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Sunday 27 September 2015

US AND THEM – SUMMER GREEN AND AUTUMN BROWN (Mega Dodo Records LP, CD).

More strange things are happening in Sweden………….. In early 2010 Swedish Acid Folk duo Us And Them released the Julia Dream Of All The Pretty Horses EP on Fruits de Mer Records. It was very well received by Mojo and Record Collector and is now sold out. In October 2011 Fruits de Mer released the Summerisle EP where Us And Them covered four songs from the The Wickerman. In 2012 they joined Ritual Echo Records and released four of their own songs on the Walk Light EP. Following these well received EPs, Us And Them now release their first album, Summer Green And Autumn Brown, on Mega Dodo Records. Made up of Britt Rönnholm, who sings, and Anders Håkanson, who plays the instruments, Us And Them play beguiling Psychedelic Folk deeply inspired by the music of Sandy Denny, Donovan, Bert Jansch, Vashti Bunyan, Duncan Browne and Pentangle and this beautiful record reveals all these influences.

As if by strange magic, Us And Them have created 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. Summer Green And Autumn Brown opens with the soothing instrumental, ‘A New Beginning’, which sets the mood for the rest of the album before easing into ‘We Are Sacred’……. synths gently bubble up from beneath the surface of a gentle pool of acoustic guitars and Britt Rönnholm’s beautiful voice evoking a serene 60s/70s alternative universe where Donovan is fated as a living deity. The remainder of the album is woven from the same delicate gossamer thread where songs drift out of ether before being caught on the wind. There is a change of mood on the trippy ‘From The Inside, Looking Out’ which has more of a Prog Rock feel and is a wonderful ten minutes of woozy, swirling psychedelia, part cosmic and part from the dark forest. This is a stunning Acid Folk record and we can’t recommend it enough………….turn on, tune in……..bliss out.

Summer Green And Autumn Brown will be released on Mega Dodo Records in early October and is now available to pre-order from their Bandcamp page https://megadodo.bandcamp.com/album/summer-green-and-autumn-brown and their website http://www.mega-dodo.co.uk/. Available on either vinyl or CD as a limited edition run of 250 copies of each format. There is also a very limited edition 4xCD set available only from the Mega Dodo Bandcamp site……..as well as Summer Green And Autumn Brown album the package also includes the previous three EPs released on CD for the first time and is limited to only 100 copies.

THEE PSYCHEDELICATESSEN   

Friday 25 September 2015

BRINSLEY SCHWARZ – LIVE FAVOURITES (Mega Dodo Records LP).

