 | ||
| Thee Oh Sees
2015 saw a muscular follow
up to the more trippy songs of their debut album, Songs Of Lies And Deceit,
from the Lucid Dream who after several years of hard work were now starting to
get noticed while Föllakzoid continued with their ongoing mission to seek out
new life and civilization and blow their minds with III, their imaginatively
titled third album. Elsewhere there was as return to form from Thee Oh Sees
with a blistering album Mutilator Defeated At Last. Following last year’s
slightly disappointing Drop, Thee Oh Sees released a stunning record of face
melting Psychedelic Punk Blues and warped Acid Rock which is their best record
for a few years and gets our vote for The Best Album Of 2015. Mixing together
skewed psychedelia like the acid soaked ‘Sticky Hulks’ and ‘Holy Smokes’ with
brutal sonic assaults such as ‘Withered Hand’ and ‘Lupine Ossuaary’, Mutilator
Defeated At Last is a Psychedelic Rock tour de force that totally blew us away
from the first listen……….in a year when there have been very few really great
Psych Rock records, Thee Oh Sees album is an absolute corker and it is pretty
obvious that this is one of our Five Favourite Records Of 2015.
We were first introduced
to Jacco Gardner’s giddy psychedelic baroque and roll with his 2013 album
Cabinet Of Curiosities which harked back to the late 60s psychedelia of
Nirvana, The Zombies and 23rd Turn Off by combining the sounds of harpsichord,
strings, flutes and other classical instruments with raw psychedelic effects.
It was a brilliant record and was heaped with well deserved critical acclaim.
Now signed to Full Time Hobby which seems a perfect fit as it is also the home
of bands like The Smoke Fairies, Diagrams and Tuung, 2015 saw the release of his much anticipated second full album. We thought it would be
impossible to create an album more lush sounding than Cabinet Of Curiosities
but Jacco Gardener has managed that and followed it up with the quite beautiful
psychedelic masterpiece Hypnophobia………it’s an album that uses the studio as an
instrument and one that sonically seduces the listener, drawing you deep into a
world of exquisite Psychedelic Pop, gentle Psych Folk soundscapes, and sweeping
orchestrations. It’s an absolutely wonderful record and possibly the best
actual psychedelic record of 2015, watch the video for ‘Find Yourself’ here.
One of the trends we
noticed this year is that the 60s appear to finally be over and there are more psychedelic bands
finding inspiration in 1970s “classic rock” sounds rather than the tripped out scene of the previous decade.......we are now in a post Altamont world where Blue Cheer, Black Sabbath, Pentagram and Iron Butterfly are the new Gods. Led by Isaiah Mitchell of
Earthless, Golden Void’s “sound” falls somewhere between early 70s influenced
Acid Rock and Neil Young’s sonic adventures with Crazy Horse…..a heady brew of
tripped out Psychedelic Rock mixed with a muscular backbone of exhilarating
post-psychedelic Hard Rock sensibility that creates the perfect balance of
powerful riffs, soaring melodies and hazy atmosphere on Berkana, their
sophomore album on the Thrill Jockey label which we really dug. If you are
familiar with Earthless you will know that their thing is sprawling heavy psych
jams stretching to infinity and beyond. Golden Void are a different proposition
altogether, less of a cosmic jam band but tighter and more focused……… “While
their debut album was mostly recorded live, Berkana was recorded with each
member in isolation, allowing for more edits and overdubs. On songs like
‘Dervishing’ and ‘Astral Plane’, there are layers upon layers of sound to dig
into with additional acoustic guitar, ARP synth and even flute being added to
the band’s sonic arsenal, expanding the scope of their sound without abandoning
the heady groove they carved on their acclaimed self-titled debut”. With
members of Earthless and Assemble Head In Sunburst Sound together in a band you
know that you are going to get an album of mind melting, sonically rich
Psychedelic Rock and Roll tunes but Berkana surpassed all expectations.
If 2015 is anything to go by, we think that we may be near to “Peak Shoegaze” next year……to be fair it is a pretty nebulous genre with the Holy Trinity of MBV, Slowdive and the Jesus and Mary Chain being really the only major influences, which is not the deepest well of inspiration and unfortunately the "Shoegaze Revival" is starting to develop a generic sound. The better, more creative bands manage to show their influences without coming across like a tribute band, however there appears to be quite a few that can’t escape the gravity’s pull of the big three. The definitive sonic statement was made 25 years ago and even Kevin Shields has struggled to get anywhere near to anything as good as his masterpiece, Loveless, so what chance lesser bands.
