Crystalized Movements
Crystalized Movements were a psychedelic rock/punk/folk band who recorded and performed sporadically from 1980-1993. The band was formed by Wayne Rogers and Ed Boyden in Tolland, CT when they were high school freshmen.
History
Rogers and Boyden were brought together by a love of late 70's No Wave music and 60's psychedelia. After years of improvisational experimentation, they decided to make an LP in 1983 and recorded duo versions of some of Wayne's songs. They then split up upon graduating high school. Rogers, a longtime fan of the Plastic Cloud and Randy Holden, spent a summer piling on mountains of guitar overdubs. The resulting 'basement prog' album 'Mind Disaster' was released at the end of that year in an edition of 130 (on Rogers' own record label, as Twisted Village No. 1001). After being discovered by record collectors, the album was reissued on Psycho in the UK in 1984. It was received by the 'paisley revival' community with horror and quickly went out of print.
Rogers put a full band together in 1985 before recording the next album: 'Dog. Tree. Satellite Seers...', a scathing rebuke to faux-lysergic posers. The addition of second guitarist Eric Arn encouraged Rogers to focus on song structure: the two engage in guitar duels over chord progressions that press forward relentlessly. Guitarist Kate Biggar joined in 1988 upon Arn's departure (to southern California where he formed Primordial Undermind), cementing the band's final lineup on the next album 'This Wideness Comes'. Here, guitar experiments like "Third Half" appear next to tightly arranged tracks like the forbidding "The Second a Siren". Rogers' vocals impart a sense of anxiety that cements the mood. The album 'Revelations From Pandemonium' proved to be Crystalized Movements' finale, as well as the group's most successful intermingling of druggy rapture and postmodern sonic experimentation. The album established the Rogers/Biggar guitar tandem as a force to be reckoned with. Following the demise of the Movements, the Rogers/Biggar duo have continued on in critically acclaimed groups such as Magic Hour (with Damon and Naomi of Galaxie 500) and the Major Stars.