Brinsley Schwarz were always a band out of time, an antithesis to the early 70s British musical landscape mainly occupied by Art School Glam, Prog Rock, earnest Singer/Songwriters and lumpen heavy Blues Rock bands and although the individual members went on to forge careers with varying degrees of success after the band split, they never really received the acclaim they deserved for their part in paving the way for the back to basics Punk Rock/New Wave and Garage Rock explosion later in that decade. They had an enviable reputation as one of the best live bands in the country………but they sold no records. Evolving from “a Folk Rock band with psychedelic pretentions", they were a gritty but tasteful Country Rock band in the mould of late period Byrds/Flying Burrito Brothers and The Band, but could also mix it up with funkier bands like Little Feat and the Meters having a depth of soul, R&B and Rock and Roll influences; Old Grey Whistle Test viewers and pre-punk Peely loved ‘em…………but they sold no records. And there was that little incident at the Fillmore East in 1970 that overshadowed the rest of the bands career……….there really is not the space to go into great detail here but Google “Brinsley Schwarz hype” for the story of the mother of all failed publicity stunts which was thunk up by Dave Robinson (later the boss of Stiff Records). It’s amazing what mad ideas you come up with stoned (and in the early 70s it also seemed that money was no object either)……before the first Brinsley Schwarz album was released, the plan was to fly the band to New York to support Van Morrison/Quicksilver Messenger Service at the Fillmore and to also fly out the cream of the music press writers to review the show. Due to a Spinal Tap style chaotic mix of visa problems, engine trouble, drugs and free booze and faulty hired gear the band turned up under-rehearsed and the jurnos turned up pissed out of their minds…….needless to say the show got panned. When the album landed after such a disastrous publicity blitz, it got absolutely monstered by the press…………..and they sold no records.
Stumbling from the wreckage of the Fillmore fiasco, the Brinsley Schwarz retreated to the pubs of London where they built their reputation as one of the finest unpretentious party bands of the era……effortlessly mixing Country Rock, Soul and Rock and Roll in a storming live show which they never really translated successfully to four solid but mainly uninspiring records. There were contributions to the Glastonbury Fayre album (1 track) and they appear on the Greasy Trucker’s Party record, which unfortunately, for a band known for its live performances, this was their only live album…………..until now. Mega Dodo are releasing Live Favourites, a recording of a performance from the Top Rank, Cardiff in June 1974 where Brinsley Schwarz where both the support and backing band for Dave Edmunds. The album surfaced originally around five years ago on CD as a privately pressed, semi-official release but Mega Dodo are now giving this record a full, vinyl only release……..limited to 250 copies with the first 100 including a set of postcards, stickers and a reproduction BBC audition sheet.
Live Favourites was recorded just after the release of what turned out to be the bands swansong recording, The New Favourites Of Brinsley Schwarz, and the line-up of the band at this time was Nick Lowe (bass and vocals), Brinsley Schwarz (guitar, sax and vocals), drummer Billy Rankin (although it appears that session drummer and original member of Dire Straits, Pick Withers was behind the kit for this recording), Bob Andrews (piano, organ, sax and vocals) and Ian Gomm (guitar and vocals). Brinsley Schwarz shift seamlessly from Byrdsian Country rockers like ‘Country Girl’ and ‘Honky Tonk’ to covers of classic Soul/R&B Revue tunes such as ‘Hip City’, ‘Ju Ju Man’ and William Bell’s ‘Private Number’ via Rock and Roll covers (Eugene Williams  ‘Trying to Live My Life Without You‘ ) and their own songs mainly penned by Nick Lowe. ‘Small Town Big City’ is classic Rock and Roll, ‘Happy Doing What We're Doing’ has a great funky New Orleans Dr John/Lee Dorsey vibe and you can hear the inspiration for Graham Parker’s best songs on ‘Surrender To The Rhythm’. How ‘(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding’ never became a massive hit needs to have a Police investigation opened to determine why. These tunes never really worked on record, but live they are transformed and drip with the intensity of being played by a band that really know how to tear the roof off the joint. You can imagine in a sweaty pub back room swilling with beer you would have the best time of your life at a Brinsley Schwarz gig. Live Favourites release has been well overdue (by about 40 years) and is a lasting document that shows that when they were cooking live there were very few early 70s acts that could touch this band. The sound quality of this record is excellent; it’s not some crappy bootleg recorded on a cheap cassette recorder at the back of the hall and it is a surprise it has not seen the light of day until now (then again Brinsley Schwarz never sold any records). Go buck the trend and buy this record.
Live Favourites will be released mid-October on Mega Dodo records……..it’s a little off-piste compared to their usual output but it is great that they are putting this out. Now available to pre-order now from their Bandcamp site at https://megadodo.bandcamp.com/album/live-favourites and possibly from your local vinyl emporium if you ask nicely.


Tuesday 22 September 2015

E GONE - YOUR GOAL IS TO KNOW EVERYTHING AND SAY NOTHING. (Video Premiere)


THEE PSYCHEDELICATESSEN PRESENT A VIDEO PREMIERE


YOUR GOAL IS TO KNOW EVERYTHING AND SAY NOTHING

By E GONE


FROM THE ALBUM
ADVICE TO HILL WALKERS


This is the first video from E GONEs second full length album ADVICE TO HILL WALKERS, released on cassette by Zeon Light and available NOW.


An expanded version of ADVICE TO HILL WALKERS will be released on CD later this year/early next year by Sunrise Ocean Bender/Deep Water Acres.