However, there are also plenty of great bands using the sonic textures of the
genre and blending them with, for example, Psychedelia, Noise Pop and Electronica
to create a richer flavoured palette of sound………..we really liked records from Lips Against Glass, My Invisible Friend, The Sandcherries and
Landshapes. Released on Bella Union in spring this year, Hayoon, Landshapes
second album mixes together Shoegaze, ethereal Folk Rock, gentle Psychedelia, danceable
grooves a la Warpaint with an Indie/Rock sensibility to create a remarkable
sonic stew and one of the most interesting records of 2015……….this record shows that Shoegaze influenced music need not sound
like part of the Creation Records back catalogue. Watch the video for ‘Stay’ here.
|
The Sonics returned with
their first new album for 50 years. Along with early 60s contemporaries like
the Kingsmen, the Wailers, the Dynamics, the Regents, and Paul Revere and the
Raiders they helped set the template that would influence and inspire future
generations of Garage, Punk and heavy Rock bands and the first two Sonics
albums are now considered to be Garage Punk classics……..the formula has not
been messed with and the old maxim “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” has been
fully observed, the new songs stand up well against the classic tunes with ‘Bad
Betty, their cover of The Kinks ‘The Hard Way’ and a reworking of the classic
‘I Don’t Need No Doctor’ (once covered by The Chocolate Watch Band) all
exceptional. We got to see The Sonics live this year and it was a massive
thrill, they are still as cool as fuck, still playing harder, faster, louder
and still one of the most important bands from the 60s……the tag “legend” is
used far too much nowadays but this band are the real deal. |
| Julian Cope |
We must give great praise
and a tip of the hat to the fantastic Independent labels that are getting
psychedelic music out into the world and the bands that are putting out their own quality releases. Although there are an absolute ton of
great imprints putting fantastic albums out around the globe (in a lot of cases run by enthusiasts with great ears and impeccable taste operating on a shoestring budget but with determination to get records released), we would like to
highlight just a few of them whose releases we have thought were really special
this year.......
 |
| White Manna |
The German Psych/Blues duo Pretty
Lightning album A Magic Lane Of Light And Rain was also pretty damn good, we
described it as “an heady mix of primal Blues stomp and warped psychedelia as
Pretty Lightning’s take on the Blues is to tear it apart and put it back
together upside down”. Minami Deutsch appear to be a Julian Cope wet dream…..a
Japanese band playing Neu!/Can influenced Krautrock. We thought that their
debut album was a “mix of beauty and brutality that harks back to an era when
some of the most innovative music from the last 50 years was coming out of
small studios in Cologne and Dusseldorf and this is also an album that holds
its own against the current wave of bands who have also been influenced by this
period” and a record we strongly recommend. The mighty Fuzz Club Records have had a
great year which featured cool split singles from Black Angels/Sonic Jesus, A
Place To Bury Strangers/The Telescopes, The Myrrors/Cult Of Dom Keller amongst
others and some great albums from the likes of 10,000 Russos, Sonic Jesus,
Radar Men From The Moon (“a great modern psychedelic record in sense that its
influences sound to be more Post Punk/Noise Rock and where the band are
exploring inner space rather than outer space”), Singapore Sling along with
third installment in the Reverb Conspiracy series of releases which featured
Mugstar, Goat, Future and The Oscillation (watch the video for the track 'No Place To Go' here) along with other fantastic up and
coming bands. To top this they held the first Fuzz Club Festival in London, November
with a totally awesome line up of bands and by all accounts a epic weekend of mind bending music. Always a label of quality and distinction
and always one to keep an eye on for their fantastic limited edition vinyl releases. |
| Electric Moon |
Not everything on Riot
Season fits into our psychedelic universe but what Psych Rock they do put out
is always excellent………in 2015 there was an outstanding record from the
tremendous heavy Psych/Blues band Early Mammal, now on their third album where
“the influence of Captain Beefheart, White Hills, Hawkwind and Uncle Acid and
The Deadbeats can still be heard, however the narcotic muscularity of the debut
album, Horror at Pleasure, and the more experimental Psych Rock of My Fire has
been refined with Take A Lover showing a much greater depth as Early Mammal
continue to develop and expand their sound as an early 70s heavy
Psych/Blues/Rock inspired band”. Watch the video for the track 'Inside' by clicking this link.
