What their label says...
If you’ve never heard of it before, that just means it’s rare, right? This
makes The George-Edwards Group’s ‘38:38’ one of the rarest
private press albums of all time.
· ‘38:38’ departs from the norm of the genre: instead of a low-fi demoquality
outing elevated mainly by dealer hype, this album is a haunting
piece of music that offers an unusually highbrow take on the
archetypal Midwestern rock ‘n’ roll existentialism usually
addressed with a solid beat and sneering vocal. Crafting their sound out
of the many influences of the day, Edward Balian and Ray George
created pop music with acoustic guitars and harmonies, heavilyreverberant
piano riffs, cold sheets of synthesizer, bells and
chimes.
· Additionally, the immaculate, eccentric production sounds of Beatles
recordings were a fundamental inspiration in conceptualising ‘38:38’ as a
homespun ‘White Album’, housed in a plain grey cover devoid of
information. After three years spent honing the sounds of ‘38:38’, Balian
and George pressed 100 copies to shill publishers and record labels up
and down the Sunset Strip. There were no takers, and The George-
Edwards Group was dissolved in defeat.
· Decades later, these copies of ‘38:38’ began surfacing in various LA radio
station inventories and soon fetched up to $400 a copy among psych
record hoarders.
· This release of ‘38:38’ includes never-seen-before art, photos and
original liners / press releases / notes, as well as a song from an
equally rare 7” single not found on the original LP pressing.