"Advice For Hill Walkers is the usual excellent E GONE mix of traditional instruments with digital technology creating a rich blend of  bubbling electronica and Eastern flavours that earnt the previous releases such critical praise, however this record is far more focused than before and Daniel has really found his groove…….this is the best E GONE release to date." - Strange Things Are Happening

"[Advice to Hill Walkers] is conceptual piece of work from a stylistic genius who has a genuine feel for experimental music that eschews the more discordant, abrasive aspect that the word experimental sometimes portrays, instead focussing on the juxtaposition of ideas and instrumentation to achieve an opus that challenges whilst maintaining a level of beauty and charm" - Dayz of Purple and Orange

"Advice To Hill Walkers has the demeanour of PiL’s Metal Box gazed at through a circus hall of mirrors. The album is evil and brooding and yet rippled with subtle flavours of psych like the darkest of dark chocolate." - Colourhorizon

"Eclectic is a word that gets used a lot in relation to E Gone. And eclectic it certainly is, but the ingredients are skillfully blended and the results cohesive. At times joyous, at times dark, Advice To Hill Walkers is impossible to pigeonhole, but no less effective for that." - Giant Poisoned Electric Heads


Sunday 20 September 2015

DEAD SEA APES – SPECTRAL DOMAIN (Cardinal Fuzz/Sunrise Ocean Bender LP, CD, D/L).

Coming to you from the very psychedelic North West of England is Manchester’s Dead Sea Apes, another band that has fully absorbed that city’s rich musical heritage and is now twisting it into strange new shapes. A joint release by Cardinal Fuzz and Sunrise Ocean Bender, Spectral Domain is the third album by Dead Sea Apes and is possibly best described as Industrial Space Rock………………dark, claustrophobic soundscapes driven by a deep bass rumble that drag the listener to places not from this Earth. Post Rock, Space Rock, Noise Rock and Industrial Dub are ripped apart and reassembled in a new form; a primal force that crushes everything in its vicinity.
Spectral Domain opens with the pummeling, primitive groove of ‘Universal Interrogator’, an absolute juggernaut of a track. Dead Sea Apes hit a groove and subtlety explore the space around it, slowly shaping the tune into an epic slab of Noise Rock. ‘True Believers’ is more of the same foggy, bass heavy Stoner Rock, so dense and suffocating that it sucks all the air out of room…………..play these tracks loud and let Dead Sea Apes pull you into their strange orbit. The hypnotic, Eastern flavoured, ‘The Unclosing Eye’ is a fantastic track…….driven by rolling drums it has the vibe of Can’s sonic adventures from their very early albums while ‘Brought To Light’ is a swirling Post Rock soundscape that has the feel of the more experimental side of bands like Mogwai. The album closes with ‘Sixth Side Of The Pentagon’, a dark, brooding, deep dub from a Post Punk, J G Ballard vision of a dystopian future, very much in the fashion of Joy Division, Pere Ubu and Metal Box era PiL, where paranoia and State surveillance is rife. This is psychedelic music but with a real sense of danger.
Spectral Domain is released on 26th September to coincide with Dead Sea Apes appearance at the Liverpool Psych Fest and will be available on purple and clear vinyl swirl with the CD and download only available directly from the band. Pre-orders for this record are available now, but hurry as they are selling fast……..for you good people in the UK and the rest of Europe, the Cardinal Fuzz web store appears to have sold all their vinyl copies, we suggest that you contact the good Cardinal for information about the further availability of this great record. However, if you are quick, you can buy the vinyl and CD version of Spectral Domain directly from the band at http://deadseaapes.bandcamp.com/album/spectral-domain where the digital download is also available to buy. Stateside the album is being released by Sunrise Ocean Bender and is available to pre-order from their online store and also from the SOB Bandcamp page at https://sunriseoceanbender.bandcamp.com/album/spectral-domain.


