The HCA

Description

In 1972, a quartet of design students set out to record an album. It was, in many ways, a strictly creative enterprise. The quartet – comprised of Dave Pescod, Alan Lewis, Phil Rawle and Ted Rockley – were all trained, not as musicians, but as creatives. Art school heavyweights, all four were versed in the methodology of intentional experimentation, in the delicate balance of pushing boundaries without completely untethering from a guiding creative intent. Emboldened by an intellectual familiarity with thoughtful experimentation and the non-musician’s non-conviction, the Bowes Road Band’s foray into the world of popular music yielded a record that is as much mind-bending as it is a direct product of its time. Their LP “Back in the HCA” embodies the requirement “art for art’s sake,” but it is for the sake of art that this record, however far afield it seems to travel, remains a unified and stunning body of work. The LP’s garage rock soundscape meets high-level creative processes. “Back in the HCA” is a chirping psychedelic frenzy, Donovan-esque English countryside folk stylings and avant-garde jazz improvisations. With a completely unheard-of status, Bowes Road Band could only press 50 copies of the record – 10 for each of them and 10 for the school. The band’s lifespan was meant to end there, or so they thought. “Back in the HCA” is the accidental fruit of a Berlin flea market treasure hunt by Jannis Stürtz, DJ and co-founder of Habibi Funk and Jakarta Records. After finding and sharing the LP with a few colleagues, Stürtz managed to get in contact with the band, get his hands on the tapes gathering dust in Ted Rockley’s attic and set in motion the re-issue process. The record is still adorned with its original artwork designed by Alan Pescod, reminiscent of both bygone school days and yesterday’s Zoom calls – in short, the reunion. Its rediscovery was serendipitous and is to be heard as such. Put differently, “Back in the HCA” was not made to be heard on a large scale, or, at least, was not made with that goal in mind; it is neither of its time nor for its time.