We have really dug
some of the releases from Custom Made Music, Zeon Light Cassettes,
Ongakubaka Records and Hairy Records this year. Of the more obscure releases of 2015 that have
come to our attention was the fantastic debut EP, Out Of The Sun, from
Bulgarian Neo-Psych band Comasummer of which Custom Made Music released a
limited run of 50 cassettes. We thought it was a pretty cool EP and wrote that
Comasummer are “a five piece Neo-Psychedelic band from Sofia who mix hook
laden Indie smarts with the hallucinogenic swirl of Doorsy organ and very loud
Rock guitar. This is a fantastic little EP and there are some very cool things
happening here………….Comasummer are an intriguing mash up of an acid fried Garage
Rock band fused with something far heavier” and concluded that “Out Of The Sun
is well worth a listen if you like your Psychedelia a bit harder and your Indie
Rock a bit further out”. As far as bands heavily influenced by "post-Syd/pre-The
Wall pretentious bollocks" Pink Floyd you can’t get much better than French Psychédélique/Progressif
band Juke. We really liked their self-released album Chimeras' Tale which was “nothing
stunningly original but it is beautifully executed. There is a lot to love on
Chimeras' Tale not only for fans of Pink Floyd (although it helps if you are)
and early 70s Prog Rock in general but also there is lots happening here that
is very modern and aficionados of newer bands that have classic Psych roots
will really dig this……….It’s a fantastic record and we think it is well worth
checking out for both lovers of Classic Prog and current bands on today’s
freakscene”.
As the winter months set
in there is something in the air. Are we in for a Psych Folk revival in 2016?
Although it’s been nearly ten years since bands such as Espers, Circulus,
Starless And Bible Black and Tuung were receiving loads of attention and
Island’s back catalogue was being seriously scrutinised it feels like there is
something stirring again………Joanna Newsom is back with a new record and there
has been a massive buzz about the brilliant Dust On The Nettles compilation put
together by Cherry Red’s psychedelic wing Grapefruit. Another of our Five Favourite Records Of 2015, Dust on the Nettles – A
Journey Through the British Underground Folk Scene 1967–72 is an absolute
treasure trove of Psych Folk and most of the usual suspects present (Fairport
Convention, Pentangle, Vashti Bunyan, Incredible String Band and Steeleye Span
etc) with the less well known (Comus, Trader Horne, Trees, Fresh Maggots,
Synanthesia) and is no doubt in our minds the Best Compilation Album Of 2015.
We have really dug
some of the releases from Custom Made Music, Zeon Light Cassettes,
Ongakubaka Records and Hairy Records this year. Of the more obscure releases of 2015 that have
come to our attention was the fantastic debut EP, Out Of The Sun, from
Bulgarian Neo-Psych band Comasummer of which Custom Made Music released a
limited run of 50 cassettes. We thought it was a pretty cool EP and wrote that
Comasummer are “a five piece Neo-Psychedelic band from Sofia who mix hook
laden Indie smarts with the hallucinogenic swirl of Doorsy organ and very loud
Rock guitar. This is a fantastic little EP and there are some very cool things
happening here………….Comasummer are an intriguing mash up of an acid fried Garage
Rock band fused with something far heavier” and concluded that “Out Of The Sun
is well worth a listen if you like your Psychedelia a bit harder and your Indie
Rock a bit further out”. As far as bands heavily influenced by "post-Syd/pre-The
Wall pretentious bollocks" Pink Floyd you can’t get much better than French Psychédélique/Progressif
band Juke. We really liked their self-released album Chimeras' Tale which was “nothing
stunningly original but it is beautifully executed. There is a lot to love on
Chimeras' Tale not only for fans of Pink Floyd (although it helps if you are)
and early 70s Prog Rock in general but also there is lots happening here that
is very modern and aficionados of newer bands that have classic Psych roots
will really dig this……….It’s a fantastic record and we think it is well worth
checking out for both lovers of Classic Prog and current bands on today’s
freakscene”.
One of our Five Favourite Records Of 2015, we absolutely loved the
debut album from German Psych duo Lovebyrd, released on the tiny Dutch imprint Hairy
Records in a limited press of 300 vinyl copies, and think it has been one of the
best releases of 2015. Influenced by The
Byrds, Jefferson Airplane, Tame Impala, and Unknown Mortal Orchestra, the debut
album from Lovebyrd “shimmers with the glacial beauty of the best dreamy
psychedelia with swirling soundscapes built with layers of guitars fuzzed up,
distorted and with lots reverb blended with a timeless 60s West Coast inspired
Pop Psych sensibility full of sun drenched pop hooks that are more than easy on
the ear”. Following the well received release of their debut EP in January,
Lovebyrd spent most of the year operating well below the radar creating a
10-track album that is a “luminously psychedelic mix of Shoegaze and Psych-Pop
that is guaranteed to extend your hazy summer well into the winter months”. Six
of the ten tracks here were previously released on the cassette only EP which
Ongakubaka Records had the vision to put out and the initial fuss about this
band was fully justifiable………”the six tracks from that release still sound as
stunning as when we first heard them. Opening with the tumbling guitars of
‘Spinning Around’ it is easy to imagine this is what the Sundays would have
sounded like if they had been influenced by the swirling psychedelic sounds of
the 1960s San Francisco scene instead of the kitchen sink dramas of the 1980s
English Indie miserabilists like the Smiths”.We stuck our neck out a bit here and considered this record to be “an album
that surely must be destined to be a modern Psych Pop classic, there is an
awful lot to love here”………and we still stand by that. Watch the video for 'Shot
From The Sun' here.