Friday 18 September 2015

COMASUMMER - OUT OF THE SUN EP (Custom Made Music Cassette, D/L)

Strange things are happening in Bulgaria………Out Of The Sun is the debut EP from Comasummer, 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 (for example ‘Rental Kisses’ is Garage Rock on steroids). There are some great songs on this 6 track EP, the title track and ‘Hurricane Love’ are particularly good, with the stand-out track being the bluesy ‘The Trickster’ which is full of sweet harmonies and has an early 70s hard rock groove. 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.
Out Of The Sun is available to download from the Comasummer Bandcamp page https://comasummer.bandcamp.com/ and at the end of this month it will receive a limited cassette release (50 copies) from Custom Made Music.

THEE PSYCHEDELICATESSEN      

BEAUTIFY JUNKYARDS – THE BEAST SHOUTED LOVE (Mega Dodo LP, CD).

Following their critically acclaimed 2013 debut album of gorgeous Psych Folk/Tropicália covers, Lisbon’s Beautify Junkyards return with more hauntologic and kaleidoscopic sunshine folk tales that shimmer with the beauty of a spring morning. Using the 60/70s Acid Folk influences/inspiration from the first album as a template, The Beast Shouted Love is 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. Opening the album with three exquisite pieces of giddy Acid Folk, ‘Sun Wheel Ceremony’, ‘Canterbury’ and ‘Rainbow Garland’, Beautify Junkyards bring together acoustic guitars, gentle electronica, snippets of found sounds/field recordings and subtle percussion with the shimmering voices of João Branco Kyron and Rita Vian, shaping a musical landscape that is both from now and sometime circa 1969. The rest of the album is in the same vain, a skilfully hewn mix of pastoral psychedelia with sun kissed Tropicália, where the old and the new seamlessly blend together. There are some sublime moments here………………… the trippy fairground swirl of ‘Tomorrow's Children’, the Folktronica groove of ‘Rite Of Passage’…….but nothing can really top ‘Drop City’ and ‘Valley Of Wonders’ which are simply stunning, Acid Folk has never sounded so good. Now that Beautify Junkyards are recording original material they are not restrained by any preconceived ideas of how the songs should sound, The Beast Shouted Love is a melting pot of ideas and inspiration ………beautifully twisted but ever so accessible. This really is a fantastic Psych Folk album and we doubt if there will be many better records released this year.        
Released on the very groovy British psychedeliacentric boutique label Mega Dodo, The Beast Shouted Love is available on limited edition vinyl and CD (250 copies of each) and is available from their web store at http://www.mega-dodo.co.uk/ and Bandcamp site  https://megadodo.bandcamp.com/album/the-beast-shouted-love plus the usual cool online sites like Shiny Beast………….alternatively, go ask your local friendly vinyl vendor to order you a copy.

THEE PSYCHEDELICATESSEN  

Friday 11 September 2015

THE VIRGANCE – PARADIGM 3 (El Vals del Conejo CD, D/L). WARP TRANSMISSION – ACCIDENTS AND MADNESS (D/L)/TAMAM SHUD (Heavy Meditation Tapes Cassette, D/L). MOONPARADE – UNDER THE SWELL (D/L). HOT GLEW – MAY I COME IN (Custom Made Music Cassette, D/L). BLACK PANDA BEACH - §#&*µ (D/L).

In this month’s round up of Bandcamp freebies we have unearthed another batch of goodies you might dig……….it’s the usual mix of fantastic new bands, bedroom psychonauts armed with a guitar, FX pedals, a drum machine and a ton of great ideas that are still getting their sound together and weirdos doing a load of drugs, pressing the record button and seeing what happens. We think they are all worth a listen………download the tunes and make your own mind up, it won’t cost you anything.

