ASTRAL SON – MIND’S EYE (Headspin Records LP/Sulatron Records CD, D/L). ELECTRIC MOON – THE DOOMSDAY MACHINE (Sulatron Records CD, D/L).

New from Germany’s furthest out Psych/Krautrock/Space Rock record label, a couple of great CD releases from Sulatron Records………………….September sees the release of the third part of the Astral Son album trilogy and the long awaited CD re-issue of Electric Moon’s brain scrambling 2011 LP The Doomsday Machine.

Astral Son is the Psychedelic side-project of Dutch musician and painter Leonardo Soundweaver……….influenced by Gong, Ashra Tempel, Pink Floyd, Hawkwind and Brainticket and beaming in from the edge of the Galaxy. the third Astral Son album is a kaleidoscopic blend of mind bending Space Rock, sprawling Acid Rock and propulsive Krautrock which fans of old-school 70s Prog/Psych are really going to dig. The final part of a spaced out trilogy which includes the albums Gurumaya and Silver Moon, Mind’s Eye channels the vibe and spirit of classic “head music”, raiding the far out archives of U.A., Virgin, Ohr and Brain records for inspiration…………..break out the bong Space Cadets, it’s one hell of a trip. Creating spectral, alien soundtracks with dense layers of fuzzed out, distorted, treated guitars and pulsing synths, Astral Son has absorbed the best elements of the more experimental sounds of the 60s and expertly mixed them with the cosmic soundscapes of the early 70s…………………..with spiralling organ and swirling guitars, the opening track of Mind’s Eye, the epic ‘Time For Change’, is what a holy union between Vibravoid and Gong would sound like. Sequenced and mixed as one continuous astral odyssey, the album ebbs and flows as if caught on cosmic winds with tracks merging seamlessly through the bubbling, Tangerine Dream-esque ‘Brainstorm’ the early Pink Floyd influenced ‘The Way’, Psychedelic wig-outs such as ‘See Your Self’ and the album’s title track before exploding into a thousand shards of coloured light on the final track, the acid drenched ‘This Trip’. A proper album for all you Heads out there, Mind’s Eye really hits the spot.

Mind’s Eye is out NOW on CD and available from either the Sulatron Records website or from the Astral Son Bandcamp site here https://astralson.bandcamp.com/. The album is also due to be released on vinyl by Headspin Records sometime in November, so keep ‘em peeled People.

Originally released back in 2011 as a seriously limited run of 2 x LP and CD on Nasoni Records (which completely sold out ages ago), the third Electric Moon studio album The Doomsday Machine gets a much welcomed CD reissue by Sulatron Records. Much darker and heavier than the more recent Electric Moon LPs and had the tracks been edited down to around the 5 minute mark this album may have been their shot at wider commercial acceptance within the more mainstream Heavy Rock community………but fuck that, with three out of five tracks at least 20 minutes long, you know that Electric Moon are going to blast away, tearing a black hole into the dark side of space until the tape runs out. Very dense and very psychedelic, The Doomsday Machine mashes up squalling Acid Rock with atmospheric passages of kosmische Space Rock that drift through time and space pulling the listener deep into Electric Moon’s trip ………it’s a phenomenal record by a phenomenal band. If epic Stoner Rock/Space Rock freak outs are your thing you really need to wrap your ears around this record. The outstanding track has to be ‘Stardust Service’ where trippy, treated vocals from Komet Lulu and Sula Bassana’s squalling, psychedelic guitar wig-out are underpinned by driving drums and bass………it’s one of the most glorious 20 minutes of music that Electric Moon have ever committed to tape. For newer fans of Electric Moon, The Doomsday Machine is a piece of their history you will want to check out, its mind blowing stuff…………it will turn your brain inside out.

The CD re-issue of The Doomsday Machine from Sulatron Records out NOW and available directly from their website or from the Electric Moon Bandcamp page here https://electric-moon.bandcamp.com/album/the-doomsday-machine.