As the winter months set
in there is something in the air. Are we in for a Psych Folk revival in 2016?
Although it’s been nearly ten years since bands such as Espers, Circulus,
Starless And Bible Black and Tuung were receiving loads of attention and
Island’s back catalogue was being seriously scrutinised it feels like there is
something stirring again………Joanna Newsom is back with a new record and there
has been a massive buzz about the brilliant Dust On The Nettles compilation put
together by Cherry Red’s psychedelic wing Grapefruit. Another of our Five Favourite Records Of 2015, Dust on the Nettles – A
Journey Through the British Underground Folk Scene 1967–72 is an absolute
treasure trove of Psych Folk and most of the usual suspects present (Fairport
Convention, Pentangle, Vashti Bunyan, Incredible String Band and Steeleye Span
etc) with the less well known (Comus, Trader Horne, Trees, Fresh Maggots,
Synanthesia) and is no doubt in our minds the Best Compilation Album Of 2015.  |
With versions of Pentangle and Fotheringay touring next year and Fairport Convention still going strong (one of the very few things along with cockroaches and tins of custard that are guaranteed to survive a nuclear blast) we can see a renewed interest in the genre. One of the stalwarts of the mid OOs Psych Folk revival are also back and recording again…….The Owl Service are back with a new record and have also made the 10 year retrospective She Wants To Be Flowers But You Make Her Owls available as a free download on Bandcamp.
 |
| Crystal Jacqueline |
There is also some great
new music emerging…….the distinguished purveyors of the finest psychedelia, the
UK label Mega Dodo have released some great records this year that could be
described as Psych Folk/Acid Folk including albums from Crystal Jacqueline, Swedish duo Us And Them and the remarkable Portuguese band Beautify Junkyards.
Summer Green And Autumn Brown by Us And Them is one of the most beautiful,
mellow records released this year, we described it as “ an album of such
fragile beauty that is part pastoral folk, part something more
melancholic…Dominated by Britt’s haunting voice Summer Green And Autumn Brown
reflects the changing of the seasons, slowly shifting from a trippy, slightly
proggy, stroll through lush fields and woodland landscapes flecked with
sunshine and shadows to a hazier place where the dark nights are slowly drawing
in and there is a chill in the air. Like label mates BeautifyJunkyards, Us And
Them write gorgeous songs that absorb the best of 60s/70s Acid Folk inflected
with an element of Folktronica that suggest that they are both from the past
and the not too distant future”.
 |
| Beautify Junkyards |
Beautify Junkyards
followed up their 2013 album of lush Psych Folk covers with the absolutely
fantastic The Beast Shouted Love, an album “full of beautifully crafted
original songs that have such a timeless air about them that they sound
authentically traditional yet so very modern. The Beast Shouted Love mines the
same rich seams of Acid Folk that Beautify Junkyards explored on their first
album, taking in influences from classic artists such as Nick Drake, Donovan,
Heron, Vashti Bunyan, Linda Perhacs and……er…….Kraftwerk mixed with a hint of
more modern Psych Folk acts like Soy Un Caballo, Espers and Tunng. Add to this
exhilarating mix a generous helping of Os Mutantes-esque Tropicália, you then
get not just an impressive record but an ethereal, magical and transcendent
experience”………..and one of our Five Favourite Records Of 2015.
Another album that we had
loads of time for was Advice For Hill Walkers by E GONE (Swedish
multi-instrumentalist Daniel Westerlund). We got turned on to Daniel’s music by
the good folk at Sunrise Ocean Bender and it blew our minds. E GONE’s music has
been described as sounding very much like Dead Can Dance (minus the vocals of
course) with a deep Middle Eastern influence. Following the excellent
Smokediver EP, which was an excellent mix of traditional instruments with
digital technology creating a rich blend of bubbling electronica and Eastern
flavours, Advice For Hill Walkers takes its cues from the fantastic Whirled
Music on the EP but is far more focused than before and Daniel has really found
his groove. We think that this is the best E GONE release to date.We were really pleased to have been invited to premiere the video for 'Your Goal Is To Know Everything And Say Nothing'....you can watch it here. Originally a
limited edition cassette on Zeon Light, Advice For Hill Walkers is expected to
be released as an expanded CD version in early 2016 by Sunrise Ocean Bender. As
we said at the time “don’t be fooled by the title………..this is not a gentle
Psych Folk Sunday ramble up a few hills, but more of an epic psychedelic trek
through the mountains where you may need oxygen at some point to complete your
journey”. As for a Psych Folk revival……let’s see what the spring brings.
 |
| The Sundowners |
The Serpent Power record is “a carnival of fuzzed out,
backwards guitars in a strange and bizarre world of warped madness. Think The
Dukes Of Stratosphear/Oranges And Lemons period XTC blended with classic
Beatles inspired 60s British Pop/Psych with a dash of Nilssen/The Monkees pop
genius added for good measure and that will give you some idea of where Serpent
Power are coming from”. It got quite a few spins down in our psychedelic
basement and its paisley and lava lamp vibe was a big part of our summer
soundtrack. The track ’Lucifer’s Dreambox’ is “an absolute tripped out
psychedelic masterpiece twisted into weird shapes by studio trickery”, check it
out here.