The Virgance is the recorded work of Nathan Smith, a UK-based artist and another emerging talent that has been taken under the wing of renowned Canadian/Ukrainian Dreampop duo Ummagma. Following hot on the heels of the critically acclaimed second album Hiko Shrine, The Virgance returns with a third album of instrumental Shoegaze, Dreampop and Noise Rock on El Vals del Conejo titled Paradigm 3.
Building on the momentum gained from the first two releases, Smith demonstrates the strength of the album format as an art form and reminds us of the rewards of patient listening in this modern, digital age of instant gratification and short attention spans. This is perhaps the most balanced Virgance release so far, embracing the more emotional aspects of Shoegaze while retaining some experimental rock attributes, as well as the aesthetics of both beautiful noise and ambient music. As with his two previous albums, Smith’s distinctive, swirling guitar sound is at the forefront, in harmony with synthesized, ethereal female vocal sounds and he has successfully managed to avoid most of the Shoegaze ‘clichés’ that are evident in less accomplished hands…………however you can’t help feeling that one or two of the tracks really could do with a “real” singer and not just ambient vocal washes as they do sound  somewhat unfinished (the stand-out track here and no doubt the most complete is ‘Down The River’ features vocals by Ummagma’s Shauna McLarnon). Nit picking aside, this is an excellent record which fans of Slowdive and newer bands like Stargazer Lilies will love.
Paradigm 3 is available on CD or as a “name your price” download from The Virgance Bandcamp page http://thevirgance.bandcamp.com/album/paradigm-3.

Coming to you from Finland via the furthest reaches of the known galaxy is Warp Transmission, a six piece heavy Psych/Stoner/Space Rock caravan of cosmic travellers. For this band it's about riding blind the primal urge, living the archetype, and always rocking out with an excess of noise, burning some bridges and crossing a couple abysses along the way………..Fuck Yeah.
Originally released as a 7” single on the very tiny Finnish label Mikrofoni in 2014, Accidents And Madness is now available on the Warp Transmission Bandcamp page. This is two tracks of heavy Psychedelic Space Rock that sound like the Stooges and early Hawkwind fighting in a sack………it’s great stuff……..heavy riffing, skull pounding, mind melting Psychedelic Rock n Roll. ‘Freak Accident’ and ‘Confusion’ rock like absolute bastards……….a must listen if you like your Psychedelia as heavy as a supermassive black hole. Also available on the Warp Transmission Bandcamp page is Tamám Shud which is due for release on Heavy Meditation Tapes very soon. This is a demo/rehearsal/jam compilation tape of random material spanning the existence of Warp Transmission and is more of the same heavy Psych/Space Rock as before. It’s a bit lo-fi in parts but if you dig the Accidents And Madness download you also need to check this out.
Both Accidents And Madness and Tamám Shud are available as “name your price” downloads at http://warptransmission.bandcamp.com/

We stumbled across Under The Swell by Moonparade more or less by accident……we liked the album artwork (which is always a good place to start)…….and we think we have made a real discovery here. We know very little about who Moonparade are/is (there are no links for this to Facebook/Twitter which is a major quirk in the age of super connectivity) but after some serious Googling we have deduced that this is the work of Australian artist/musician Tim Goschnick. It’s kinda difficult to describe this album but we are going to go with “Electro-Acoustic Ambient Shoegaze” (if that’s a thing) as it is a gorgeous blend of drifting guitars, electronics and field recordings mixed with a minimal use of more traditional instrumentation such as piano, harmonium, violin and kalimba, having the feel of the post Eno/Cluster ambient soundscape explorations from the late 80s/early 90s.
Under The Swell is full of lush, predominantly beat free, sweeping soundscapes that combine shimmering guitars and electronica with an organic mix of found sounds and sparse instrumentation creating a vast ocean of sound. There are some really beautifully constructed tracks on this record………..the opening track ‘Skyscrapers In Earthquakes’ fuses drones with lush, swelling .guitars, the title track has the dynamics of ambient Shoegaze and is a swirl of spiralling guitars while ‘Spidersilk Flying Machine’ is full of swooping  electronica. The rest of the record is fantastic with a vibe that spans right through from early German electronica/soundscaping by the likes of  Popol Vuh, the “Fourth World” music of Eno and Jon Hassell, early 90s chill-out music all the way to current Electro-Acoustic sonic experimentation. We think you should give this a listen.
You can find Under The Swell on the Moonparade Bandcamp page http://moonparade.bandcamp.com/album/under-the-swell where it is available as a “name your price” download