THEE PSYCHEDELICATESSEN

DATURA4 – HAIRY MOUNTAIN (Alive Natural Sound LP, CD).

New from Alive Natural Sound and fresh from the “Down Underground” comes the second album from West Australia’s Datura4. With 10 solid tracks of lager guided melodies and balls out Rock ‘n’ Roll they have come to party like its 1969, evoking the spirit of bad-ass biker bar boogie bands with the swagger of Blue Cheer, The James Gang, The Allman Brothers and their Southern brethren. Following the critically acclaimed debut LP Demon Blues, Detura4 have fine-tuned their heads-down, no nonsense, timeless boogie and by adding a stronger element of Psych Blues to a natural flair for melody, their new album, Hairy Mountain, shows that this band are the real deal.

An album that is really going to appeal to lovers of classic Blues Rock, Hairy Mountain takes most of its cues from the post psychedelic/pre Metal early 70s where souped up, full tilt boogie was king. Chock full of loud guitars, this is the culmination of a lifetime of musical archaeology and the ongoing search for the never ending riff. There are some really fantastic tracks here………….the opener ‘Fools Gold Rush’ and the headrush of ‘Uphill Climb’ mix squalling guitars and a big choruses with a psychedelic sensibility while ‘Broken Path’ has a wonderful 70’s mellow USA West Coast vibe complete with some sublime bottleneck guitar playing. Datura4 are a boogie monster, a bar band on steroids on tracks such as ‘Greedy World’, ‘Confide In Me’, ‘Too Much (Or Not Enough)’ and  ‘Something To Hide’ where they breathe new life into the genre which struggled for credibility after the peak years of the early 70s. Like label mates Radio Moscow and other new bands such as Blackberry Smoke and Chris Robinson Brotherhood, Datura4 are mining that same rich seam of 70s Blues Rock while still staying relevant to today. A really cool record…….check it out People and remember…………………….don’t forget to boogie.

Due for release on 28^th October on Alive Natural Sound Records with psychedelic cover art by Joshua Marc Levy/Asheville Art Family, Hairy Mountain will be available on starburst vinyl and CD which you can pre-order via the label website here  http://www.alive-records.com/.

THEE PSYCHEDELICATESSEN 

LIGHTS THAT CHANGE – BYZANTIUM (Wrong Way Records CD, D/L).

Blending the Indie Pop sparkle of the Sunday’s debut album, the more lyrically coherent ‘Heaven Or Las Vegas’ period Cocteau Twins, the ethereal sheen of the under-rated third Slowdive album Pygmalion and the lush Gothik Pop of This Mortal Coil and Shelleyan Orphan, Welsh trio Lights That Change have lovingly crafted their debut album from the base materials of Shoegaze and Dream Pop. However you can’t help feeling that they have somewhat missed the boat………………..had Byzantium been released 25 years ago it would have been considered a minor classic of the genre, but in 2016 with so many other bands using the same source materials it now sounds somewhat…….err……generic. Conceived as a studio project, Lights That Change first appeared on our radar a few years back with a couple of very cool singles/EPs but since then, while the band have been working hard on this album, the scene has moved on with the “Shoegaze Revival” rapidly running out of steam and the more interesting/creative bands that initially were influenced by the “Holy Trinity” of the J&MC, Slowdive and MBV evolving and experimenting, whereas Lights That Change have either taken their eye off the ball or played it safe and got themselves stylistically stuck in 1991. Then again, if your tastes are not that demanding and you are simply looking for a record that evokes the sound of late 80s/early 90s Rough Trade/4AD releases then Byzantium is the perfect album…………………..it is a beautifully constructed facsimile of that era, full of familiar somnolent  sounds  gently oozing out of the speakers.

