V/A – COLOGNE CURIOSITIES : THE UNKNOWN KRAUTROCK UNDERGROUND 1972-1976 (Mental Experience 2 x LP, CD, D/L).

The “Nuggets”of Krautrock???? New from Spanish vinyl archaeologists Guerssen Record’s Mental Experience imprint comes a collection of 70s Krautrock rarities from the Pyramid label……a label with such an obscure history, that when these recordings appeared on the three Unknown Deutschland - The Krautrock Archive CDs released on Virgin during 1996 their authenticity, fuelled by internet conspiracy theories, was very much in doubt with the rumour being that they had been recently been knocked together by a bunch of Kosmische jokers cashing in on the 90s Krautrock revival. Cologne Curiosities – The Unknown Krautrock Underground 1972 – 1976, cherry picks the best of the Virgin CDs and presents these tracks together for the first time on vinyl. Cologne Curiosities collects together music inspired by Pink Floyd, Gila, Cluster, Hawkwind, Ash Ra Tempel, Amon Düül II, Popol Vuh and Cosmic Jokers as the first part of a series of reissues of the entire catalogue of Toby Robinson’s legendary label, remastered from the original tapes and includes an insert with detailed liner notes by Alan Freeman (Ultima Thule, The Crack In The Cosmic Egg). The CD releases were originally compiled by the late Trevor Manwaring (Paratactile, Impetus, Virgin, Harmonia Mundi) from tapes supplied to him by Toby Robinson. Toby (aka The Mad Twiddler, aka Genius P. Orridge) is well-known to Krautrock collectors as one of a number of engineers working at Stockhausen’s WDR and Dierks Studio in Cologne in the mid-1970's, where he assisted on recordings by many famous Kraut bands such as Can, Birth Control, Mythos or Dzyan. The recordings included here were made between 1972 and 1976 using studios in and around Cologne, produced by Toby Robinson for his own amusement, just having fun on the studio. Inevitably, bands would come in for practice sessions, to record demos, and during slack periods impromptu jams would happen. Most of these sessions were recorded by Toby, and they feature Toby himself plus a revolving cast of friends and musicians (some of them apparently big Kraut names under pseudonym). Some of the tracks made it to wax in very limited pressings by Pyramid Records that were given away at art happings and the like or sold in head shops, however before being unearthed in the 90s most had remained unheard until Virgin Records thought it commercially viable to release three albums collecting the work of hopelessly obscure Cologne-based third-division German experimental bands.

The music here has aged surprisingly well for mainly 40 year old German experimental jams with many of the sounds being familiar to modern day PsychHeads. Including lost-in-time bands and studio projects like Astral Army, Fuerrote, Spirulina and Baal among others, the sounds range from killer proto-New Wave Kraut Psych to wild Space Rock, proto-Ambient electronica, dark psychedelia and raw sounds with lot of analog synths. It’s a white knuckle ride through the Cologne underground taking in the Punk Rock/Kraut glamstomp of The Astral Army’s ‘Interstellar Shortwave’, twisted Beefheart blues (Baal), warped  Amon Düül II influenced Acid Rock from Chronos and Neil Anderson’s experimental ambient guitar soundscapes. There are two very long experimental pieces which close the record…….. ‘Innerst’ by Ten To Zen is a Popol Vuh-esque Synth improvisation and the dark droning ‘Ganz Wie Du Willst’ by Fuerrote would not be out of place on an album of left field guitar explorations today. The most accessible track is the Prog/Psych ‘The Message’ by Spirulina which is straight outta the Pink Floyd book of atmospheric instrumentals with subtle organ/synth wash and weeping guitars and not a typical Krautrock cut. The most fascinating aspect of Cologne Curiosities is that it explores the fringes of Krautrock way away from the obvious “big” bands such as Neu!, CAN, etc, etc, etc………if you like Julian Cope’s more “out there” recordings then there is a great deal here you are going to dig. As for being the “Nuggets” of Krautrock……..maybe not as it is far too Cologne-centric and does not take in the vibrant underground scenes in Hamburg, Berlin, Munich, Dusseldorf and so on. However you can consider it as a snapshot of a city that had a depth of talent bubbling under the surface……..very much like the Nuggets L.A. compilation Where The Action Is (“Where The Achtung Is” perhaps).

Cologne Curiosities – The Unknown Krautrock Underground 1972 – 1976 is out NOW, released by the Guerssen Records Mental Experience imprint and is available as a 2 x LP, CD and as a download. Order from the Guerssen website or their Bandcamp page here https://guerssenrecords.bandcamp.com/album/cologne-curiosities-the-unknown-krautrock-underground-1972-1976 where you can also stream the album. In the USA Forced Exposure are carrying the album.