Next up on our trawl though Bandcamp is May I Come In by Hot Glew, the solo project by Nashville musician Brett Keller.  May I Come In is the archetypal product of the bedroom psychonaut, full of lo-fi charm and great ideas but still in the process of getting a sound together on hardly no budget whatsoever. There are some very cool tunes here, however it sounds like a very well made demo tape……….it would be really interesting to hear the results of these songs after getting some serious studio time and being played by a full band. Nevertheless, there are enough great songs here to make this is well worth a listen and we think Hot Glew will be one to watch in the future.
Available now from the Hot Glew Bandcamp page at https://hotglew.bandcamp.com/ or as a very limited cassette release (50 copies only) from Custom Made Music at http://custommademusicva.com/release/may-i-come-in-cassette/

And finally, some seriously wtf, lo-fi psychedelic jams from sonic adventurers Black PandaBeach. Based in France (?) ……the spiritual home of Gong and Soft Machine……..Black Panda Beach cook up loose Psych/Post Rock Improvised jams with a dash of Krautrock thrown into their sonic stew. It’s not going to be to everybody’s taste but for enthusiastic listeners of warped modern psychedelic music/ Post Punk experimental soundscapes this may be your thing. Psychedelia is a broad church…………it embraces everything from Circus Maximus to Cabaret Voltaire.  
You can download §#&​*​µ from the Black Panda Beach Bandcamp page where it is a “name you price” freebie and make your own mind up.

Wednesday 9 September 2015

THE ESSKAYS – HOTEL ME EP (D/L)/THE MOVING OUT SESSIONS (D/L)

Strange things are happening in Nashville………Mixing up C86 style jangle with 60s influenced psychedelia, Hotel Me is the very cool debut EP from the ever so slightly twee Indie funsters/gently psychedelic Sunshine Popsters, The Esskays.
Full of melody and a vaguely shambolic Indie charm there are some great things going on here………..echoes from great 80s UK Indie Pop ripple through all of the six tracks on this EP especially the fantastic ‘C'est La Vie’ which has more than a hint of the Orange Juice/Aztec Camera releases on the legendry Postcard label. There is strong 60s jangle pop influence on many of the songs such as ‘@ Least It's A Beautiful Day’ and ‘Sister Mary’, however it’s on the epic ‘In Love’ where The Esskays fully channel that psychedelic 60s vibe. It’s a West Coast, Sunshine Pop throwback from the ‘Summer of Love’ and without a doubt the best track on the EP, a truly gorgeous tune and totally psychedelic. It’s a groovy little EP and tracks like ‘In Love’ hint of good things to come.

Also available to download from The Esskays Bandcamp page is The Moving Out Sessions, a collection of demos, outtakes and other odds ‘n’ sods left over from various recording/rehearsal sessions. There are also some really cool tunes on this album, although some of them are a bit rough and ready they are still well worth a listen.

Both Hotel Me and The Moving Out Sessions are available to download from Bandcamp at http://thesskays.bandcamp.com/ where The Moving Out Sessions is a “name your price” freebie. Go check ‘em out People.

THEE PSYCHEDELICATESSEN    

Monday 7 September 2015

UNMADE BED/LIPS AGAINST THE GLASS – FARFUZZY/FURFLIES (New Model Label 7” Single, D/L).

More strange things from Italy………Coming to you from the New Model Label is Furfuzzy/Furflies, a split 7” single from two great bands, Unmade Bed and LipsAgainst The Glass. Unmade Bed come from a more psychedelic and Post Rock background, having opened shows for artists like Robin Guthrie, American Music Club and Jennifer Gentle, while Lips Against The Glass are a minimal electronica/experimental duo who have  gained a reputation for their remix work and providing live soundtracks to classic silent films (they have presented live soundtracks for Cecil Hepworth’s 1903 movie Alice In Wonderland and “Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari” by Robert Wiene, in both clubs and museums).
The concept of the two bands doing split single together is 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 A side of the single (the “Furfuzzy” side), ‘The Big Sleep’, 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 minimal Electronica/Shoegaze tune ‘Only To’ which blends beats, bass and looping guitars to great effect. The digital download includes a further four tracks…..Unmade Bed contribute one track, ‘Dillon Haunted The Night’, which is another excellent psychedelic slowburner in the same vein as ‘The Big Sleep’. There are two additional tracks from Lips Against The Glass (‘Blue Circles’ and ‘Not/Only’) and a final track which is a collaboration between both bands and is from the Cecil Hepworth Alice In Wonderland project……these are all haunting, stripped back, minimal tunes that bring to mind early Sigur Ros and the experimental soundscapes of múm. There are some really interesting things going on here and well worth checking out.
The full digital download is available from both iTunes and Amazon. You can get a copy of the vinyl version (including download code), which is available as a limited edition pressing of only 50 copies, from  https://lipsagainstglass.bandcamp.com/.