We were expecting this album to drop a couple of years ago but due to various delays it has arrived late to the party and with loads of other Shoegaze/Dream Pop bands releasing records in the meantime, it’s impact has been rather diminished. Nevertheless, although a bit light on any real memorable tunes or infectious Indie Pop hooks, Lights That Change first full album is a more than competent collection of dark gothic tinged Dream Pop songs that mixes together layers gorgeous multi-tracked voices, swirling guitars and supple bass lines…………………….tracks like the folky ‘Starlight’, a previous single ‘Voices’ and ‘Union (For Louise)’ which has the vivacity of The Sundays are particularly good……and what they lack in originality is balanced by the amount of work spent on achieving such a full, crystalline sound. However, Lights That Change have not really stamped their own personality on the record and have made an album that can only be described as “Cocteau’s Lite”, being in thrall to Robin Guthrie and far too respectful to their influences……………we were there during the original wave of Shoegazers and don’t really want to hear Bluebell Knoll recreated but would rather the band fuck with the source material to be far more sonically adventurous, many of the tracks really could do bursts of brain scrambling shards of noise just to jolt the listener out of their reverie for a moment. If you are looking for an album packed with the thrilling visceral, brooding power of the last Swans LP, this is not the record for you……….although if you are after something that is atmospheric, sounds fantastic and rekindles memories of loads of dreamy bands you liked back in the day, you are not going to go far wrong with the latest offering from Lights That Change…………other opinions are available.

Released by Wrong Way Records, Byzantium is out NOW and available from the Lights That Change Bandcamp site here https://lightsthatchange.bandcamp.com/album/byzantium as either a CD or digital download. You can also stream the album and come to your own conclusions about a record that may have missed the wave.

THEE PSYCHEDELICATESSEN. 

VIDEO PREMIERE : E GONE - 'Record The Humming Of Melodious Caves' from the album ADVICE TO HILL WALKERS (Sunrise Ocean Bender/Deep Water Acres CD).

"Advice to Hill Walkers, the second full-length album by Swedish musical explorer E GONE, appeared just briefly on cassette in 2015 via the Zeon Light label, garnering high praise from the small circle of tuned-in antennae that caught the transmission; one reviewer called it “the best E GONE release to date … a mix of traditional instruments with digital technology creating a rich blend of bubbling electronica and Eastern flavours.” Musically, it’s a stunner: An all-instrumental travelogue of an upward trek through a rugged landscape (as literal or metaphorical as you’d like), twelve station points mapped out across endlessly varied ethno-electro-psychedelic terrain. For this new CD edition, Sunrise Ocean Bender and Deep Water have combined resources to give the album the deluxe upgrade it deserves in both sound and packaging, with expanded (two additional tracks) and reworked (remixed and remastered) audio, all housed in a gorgeous Stumptown-printed cover with a foldout poster insert."

Coming September 30th 2016 from Deep Water Acres & Sunrise Ocean Bender

CD available at http://www.sunriseoceanbender.bigcartel.com

DL only at http://www.sunriseoceanbender.bandcamp.com

Watch the new video for 'Record The Humming Of Melodious Caves'................a Strange Things Are Happening premiere.

In September 2015 we also premiered the video for the track 'Your Goal Is To Know Everything And Say Nothing' just after Advice To Hill Walkers was first released on cassette by Zeon Light.................watch it again here.

A big thank you to E GONE and Sunrise Ocean Bender for inviting us to premiere the new video.................a new, full review of the remixed and remastered release of Advice To Hill Walkers coming soon.

THEE PSYCHEDELICATESSEN

BEN REED – STATION MASTERS (Gare Du Nord Records LP+CD, D/L).

Fresh from bass duties on the recent Frank Ocean LP, London based multi-instrumentalist Ben Reed has a record of his own due for release. Following two previous self-released records, Ben is now part of the Gare Du Nord Records family and with a roll call of gently psychedelic retro popsters that includes Papernut Cambridge and Picturebox his new album is a perfect fit for the label. Station Masters, Ben’s first non-instrumental album, is part whimsical, introspective, very English singer/songwritery with a late 60s/early 70s influence which blends together Folk, Jazz and Psychedelic Pop………. it resonates with a really mellow 60s swinging bachelor pad vibe that evokes The Free Design, Zdenek Liska, The Left Banke, Fifth Dimension and Oz Mutantes………combined with the pastoral, bucolic air of the Canterbury Scene and the post psychedelic era of Kevin Ayres and Robert Wyatt, and more in keeping with the earlier albums, part quirky early 70s Prog like Virgin used to sign, such as bands like Henry Cow, Slapp Happy and Hatfield & The North, with elements of Soft Machine, Stackridge and Caravan added to mix.