THEE PSYCHEDELICATESSEN

THE ORANGE DROP – STONED IN LOVE (Mega Dodo LP, CD).

From the home of some of the finest 60s inspired psychedelia, Mega Dodo Records, comes a brand new album from trippy Philadelphia acid heads The Orange Drop due to land early next month. Stoned In Love is a kaleidoscopic whirl of Orange Sunshine inspired psychedelia mined from the same psychedelic rock face that the Brian Jonestown Massacre have been extracting precious stones for quite a while. Mix in a strong early Floyd influence and lysergic freakouts then you get a groovy record that mixes the experimental with a solid Pop Psych foundation that will blow minds and give the third eye a good squeegee.

If you are looking for comparisons, The Orange Drop inhabit the same paisley planet with bands such as Asteriod #4, Elephant Stone, Kingdom Of The Holy Sun, Holy Wave and The Luck Of Eden Hall where the 60s are a starting point and not a destination, blending dreamy psychedelia with some darker, acid-soaked sounds. Half of the songs on Stoned In Love are modern Psychedelic Rock songs that fans of BJM will have an affinity with, but when The Orange Drop fly, they really fly. Laying down a marker where they are at, ‘Part 2’ is a slow burning instrumental with soaring Gilmour-esque guitar and The Orange Drop have covered Pink Floyd’s ‘Julia Dream’ (a post-Syd B-Side written by Richard Wright that most people will know from Relics) and have swirled the absolute shit outta it………the Floyd vibe is also evident on the tripped out to oblivion ‘The Curse Of Kukaku’ which shares some DNA with ‘Echoes’ and is an absolute headswirler of track which is no doubt the best cut on an album full of great songs. This is possibly the best Mega Dodo release this year, so do yourself a favour PsychHeads and check this beauty out, stoned in love indeed………….Turn on, Tune In and Trip Out with The Orange Drop.

Stoned In Love is due for release the 4^th November on limited edition Orange Vinyl (250 copies) or CD (just in time for you to drop acid, play this fantastic record and watch pretty fireworks………..other leisure activities are available). Available from the usual groovy on line outlets and record stores or from Mega Dodo direct (there is no news yet about pre-release sales yet, so keep ‘em peeled People).

THEE PSYCHEDELICATESSEN 

THREE DIMENSIONAL TANX – ATTACK (CD, D/L).

Strange things are happening up North………..after spending most of this year listening to loads of bands that either sound like Neu!, Sonic Youth and Suicide fighting in a sack or Sabbath on a serious come down……..some excellent, some good, some not so good…….hearing the new album, Attack, from Lancastrian Space Punx Three Dimensional Tanx is a jolt to the system. It’s a full on barrage of unpretentious Nuggety Psychedelic Punk Rock that is part Stooges in space, Astral travel with the Buzzcocks, The Doors and The Damned jamming on one of the moons of Jupiter and The Ramones on acid (not such a weird concept, check out The Ramones Psych covers album Acid Eaters) and what it lacks a little in focus is made up in spades with sheer energy. With Doorsy keys, ferocious Punk guitars and a brutal Rock rhythm section, 3D Tanx have an early 80s Northern post Punk vibe about them when after late 70s “Year Zero” nihilism it was ok to admit to digging The Seeds and The Electric Prunes again and Manchester and Liverpool became a hotbed of Psych/Garage influenced bands with a strong Punk sensibility……..this even stretches to the album cover which has Linder inspired psychedelic punk cut ‘n’ paste artwork. Fuelled on snakebite and L.S.D., there is no messing about with 3D Tanx……….in the time it takes Heavy Metal bands masquerading as Stoner/Psych Cosmonauts to figure out ending a tedious Space jam, 3D Tanx have blasted through 12 songs and have gone down the pub……….urgent and dynamic, they are a band with a stunning live reputation that can be heard clearly on this new album.

