-1970s, a force of nature swept across the continental United States, cutting across all strata of race and class, rooting in our minds, our homes, our culture. It wasn’t The Exorcist, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, or even bell-bottoms, but instead a book called The Secret Life of Plants. The work of occultist/former OSS agent Peter Tompkins and former CIA agent / dowsing enthusiast Christopher Bird, the books shot up the bestseller charts and spread like kudzu across the landscape, becoming a phenomenon. Seemingly overnight, the indoor plant business was in full bloom and photosynthetic eukaryotes of every genus were hanging off walls, lording over bookshelves, and basking on sunny window ledges. The science behind Secret Life was specious: plants can hear our prayers, they’re lie detectors, they’re telepathic, able to predict natural disasters and receive signals from distant galaxies. But that didn’t stop millions from buying and nurturing their new plants.

Perhaps the craziest claim of the book was that plants also dug music. And whether you purchased a snake plant, asparagus fern, peace lily, or what have you from Mother Earth on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles (or bought a Simmons mattress from Sears), you also took home Plantasia, an album recorded especially for them. Subtitled “warm earth music for plants…and the people that love them,” it was full of bucolic, charming, stoner-friendly, decidedly unscientific tunes enacted on the new-fangled device called the Moog. Plants date back from the dawn of time, but apparently they loved the Moog, never mind that the synthesizer had been on the market for just a few years. Most of all, the plants loved the ditties made by composer Mort Garson.

Few characters in early electronic music can be both fearless pioneers and cheesy trend-chasers, but Garson embraced both extremes, and has been unheralded as a result.

Mother Earth's Plantasia

Music US

Discover Mother Earth's Plantasia by Mort Garson on Sacred Bones Records. Limited edition LP, Tape, and CD formats available. Dive into the fascinating story behind this iconic album.