Ocean - Ocean (Vinyl/Record)

Emerging from the New York Greenwich village folk scene having backed David Blue Lyn Hardy, John Townley and Jay Ungar were the heart of The Family of Apostolic album that emerged on Vanguard Records in 1969. A rambling ramshackle mix of folk, world music and hippy drivel it was the product of Apostolic Studios which Townley had invested his inheritance in after a brief period in The Magicians (of Nuggets fame). In addition to the unmarketable Family of Apostolic album the studio had seen the recording of several Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention albums before going out of business. The Ocean album was recorded by Jay, Lyn and John in 1969 but was unreleased until now. It is a highly listenable and upbeat collection of electric folk rock reminiscent in places of The Serpent Power’s later recordings Jay Ungar’s fiddle adding a rural flavor to proceedings. Surprisingly good.

Richard Allen / Shindig! (Aug 2020)

The album from Ocean was recorded at Apostolic Studios in New York in the summer of 1969 – and remained unreleased until 2020.

It’s a real folk-rock-gem combining a variety of styles – in the end that’s not surprising because in a way it’s the follow-up to John Townley’s wonderfully eclectic “Family of Apostolic”-double-LP, released on Vanguard/Apostolic in 1968. The basic idea of Ocean was to go a step further than the Family of Apostolic by having a performing band behind the album. But after the recording the band fell apart and the album remained on the shelf.

The master tape was lost when the Apostolic Studios went under in 1970 – but John Townley rescued a mono reference copy of the final mix which you have here.