3D Tanx sound like an amalgamation of every great Psych Rock/Garage Punk band from the last 50 years and at the same time like nothing you have ever heard before…………songs are stripped down to their pure essence with any excess trimmed right back to the bone and most of the tracks clocking in around a mean and lean 2 minute 30 mark. Basically, 3D Tanx are a Punk band playing Space Rock and once you get your head round that, Attack really makes sense. There are some absolutely brilliant tunes here……..’Scene Not Herd’ has a solid Stooges groove with some great Ron Ashton-esque squally soloing, ‘Do Electrical Shoes’ sounds like the Clash from the future (‘Ray Guns of Brixton’?????) and ‘Pink Spaceship (with a title straight outta Rodger Mellie’s Profanisaurus) is Punk Rock in Go-Go Boots. There are also a couple of “epics” on Attack………in Three Dimensional Tanx psychedelic five dimensional world, epic is around 5 minutes long…….’Trip Hazard’ a is swirly and…….er…..trippy instrumental where Country Joe & The Fish meet The Seeds head on and the album closer ‘Astral Plane Flight Attendant’ is the sound of the Modern Lovers on a collision course to the heart of a black hole. Truly fantastic stuff and if you are starting to tire of bloated, indulgent pseudo Psych Rock then you need to get your ears round this. 12 great songs in around 35 minutes then 3D Tanx are outta here…………

Attack is out NOW as a self-released CD by the band and is available along with a digital download from the Three Dimensional Tanx Bandcamp page https://threedimensionaltanx.bandcamp.com/.

THEE PSYCHEDELICATESSEN                

E GONE – ADVICE TO HILL WALKERS (reissue) (Sunrise Ocean Bender/Deep Water Acres CD, D/L).

Originally released on cassette in a seriously limited edition run of only 50 copies (which is about the number of people who still own a tape deck) from the great little Swedish boutique tape label Zeon Light, E GONE’s second full length album Advice To Hill Walkers gets a CD reissue with bonus tracks as a joint release from Sunrise Ocean Bender and Deep Water Acres. As the original release has been remixed and remastered by Kevin Moist from Evening Fires and lovingly repackaged with gorgeous new artwork, we are going to treat this as new album and listen with fresh ears and not cop out and just re-post our original review.

E GONE is the musical alter ego of Swedish multi-instrumentalist Daniel Westerlund, who must really take the credit for wrenching the banjo from the cold dead hands of redneck hillbillys and returning it to its African/Middle Eastern roots. Following the more acoustic and Psych Folk inspired Goner project, E GONE mixes traditional instruments with digital technology creating a rich blend of beats, bubbling electronica and Eastern flavours. The E GONE debut album, All The Suns Of The Earth from 2014, was and exercise in trying on various musical styles to see which fitted best and was a very eclectic record mixing Psychedelic electric sitar headswirlers, Post Rock synth drones, far out Psych Rock and gentle Acid Folk……..we think the technical term is “all over the shop”…….but by the time the excellent Smokediver EP landed Daniel had found his groove, developing his own unique style of “Whirled Music”. Advice To Hill Walkers is a far more focused record than the debut and the best E GONE release to date…………blending ethnic percussion and Hip-Hop beats with subtle electronics and Eastern vibes, it’s not that far away from the records that Nation (the original home of Loop Guru and Transglobal Underground) released in the early 90s, but much more for the head than the dancefloor. Yeah, we know that tapes are fashionable and have a certain hipster friendly novelty value about them, but you have to admit that for anything other than lo-fi Indie and messy Garage Rock they are a bit shit………the cassette release of the album did it no favours sonically and the remix/remaster brings out the depth and subtlety of the record previously unheard, there can be some comparisons made with wonderful Kevin Moist produced Psych Folk album To Preserve The Mystery by United Bible Studies that has the same complex sound structure of drones and relatively sparse instrumentation. If you were one of the few people who heard the original tape version, you will be blown away by Advice To Hill Walkers 2.0.

Firstly, for those of you new to this record, 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. 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. 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’ (watch the video here). 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 while ‘Dwell In Tents By Day, Hike At Random By Night’, the atmospheric ‘Continue Ascent While Blindfolded’ and the previously unreleased ‘Fast Before Stalker Season’ have the vibe of a mid-90s Trip Hop tracks. The wonderful ‘Find New Methods For Compass Use’ is an sweet combination of field recordings (in this case a rainstorm) and drones. There is a huge European folk/Middle Eastern influence on many of the tracks, more so on the enthralling ‘Continue Ascent While Blindfolded’ and one of the new tracks that did not make the cut on the original release, ‘You Don’t Know It yet but We Are Losing You’ is based on the Syrian traditional song  ‘Ya Bent Ehkimini’. In a parallel universe, E GONE’s fellow country folk Goat have dropped the masks and the female singers and gone acoustic…….the whirling ‘Record The Humming Of Melodious Caves’, (watch the video here), layers guitar, banjo, electronics and percussion in a shamanistic African ritual via Stockholm……..although at a serene pace, speed the track up, add vocals and lots of wah-wah guitar it would not be out of place on the new Goat LP. The record closes with the epic ‘Reach The Summit, Egg!’ which pulls together all the strands and influences on the album to create one massive 10 minute psychedelic whirl of a track with an extended drone out to finish which is a total mindblower.