GOOD MORNING FINCH - ZERO (from "Fractals" - A Video Project Inside Gemini) PREMIERE


"Clouds are not spheres, mountains are not cones, coastlines are not circles, and bark is not smooth, nor does lightning travel in a straight line" (Benôit B. Mandelbrot).

Thee Psychedelicatessen present an exclusive premiere of 'Zero' by Good Morning Finch from the "Fractals" video project. 

"Fractals" is an experimental video project based on four songs taken from Good Morning Finch's latest album Gemini which was released on March 9th by Waves For The Masses Records. Is composed by 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.

'Zero' is the fourth and last video from this project. You can view the previous three videos by following these links:


The album Gemini is still available from the Good Morning Finch Bandcamp page at 
http://goodmorningfinch.bandcamp.com/ where it is available as either a "name your price" download or a limited edition CD.   

Saturday 5 September 2015

E GONE – ADVICE FOR HILL WALKERS (Zeon Light Cassette)

Following the impressive debut All The Suns Of The Earth from 2014 and the Smokediver EP released earlier this year, Daniel Westerlund returns with a second full length E GONE album. Advice For Hill Walkers is the usual excellent E GONE mix of traditional instruments with digital technology creating a rich blend of  bubbling electronica and Eastern flavours that earnt the previous releases such critical praise, however this record is far more focused than before and Daniel has really found his groove…….this is the best E GONE release to date. Whereas All The Suns Of The Earth was a very eclectic record mixing psychedelic electric sitar headswirlers, Post Rock synth drones, far out Psych Rock and gentle Acid Folk, Advice For Hill Walkers takes its cues from the fantastic Whirled Music on the Smokediver EP. 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.
The journey starts with the elongated drones of ‘Mark the Spot Where You Leave the Injured’ guiding the listener gently into the Eastern European gypsy swirl of ‘Your Goal Is To Know Everything And Say Nothing’. Advice For Hill Walkers takes influences/inspiration from many sources……… Picking up where the Smokediver EP left off, ‘Follow Moonmilk Rivers’ has all the chaos and confusion of a Middle Eastern bazaar, ‘Build Your Camp Out Of Alpine Moss’ has the feel of early John Carpenter soundtracks whileDwell In Tents By Day, Hike At Random By Night’ has the vibe of a mid-90s Trip Hop track. The wonderfulFind New Methods For Compass Use’ is a sweet combination of field recordings (in this case a rainstorm) and drones. There is also a huge European folk influence on many of the tracks, more so on the enthralling ‘Continue Ascent While Blindfolded’ and the whirling ‘Record The Humming Of Melodious Caves’. The record closes with the epic ‘Reach The Summit, Egg!’ which pulls together all the strands of the album to create one massive 10 minute psychedelic track which is a total mindblower. There are 10 tracks here all of the finest quality, this really is a fantastic record and if you want our advice we suggest you get yerself a copy and check it out…….this is the real deal.
At the moment Advice For Hill Walkers is currently only available on cassette in a seriously limited edition run of only 50 (which is about the number of people who still own a tape deck) from the great little Swedish boutique tape label Zeon Light…….you can get your hands on a copy (plus free download) from their Bandcamp site here https://zeonlight.bandcamp.com/album/advice-to-hill-walkers .........but no doubt someone will have the sense to make this available on either CD or vinyl in the near future as it is truly an awesome album. The Smokediver EP is still available as a "name your price" download from the E GONE Bandcamp site here https://egone.bandcamp.com.