We also dug the
retro stylings of Leeds band The Ace who are a “rampage of sugar shaking
poptastic mayhem straight outta the garage with hooks as sharp as a needle.
Taking influences from The Searchers to The Standells to The Stairs, The Ace
take the fizzy sounds of 60's Beat and Garage Rock, add a touch of Bubblegum, a
dash of Soul and a large helping of
manic pop thrill making them a
real toe tapping, hip swinging, ass shaking, upbeat affair”. They have a
fantastic record out, Riot Of Sound, which is available as a free download through
the very cool Swedish Power Pop/ Mod/Surf/ Punk/ New Wave/Northern Soul
internet radio show/boutique label Ice Cream Man Power Pop And More Records
with a CD release coming shortly. This record is an excellent distillation of
the era in British music just before the Mods started dropping acid………think
early Kinks, Beatles, The Action, The Who, The Attack, The Poets, Yardbirds and
you are going to in the right place and at the right time for the
inspiration/influences you can hear on Riot Of Sound. Dig The Ace’s happening
60s scene kids. We have also had our minds
blown by The Honey Pot, another member of the very groovy Mega Dodo family.
They have a great Jefferson Airplane vibe going on and their recent single ‘Lisa
Dreams’ was a blast of cool 60s West Coast psychedelia. There is a new album
due for release early 2016 which we are really excited about and will be
reviewing on Strange Things Are Happening very soon.
A special mention for our
favourite Brum band, the Hammond driven Psychedelic Blues monster Velvet Texas
Cannonball who put out a fantastic EP back in March, which perfectly captured
the filthy raunch of their live shows. “Coming from a place somewhere between
Birmingham, West Midlands and Birmingham, Alabama, the Last Orders EP taps not
only into the tradition of Brum having been the birthplace of some great
Psychedelic/Blues Rock bands but also into the southern fried, lysergic blues
of the U.S.A……..kinda like Primal Scream when they subconsciously slip back
into their Stones preset when they forget they really want to be a cross
between CAN, Sun Ra and the MC5”. Check out video clip that our lighting guys,
The Liquid Sunshine Light Lab, put together for the track ‘I Got Time’. Last we
heard they were a guitar player light and were off the road while they look for
a replacement but have promised they will be back. They played one of our
Psych-Out nights earlier in the year and reduced the place to a smoking ruin………a
really great live band and we hope they return in 2016. |
| My Invisible Friend |
Outside the UK strange
things were really happening in 2015……….we were very impressed by what was
going on in the Italian psych scene and it was mainly Italian bands that were
the first to show support to what we were trying do with the blog (our first
review of the year was for the fantastic debut EP by Shoegazers/Noiseniks My Invisible
Friend). It’s a very good time for Italian psychedelic music at the moment with some
really cool bands making some tremendous records. Amongst this year’s crop of
great releases was Don’t Look At The Moon, the debut from Plastic Man who are a
60s psychedelia, fuzzed out Nuggets style Garage Rock and punky Power Pop
influenced trio from Florence, “This immediately accessible album is a mix of
both vintage retro sounds and more modern snappy Psych-Pop/Garage Rock
influences producing a record that blends swirling neo-psychedelia with a
tempered, needle sharp pop sensibility”. |
| Good Morning Finch |
Good Morning Finch are an interesting
band that with their second release are evolving from a Post Rock band into
something more subtle and thrilling “Gemini has the feel of a band in
transition as Good Morning Finch move towards a more Dream Pop influenced
sound, even though there are some fantastic noisy Post Rock tunes like
“Atomite” and “Cane”, it is the longer tracks that are more interesting as they
give the band more space to explore and experiment…….”Copenhagen”, “Malia” and
the album’s title track are all excellent”. We were kindly invited to premiere part of
their experimental video project "Fractals" which was “composed of
four videos made of images, stock footages, old tapes and weird stuff mixed
together to achieve a point of view above the single fragments. It's about
realizing that nothing is just as simple as we see it but we can imagine
everything as a combination of things repeating themselves endlessly and every
time giving a different meaning to our lives, In the same way these clips made
out of hundreds of different footage shot by unknown people can mix up together
to make sense and recreate feelings that strictly related to the music.”
We liked the
Furfuzzy/Furflies split 7” release from Unmade Bed and Lips Against The Glass.