The CD re-issue of E GONE’s Advice To Hill Walkers is out NOW on Sunrise Ocean Bender/Deep Water Acres and is available from the SOB web store (Dayz Of Purple in the UK are also carrying a few here). If you want a copy for when you go hill walking, a digital download is available from the E GONE Bandcamp page here http://e-gone.bandcamp.com/album/advice-to-hill-walkers  along with the CD. The Smokediver EP is still available as a "name your price" download from https://egone.bandcamp.com.

Review remixed/rewritten with bonus words by THEE PSYCHEDELICATESSEN

THE BARBACANS – A MONSTROUS SELF-PORTRAIT (Boss Hoss Records/Area Pirata Records LP).

With a gigantic wave of fuzzed up guitar, wailing Farfisa organ and a cool rhythm section, The Barbacans are a Garage band……….they come from Garageland………they have the spirit of The Seeds and ? & The Mysterions, the essence of Nuggets, the Psych/Punk vibe of the Damned appearing as Naz Nomad & The Nightmares and the Tone of both Flesh and Fuzz. Coming to a groovy record store near you very soon is The Barbacans’ third album, titled A Monstrous Self-Portrait, it is a blast of classic and timeless Psych, Surf and Garage Rock.

As with their previous albums, Italian Garage Punks The Barbacans have a sound that has seeped through a crack in time from the suburbs of Anywheresville USA sometime around 1966………raw, psychotic and very snotty………and it’s brilliant. The Barbacans are kindred spirits to the wave of 80s Post Punk Psych/Garage bands that had just stumbled across Pebbles and had their minds blown. It is obvious that they have a love for the music from the mid 60s, however they put their own spin on it and are not trying to rewrite ’96 Tears’. The stand out tracks have to be the swirly tripped out ‘Apocalypse Horses’, the very groovy ‘Next Garden’, the fuzzed to max with added sax Surf Rock stomper ‘Black Friday’ and the berserk ‘4-2-BBQS’……… A Monstrous Self-Portrait may be short and sweet clocking in just around the 30 minute mark but what’s not to love here??? With rolling bass and fantastic drumming creating a solid foundation for spiralling organ and more fuzz than Don King’s afro, if you dig Lenny Kaye’s original Nuggets compilation and the other classic Garage/Psych records that followed in its wake, then you need to check this

.

Due out on the 17^th October, A Monstrous Self-Portrait is a vinyl only release limited to 300 copies……….available via the Coypu Records store, the Area PirataRecords website and Bandcamp page here https://areapiratarec.bandcamp.com/album/a-monstrous-self-portrait (where you can also stream the album) and all very groovy Garage Rock vinyl emporiums world-wide.

THEE PSYCHEDELICATESSEN   

SUN DIAL – MADE IN THE MACHINE (Sulatron Records 2 x LP, CD).

Back with a new studio album for the first time in an absolute age, legendary UK Neo-Psych Godfathers Sun Dial follow up their Psych Rock/Krautrock/Space Rock juggernaut of a record, Mind Control, with the astonishing Made In The Machine, out soon on Sulatron Records. Still exploring the same themes as Mind Control, Made In The Machine delves even deeper into the surrealistic worlds of sci-fi and Space Rock with a hard electronic edge and like the previous album “It’s an album that pushes hard at the boundaries of Space Rock taking the listener to a point in the galaxy where atmospheric electronic soundscapes, motorik grooves and languid guitars converge in a molten mix of psychedelic sounds”. A band always ahead of the curve and as John Sinclair (legendry activist and one time manager of the MC5) declared, Sun Dial are “a modern day rarity as they have never compromised and always done things on their own terms” Not ones for following, but always innovating and Made In The Machine can be considered as one of the possible futures for psychedelic music.