Featuring involvement from, amongst others, Laura Groves, Bullion and Ross Stanley, Station Masters is a smart and engaging record that you can image 6 Music listeners and Uncut readers going mad over, however there is more than enough Psych Pop strangeness and retro Prog Rock inventiveness that will captivate lovers of English psychedelic quirk-outs. The album’s opener and title track, a Soft Machine-esque free Jazz storm in the mould of the improvisational feel of Third, ‘Das Zeichen der Spinne’,  ‘Allgones’ and  ‘Dragging The Lake’ are all solo Ben Reed compositions from a Prog/Jazz twilight zone like the first couple of albums, however the new record has more of a collaborative feel with many of the songs being joint compositions or covers and includes a version of Portuguese poet Manuel de Freitas’ ‘Errata’ set to pastoral guitars and summery Oz Mutantes vocals. Station Masters is a compelling record and its peculiar mix of influences give it an unexpected timeless quality………it does not hide its influences but the strange and beautiful mix of styles enhance the record, not tying it down to any particular place in time and space. A delightfully eccentric record and a fantastic addition to the list of weird and wonderful records that Gare Du Nord have released this year.

Due for release on October 7^th, Station Masters is available on vinyl (which also comes with a CD of the album inside) or as a digital download. Available to pre-order now from Ben Reed’s Bandcamp page here https://benreed3.bandcamp.com/releases.

THEE PSYCHEDELICATESSEN        

THE CRAZY WORLD OF ARTHUR BROWN – STRANGELANDS (Swordfish Records LP).

You could consider this record to be the missing link between the original Crazy World and Arthur Brown's strange but beautiful Prog Rock outfit Kingdom Come. Originally recorded in 1969 as the follow up LP to the massively popular The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown debut album, Strangelands was the mythical “lost” Arthur Brown album before Reckless Records finally made this album available with a 1989 release. Although Cherry Red reissued the album on CD a few years ago, thanks to the good folk at Swordfish Records this……..erm……“idiosyncratic” LP is now available on vinyl for the for the first time in over 25 years. Strangelands is pretty fucking far out……………..Track Records were no doubt expecting more of the same radio friendly fare that the first album provided but instead of variations of ‘Fire’ and ‘Nightmare’ they were presented with an album that took ‘Spontaneous Apple Creation’ way, way out there to the n^th degree……………..Brown was no longer weird in an accessible and entertaining fashion, he was just weird. Completely “uncommercial”, Strangelands is a truly Psychedelic record in the sense that what no doubt recorded with everybody involved off their faces on LSD and mixes the dissonance of Beefheart with Free Jazz and Psychedelic Rock and could be loosely described as Arthur’s very own Trout Mask Replica. Track Records rejected the album out of hand, anyway they had bigger fish to fry with Track label mates The Who and Hendrix being at the peak of their commercial powers (we wish that Track had shown the same rigorous “quality control” when it came to releasing Keith Moon’s atrocious booze and coke fuelled solo album Two Sides Of The Moon, a record with no redeeming qualities whatsoever). Maybe if Brown had been signed to a label that wasn’t run by a hardnosed East End hipster and a drug addled posh boy dilettante that wanted hit singles, but to one more receptive to underground sounds who would have given the record a more sympathetic ear, then this tripped out album could have hit the racks 20 years earlier and freaked out everybody who bought the first LP.