The concept of the two bands doing split single together was to highlight the
similarities of the music they both make although they are essentially coming
together from two different directions, both tracks are totally psychedelic but
in their own way. The “Furfuzzy” side of single is a “fantastic slice of
sparkling psychedelia from Unmade Bed, ethereal guitars gently swirl around
clattering drums as the track slowly builds and then drifts back into the haze
it emerged from”. The flip side (“Furflies”) features the Lips Against The
Glass dark, psychedelic Electronica/Shoegaze a “haunting, stripped back,
minimal tune that bring to mind early Sigur Ros and the experimental
soundscapes of múm”.
 |
| Giöbia |
There is a massive Shoegaze scene in Italy that has produced some really great bands and there were a whole bunch of cool singles/EPs
released during 2015. We particularly liked the records from Clustersun, the aforementioned My Invisible Friend (“a wave of beautiful
noise” we said) and an EP that we considered to be “essential listening for
fans of the classic Creation bands and also one of the best Shoegaze records to
be released this year” from La Casa al Mare, who have "lovingly crafted a set of songs of pure beauty that mix together the essence of the best parts of classic Shoegaze albums like Loveless and Souvikia and although you can hear their influences loud and clear, the sheer class of this EP transcends any accusations that they are mere copyists"......watch the video for 'Sunflowers' here.
 |
| The Vickers |
One band we really need to include here are the fantastic 60s influenced Italian Psychedelic Rock band The Vickers…………………most of 2015 was spent gigging and promoting their wonderful 2014 album Ghosts. However early this year they put out a cover of George Harrison’s ‘Love You To’ from the Revolver album. It’s our vote for Best Cover Version Of 2015. Check out the video and you can download the track for free here.
Winning our vote for Best Mix/Remix Album Of 2015, the mighty Amorphous Androgynous returned with another expertly crafted mix album in the A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble (Exploding In Your Mind) series, this time a collection of lager guided melodies from the Down Underground that were unfortunately overshadowed by AAs annoyance of their shoddy, boorish treatment from professional gob shite Noel Gallagher over their two years’ work on an album that never was. From reading between the lines, it appears that originally AA were given the task to reinvent Noel Gallagher as a Psychedelic Priest (he was looking for the “new sound”) when in reality he was only looking for a bit of bolt on psychedelic credibility…………it appears that Noel was so massively out of his depth working with genuine psychedelic visionaries that as soon as he realised that people would still buy his own crappy, pedestrian music in massive quantities the project got dropped like a hot brick. Stating that he did not release the album because he “couldn’t be arsed” shows him up as a massive, graceless twat………………hopefully the tapes will be leaked on line one day and there is probably a book in this somewhere.
Winning our vote for Best Mix/Remix Album Of 2015, the mighty Amorphous Androgynous returned with another expertly crafted mix album in the A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble (Exploding In Your Mind) series, this time a collection of lager guided melodies from the Down Underground that were unfortunately overshadowed by AAs annoyance of their shoddy, boorish treatment from professional gob shite Noel Gallagher over their two years’ work on an album that never was. From reading between the lines, it appears that originally AA were given the task to reinvent Noel Gallagher as a Psychedelic Priest (he was looking for the “new sound”) when in reality he was only looking for a bit of bolt on psychedelic credibility…………it appears that Noel was so massively out of his depth working with genuine psychedelic visionaries that as soon as he realised that people would still buy his own crappy, pedestrian music in massive quantities the project got dropped like a hot brick. Stating that he did not release the album because he “couldn’t be arsed” shows him up as a massive, graceless twat………………hopefully the tapes will be leaked on line one day and there is probably a book in this somewhere.
We love Bandcamp!! As a
resource for checking out new music, connecting with bands/labels and buying
LPs/CDs/Merch direct we don’t think there is anything better. We also like that
it is very democratic and available for both established bands and bedroom
psychonauts to get their music out into the world. One drawback is that there
is so damn much off it and the quality of some of albums on Bandcamp
is……..err…….suspect to say the least. We thought it would be a good idea to
pick a few “name your price” downloads each month that we like, feel are well
worth checking out and bring them to your attention………there is nothing
scientific going on here, we don’t spend ages down in our psychedelic basement
ploughing through all the Bandcamp releases, albums tend to be chosen
originally on the basis that we like the cover artwork……..we really are that
shallow. We have no doubt missed an absolute ton of gems over the year but we
think we have picked out some really commendable releases in 2015 which we hope you found time to check out.