If you liked Mind Control then the new Sun Dial record is going to blow your mind………it’s mix of modern Space Rock and forward thinking Krautrock over two slabs of vinyl is miles ahead of the bands who are still trying to get their heads round Neu! 75, Space Ritual and the debut Suicide album. Opening with the howl of an Air Raid siren, ‘Meltdown’ sets the tone with driving beats and pulsing synths, a vibe which spills into the next track ‘Contact’. However with the liquid nature of Sun Dial they are difficult to tie down to a particular “sound”…….Made In The Machine also twists and turns through the disco on Mars groove of ‘Ascension’, the frantic ‘Spacedust’, the Techno thrust of ‘Aurora’, the heavy, twisted, dark Psych of ‘Regenerator and epic Astral soundscaping on ‘Autopilot’. It’s stupefyingly good and no doubt destined to appear on most end of year “best of” lists. Sun Dial albums don’t come along very often nowadays, but when they do it has been well worth the wait……..Made In The Machine is everything Mind Control is……and more. 

Released by Sulatron Records as 2 x clear vinyl LP limited to 500 copies in December, however the CD will be available on the 14^th October……………..check the Sulatron web site as there may be pre-orders for the vinyl available soon. No doubt also available everywhere else………c’mon, it’s Sun Dial and any Psych friendly store worth their salt are gonna be carrying this.

THEE PSYCHEDELICATESSEN  

PAUL MARCANO & LIGHTDREAMS – 10,001 DREAMS (Got Kinda Lost Records 2 x LP, CD).

Spanish re-issue label Guerssen Records are the custodians of the great Psychedelic Lost And Found Dept., searching in dark, dusty corners for oddities and obscurities from long gone imprints and releasing records, lovingly repackaged, that would otherwise remain mainly unheard. One such album is 10,001 Dreams by Canadian musician Paul Marcano, originally a very limited cassette only release in 1982 which gets a first time 2 x LP issue with remastered sound complete with in-depth liner notes and previously unseen photos in collaboration with the Got Kinda Lost imprint. The album is thematic sequel of sorts to the Islands In Space (also re-issued by Got Kinda Lost), released under the moniker LightDreams, which was a sci-fi Psych odyssey exploring cosmic ideology and space travel………..mixing sometimes minimal Prog Folk and meditative guitar workouts with Marcano edging closer lyrically to the utopian outer space colonization he’d previously conjured while under the sway of physicist/space activist/author Gerard K. O’Neill, 10,001 Dreams would have at the time been considered a New Age album, more likely to have been on sale with healing crystals, Tarot Cards and the I Ching in holistic….er…..”alternative lifestyle” shops than in record stores. Although originally landing in the wrong decade, time has been kind to 10,001 Dreams and as mentioned in the liner notes the album is “a perfect distillation of Paul Marcano’s musical essence: thoughtful, psychedelic, pop-oriented music but with a deeply progressive ear for song structure and the intuitive glow of a well-crafted lyrical refrain” with the record’s themes still resonating today and its psychedelic style back in vogue.

Filled with atmospheric, lysergic creations atop a hybrid of sounds from the Cosmic-Psych/Progressive-Folk/New Age spectrum, 10,001 Dreams has been previously described as “a wild, lysergic-filled journey into pan-delic Psych and guitar workouts, stretching our understanding of Pop-Psych and bursting our tiny minds with visions of unfound landscapes. It is thee underground psychedelic masterpiece from Canada; released 15 years too late on a format no one cared about and relegated to absolute obscurity shortly thereafter”. With the use of found sounds and minimal instrumentation the album is an experimental, seriously psychedelic proto-ambient record in parts and with an “infinite” multi-tracked sound, sections of the record has the same feel as Steve Hillage’s Rainbow Dome Music with mellow, wickedly fuzzed, floating layers of dreamy, treated, atmospheric electric guitar. This more experimental edge is melded with a laid back 60s Acid Folk vibe not a million miles away from Donovan and Tyrannosaurus Rex with both expertly blended layers of sound and sparse solo guitar. Paul Marcano’s 10,001 Dreams is a wonderfully evocative record and a beautifully tranquil trip with a great nod to the original British Psychedelic and Progressive eras, while maintaining a firm foot in hook-based, melodic Psychedelic Folk’n’Pop, and is a guaranteed treasure for those searching for unheard and otherworldly joys. Paul still makes music today and you can find more information on the LightDreams web site here http://www.lightdreams.info/

10,001 Dreams is available as limited edition CD or 2 x vinyl LP (500 copies of each format) with a download coupon of the 90-minute unexpurgated 1982 cassette release, which required minor revisions to be presented as a double album. Out NOW, you can buy the in the USA from the Got Kinda Lost online shop or from the Guerssen web store/Bandcamp page for Europe and elsewhere. Alternatively, see if you can get your local record store proprietor to order you a copy.

THEE PSYCHEDELICATESSEN