Time has been kind to Strangelands, now it reverberates with the spirit of the age as well as encompassing an almost contemporary feel. Had it been released by Track Records right after it was recorded, it would have confused many listeners who would have been alarmed by the radical change of direction………….us Brits didn’t really do seriously weird in the 60’s. However with time “strange” has been absorbed more into pop culture and the abrasive discord of Strangelands has been eroded over the years, it’s still a difficult album but 45 years on and decades of hearing off the wall experimental records it’s much easier to get your head round than it would have been in 1969……..nevertheless that does not detract the fact that this chaotic album is mainly full of untuneful and demented stuff and it is fully understandable that Track Records gave it a listen then decided that it would have been commercial suicide to put it out. Strangelands is loosely arranged as a suite divided into four parts (‘The Country’, ‘The City’, ‘The Cosmos’ and ‘The Afterlife’) and is the sound of a band not just burning musical bridges but dynamiting them to……err…….kingdom come. It's much heavier on the operatic vocal histrionics and unfathomably metaphysical lyrics, with few of the R&B-grounded organ riffs that helped put his debut album into the Top Ten but with plenty of improvisation. The one song that sounds as if it could have, almost, fit onto the first Crazy World album is ‘Planets of the Universe’ with its drifting organ lines and lilting, melodious vocals…………. although these unexpectedly cut into a busk of ‘Dem Bones’. Overall this record is a strange, sprawling, messy affair but an interesting look at an important transformational period and an indication of the direction Arthur Brown was to take in the early 70s. This is not going to be for everybody…………..anyone thinking of dipping into the oeuvre of Arthur Brown for the first time best give Strangelands a wide berth but for hardcore fans who want this on vinyl and lovers of seriously out there 60s/70s Prog Psych this will be will be well up your street.

Strangelands is the first release in a series of vinyl re-issues of early Arthur Brown albums by Swordfish Records. Following this, the three Kingdom Come albums are getting a vinyl re-issue…….Galactic Zoo Dossier is planned for release in the next few months and the other two due to land early next year. A limited edition release of 500 copies on psychedelic vinyl with fully remastered audio and with all-new cover artwork conjuring up the look of what it should have had if it had been issued in 1969 as originally planned, Strangeland will be available to buy sometime in October (we think) direct from very groovy record stores that have a well stocked Psych section, from the Swordfish Records eBay site here http://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/swordfishrecords or directly from the shop if you live around the West Midlands area. Pre-release copies can be ordered from the usual reputable on-line outlets like Juno Records and Shiny Beast………..best give the album a Google to see who else is carrying it (other tax avoiding search engine companies are available).

THEE PSYCHEDELICATESSEN

THE WOLFHOUNDS – UNTIED KINGDOM (…OR HOW TO COME TO TERMS WITH YOUR CULTURE) (Odd Box Records 2 x LP, D/L).

