Out Now: Heitkotter “Black Orckid”

Out today – restored/remastered transfer of this legendary Californian bedroom psychedelic album – with never-before-heard demos. Extensive booklet contains dozens of unpublished photos and images and a thorough investigation into this exceedingly rare artifact. Limited edition deluxe 2LP and hardbound casebook CD!

In a previous post, we told you about the bizarre LP known as Heitkotter – recorded in around 1971 and pressed in a run of less than twenty five copies. The culmination of Stephen David Heitkotter’s artistic career. Ross Dwelle, Stephen’s childhood friend and the drummer on the record, describes the bedroom sessions that lead to this album in a handsome Craftsman home in Old Fresno as a young rock trio “trying to play five songs written by a man losing his mind… probably stoned the whole time.”

Heitkotter, this time issued as Black Orckid, as we assume Stephen would have wanted it – is too complicated to be written off as a symptom of a greater ill, or lionized by a few (and dismissed by the majority) as “outsider” art. It’s a rare and vital look at 60s and 70s American rock through the sad story – and incredible music – of an untethered soul. And as we hope to show in enlightening more of Stephen’s backstory, it can also be considered sweet, kind and optimistic. The Heitkotter tale is cautionary, but Stephen’s music is as close to the sublime as American rock has ever ventured.

Heitkotter is now available via our webstore at rappcats.com, and digitally to our subscribers at Now-Again Deluxe and via iTunes. Download a free mp3 below.

Buy: Heitkotter at rappcats.com
Download: “Cadillac Woman”


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