From this year’s batch of
downloads we have reviewed on Strange Things there are a few that have really
stood out…………………………..we have really dug Russian Psych Rock band Cosmic Letdown
and their album Venera which we thought was “a trip to the stars…..a mini
masterpiece of great fuzzed out riffs and awesome grooves which you will dig if
you are into bands like The Warlocks, Black Angels and Asteroid #4”. We liked
YOU a lot. They are a bunch of stoners from New Mexico…….when they are not
working at the Albuquerque Mind-Research Lab (which we think is in the
drummer's basement) they moonlight as a four piece(?) heavy Psych band who are
gigging loads up and down the West Coast and are well worth checking out. They
currently have a split 12” vinyl split release with another New Mexico band Sun
Dog available which we hope to review soon.
We found some great new
Psychedelic Pop acts that are mainly influenced by new psych-rock acts such as
Tame Impala, Pond and Unknown Mortal Orchestra. We were really impressed with
Psych Poppers Dolores and were blown away when we stumbled across Peach Fuzz, a
fantastic album from the Wisconsin psych-heads……..the real standout track was
‘Next Stop’, “six minutes of neo-psychedelic bliss that you would need a heart
of stone not to love” We also loved the first
steps from the New Cardinals and their 70s Psych/Prog influenced modern psychedelic
pop songs “jam packed with ambitious ideas which are not quite matched by the
quality of the recording technology that they currently have available” but
brilliant all the same and the debut EP from Moonsong was pretty special as
well with “five tracks of experimental but perfectly accessible, snappy 3
minute Psychedelic Pop tunes, which bring to mind A Wizard, A True Star period
Rundgren”.
There is no doubt that the
band whose Bandcamp releases we have been most impressed with this
year is The Waves. Led by guitarist/singer Austin Garner, a "man so completely
immersed in all things psychedelic, cut him and he will bleed paisley", in The
Waves psychedelic world it’s always 1967 and all the clocks are set at 25
O’Clock. "Their music sweats the essence of incense and patchouli oil in a
psychedelic swirl of Byrdsian jangle, McCartney bass lines, backward guitars
and gorgeous multi-tracked harmonies ……..it’s blissful acid soaked groovyness
where Eastern flavours meet the far out". The Waves first came to our attention
back in May this year when we stumbled across the fantastic track ‘Drifting’
which was followed by the release of a bunch of fantastic 60s inspired great
quality demos/home recordings with a EP of new songs landing only a few weeks
ago. This EP shows a logical progression as The Waves begin to evolve into a
pulsating psychedelic entity, they are now a full gigging band and we look
forward to what they do next year. Someone give this band some decent
studio time to record a proper album…….it will blow minds.
We have always considered
psychedelia to be a broad church (with a groovy stained glass window depicting
the scene from the Doors movie where Ray Manzarek figures out the opening bit
to ‘Light My Fire’) and there have been several records that come from the “Twilight
Zone” of our psychedelic universe that would not normally fit 100% with our “Garage
Rock, Classic Psychedelia and New Psych Sounds” tag line but are strange enough
to have caught our ear and if we could get our heads around them we tried to do
them justice on Strange Things. Chicago’s Crown Larks are one such band whose
Blood Dancer album met “somewhere at the junction that psychedelic
Post-Rock/Prog Rock crashes into free jazz and the launch pad for avant-garde
explorations, Crown Larks are pretty far out”. Check out this cool video for
their track ‘Chapels’. We loved the “loose limbed, wonky Space Jazz/Psychedelic
jam” Planet Cantaloupe EP from Welsh Kosmische Musik/Psychedelia influenced
band Spurious Transients and there were also records we dug from Italian Cosmic
Free Jazz/Prog combo Squadra Omega, the Krautrock tinged Post Rock band Tygaton
and an album of twisted Psych tunes from The Dictaphone but were unable to
review.
The strangest album must be the crazy/brilliant Superfreak that came
out on Black Vagina Records (honest) by Italian one man band Belly Hole Freak
who we described as “Imagine if Seasick Steve was not as bland as fuck but born
under the bad sign of a dirty blues crazy wind and you would still be nowhere
near the weirdness of Belly Hole Freak, a one man band who is influenced by
delta blues, early swing, Dixieland and inspired by giants such as Howlin’
Wolf, Captain Beefheart, Robert Johnson, Tom Waits". It's a fantastic warped Blues record and there are some great tunes on this record…….. "Amongst nine wonderfully deranged songs the three that are possibly the standout tracks are ’Wow’ a boogie number straight outta the Mississippi Delta, ‘Catfish’ is psychedelic Dixieland jazz and ‘Woodoo Soup Monkey’ is……er….souped up Howlin’ Wolf".