After all the years since the release of the NME C86 cassette, there is still a massive misunderstanding about its legacy. The lazy myth is that it was full of tracks by ungainly, precious, lo-fi bands that were part of a “scene” that ultimately lead to the birth of insufferably twee 90s bands such as Belle And Sebastian and their ilk………………..the reality is that C86 was a snapshot of that year’s burgeoning growth of independent labels inspired by Rough Trade, Factory, Beggars Banquet, etc, etc, etc, etc and the D.I.Y ethics of the time, very much like the earlier C81 cassette that carried tracks by the far more influential Pere Ubu, Orange Juice, Specials, Cabaret Voltaire and The Raincoats amongst other now legendary bands. Although there were a few delicate Indie Pop bands on C86, the cassette’s track list also included slightly shambolic Psychedelia from Primal Scream, Nuggets inspired Garage Rock from The Mighty Lemon Drops (still the last great band to emerge from Wolves), The Wedding Present’s Punky guitar pop, Half Man Half Biscuit’s Scouse sarcasm, angular Beefheart inspired strangeness from Stump, the unspeakably shite Soup Dragons, Age Of Chance mixing beats and guitars ahead of their time and of course ferocious Garage/Punk from the mighty Wolfhounds, with the only thing linking them together was that they were all “Indie” in the truest sense of the word, way before the label was stuck on any band of white boys with guitars and issues. Although considered to be a “C86 band” more by association than because of any musical style, The Wolfhounds began as a slightly askew Indie Pop/Rock band with a clutch of great singles on the Pink label……..their absolutely brilliant second single Anti Midas Touch still stands up today as a classic Garage/Punk influenced Indie Rock record……..evolving into a harder edged guitar band with a much denser sound by the end of the decade, they always stood out from the other bands on the compilation. Splitting in early 1990 and splintering into bands as diverse as the more experimental Moonshake and the Acid Jazz outfit Mother Earth, The Wolfhounds seemed to be destined to be yet another Indie Rock footnote with most of the other bands that were included on C86…………………….however…………………………..The Wolfhounds are back and better than ever!!!!  The band reformed properly in 2006 at the request of St Etienne’s Bob Stanley to celebrate 20 years since the release of C86, and inflicted a severe guitar noisefest on an unsuspecting Indie Pop crowd at London’s ICA, and since 2012 they have been recording and releasing new material. Still an abrasive guitar band with a Garage/Punk vibe they have continued to develop their sound without losing the fury that made their songs so memorable the first time round and after last year’s critically lauded recent singles compilation, Middle Aged Freaks, along with the almost simultaneous reissue of their 1986 debut Unseen Ripples From A Pebble, The Wolfhounds release their first standalone LP since 1990’s Attitude.

Released on the Welsh Indie Odd Box Records, the new album from The Wolfhounds, Untied Kingdom (…..or How to Come To Terms With Your Culture), is a logical progression from the previous recordings with raging guitars tempered with additional horns and keys and David Callahan’s distinctive vocals augmented with an outstanding trio of guest singers (Katherine M Whittaker (Evans the Death), Elin Grimstad (Je Suis Animal) and Astrud Steehouder (Paper Dollhouse)) creating a sound that is both squalling Punk Blues and something that is more spacious and modern in equal measures. It conjours up demons of the fiercest Rock’n’Roll along with the unfettered experimentation of singer Callahan’s previous band, Moonshake to form an expansive whole which catches the ear on every spin on our Dancette. Unlike many of The Wolfhounds C86 contemporaries/early 90s bands that are still gigging today they are not a nostalgia act feeding off past glories but continually pushing forward and still relevant…………Untied Kingdom is a modern as any young band could hope to be, but as wise and disturbed as any alert adult has to be. An apt comparison would be the recent output of Wire. This is the band’s most varied release yet, from the opening, acapella, iPhone-manipulated folk resurrection of ‘Apparition’ to the apocalyptic repetition of the electric violin and detuned guitar driven ‘Across The River of Death’ Untied Kingdom takes you on a 50 minute plus journey that takes in sample mangled dub (the fantastic ‘Lucky Heather’), intense Garage Rock (‘Now I’m A Killer’) and late-night unplugged lo-fi (‘Oppositeland’) along the way, going musically and lyrically pretty much everywhere all other underground bands can’t or won’t go. As someone smarter than us said “The album summons sometimes dystopic, sometimes frighteningly dysfunctional hallucinations of desperate working life and insecurity, while at the same time being raw and hardcore and celebratory as danceable blues”. Forget the C86 tag, that was a long time ago……………..The Wolfhounds are a vibrant, modern Rock ‘n’ Roll band that deserve your attention.

Due for release by Odd Box Records on 14^th October on 2 x LP and as a digital download, Untied Kingdom (…..or How to Come To Terms With Your Culture) is available to pre-order from The Wolfhounds Bandcamp page here http://thewolfhounds.bandcamp.com/album/untied-kingdom-or-how-to-come-to-terms-with-your-culture. There are a few other bands from the C86 tape we would like to see back again, for starters it would be good to have Stump and The Mighty Lemon Drops doing a few gigs……….but please God, never, ever let the Soup Dragons reform!!!!!

THEE PSYCHEDELICATESSEN