We have always considered
psychedelia to be a broad church (with a groovy stained glass window depicting
the scene from the Doors movie where Ray Manzarek figures out the opening bit
to ‘Light My Fire’) and there have been several records that come from the “Twilight
Zone” of our psychedelic universe that would not normally fit 100% with our “Garage
Rock, Classic Psychedelia and New Psych Sounds” tag line but are strange enough
to have caught our ear and if we could get our heads around them we tried to do
them justice on Strange Things. Chicago’s Crown Larks are one such band whose
Blood Dancer album met “somewhere at the junction that psychedelic
Post-Rock/Prog Rock crashes into free jazz and the launch pad for avant-garde
explorations, Crown Larks are pretty far out”. Check out this cool video for
their track ‘Chapels’. We loved the “loose limbed, wonky Space Jazz/Psychedelic
jam” Planet Cantaloupe EP from Welsh Kosmische Musik/Psychedelia influenced
band Spurious Transients and there were also records we dug from Italian Cosmic
Free Jazz/Prog combo Squadra Omega, the Krautrock tinged Post Rock band Tygaton
and an album of twisted Psych tunes from The Dictaphone but were unable to
review.The strangest album must be the crazy/brilliant Superfreak that came
out on Black Vagina Records (honest) by Italian one man band Belly Hole Freak
who we described as “Imagine if Seasick Steve was not as bland as fuck but born
under the bad sign of a dirty blues crazy wind and you would still be nowhere
near the weirdness of Belly Hole Freak, a one man band who is influenced by
delta blues, early swing, Dixieland and inspired by giants such as Howlin’
Wolf, Captain Beefheart, Robert Johnson, Tom Waits". It's a fantastic warped Blues record and there are some great tunes on this record…….. "Amongst nine wonderfully deranged songs the three that are possibly the standout tracks are ’Wow’ a boogie number straight outta the Mississippi Delta, ‘Catfish’ is psychedelic Dixieland jazz and ‘Woodoo Soup Monkey’ is……er….souped up Howlin’ Wolf". |
| Pure Phase Ensemble IV feat. Mark Gardener |
We had a lot of time for
the Pure Phase Ensemble 4 feat. Mark Gardener Live At Spacefest 2014 album. The Pure Phase Ensemble is certainly quite a
unique musical concept. It’s an international music collective, created
especially for the annual SpaceFest festival in Gdansk in Poland, which plays
live only the once before disbanding. Each year, in the first week of December,
several musicians from Poland and elsewhere take part in several workshop
sessions where they collectively compose a concert's worth of music which they
then present live to the festival-goers.This one-off performance is recorded
and subsequently released on Nasiono Records. The programme for each workshop
is jointly curated by Ray Dickaty, a British saxophonist improviser and former
member of Spiritualized, and Polish musician/Nasiono Records label boss Karol
Schwarz. Along with these two key figures, every festival involves a new
musical director who is asked to co-curate the workshop. For the 2014 SpaceFest
Ride guitarist/singer Mark Gardener was invited to be the musical director for
the fourth incarnation of the Pure Phase Ensemble and bring his significant
talent as a musician and songwriter to the project. It is a fantastic record
and “this line-up of Pure Phase Ensemble mix up Kosmische jams, Space Rock
freak outs and swirling Shoegaze a million miles away ‘Vapour Trail’. However,
this is not just Mark Gardener and some Polish guys acting as his backing band
but a proper collective effort with the entire band bringing something to the
party, all playing off each other and sharing the musical limelight”. This gets
our vote as Best Live Album Of 2015.
So that was 2015. A very big thank you to everyone who takes the time to read our scribblings and we have appreciated the cool feedback we have had during the last year. We would like to wish you all a psychedelic Christmas and groovy New Year and Strange Things will be back early next Jan with another batch of record reviews.
STRANGE THINGS ARE
HAPPENING is the blog for THEE PSYCHEDELICATESSEN
So that was 2015. A very big thank you to everyone who takes the time to read our scribblings and we have appreciated the cool feedback we have had during the last year. We would like to wish you all a psychedelic Christmas and groovy New Year and Strange Things will be back early next Jan with another batch of record reviews.
And finally…….we would
like to thank the various bands and labels that have supported us by sending us
stuff to listen to and sharing our brain think on social media. We know that
this is really a very small percentage of the records that were released this
year and we have no doubt missed an absolute ton of cool psychedelic records……the
content of Strange Things Are Happening is determined by what we are sent, what
new records we buy and what we dig up on line. We are always happy to be sent
stuff to listen to and write about; we would prefer physical copies of
singles/EPs/albums although we do realise that in some cases it is just not
practical because of budget restrictions, overseas postage costs or the actual format
of your record may be a digital download only and please, no cassettes as we
have nothing to play them on………however, a handy hint……if you do send a CD or
vinyl we really appreciate that you are prepared to do that and it goes to the
top of the “to do next” list. We listen to everything we are sent but in some
case it not possible to review some things because of time restrictions or the
record does not fit our psychedelic universe but ultimately we are here to help
spread the word. You can contact us via
our Facebook page at
www.facebook.com/pages/Thee-Psychedelicatessen/1448966508687765 or email us at theepsychedelicatessen@gmail.com
