ZONE SIX - ZONE SIX (Sulatron Records LP, CD).

One from the Sulatron archives………………….evolving from the German Psychedelic Rock band Liquid Visions, Zone Six were only meant to play one show and split up. Here we are 20 years later and they are still recording and playing live (when Sula Bassana’s commitments to Electric Moon allow) and to celebrate band’s 20 years anniversary the Zone Six self titled debut gets a long overdue reissue. Originally a very limited cassette edition in 1997 before being issued as a CD only release by Early Bird records in 1998 is now available on vinyl for the first time ever.

Taken from the master of the original cassette (sans the vocals added for the CD release) and sprawling over two sides of vinyl, the debut Zone Six album is a tripped out, trancey Space Rock improvisation that takes in scorching Acid Rock, spatial Dub and primitive Electronica as it floats gently to the far side of the cosmos. Side One of the record features Hans-Peter Ringholz’s firey Acid Rock guitar improvisations before slowly easing into a spacey dub passage with echoed scattershot Psychedelic guitar and deep space bass to the fore. Side two is even further out, first expanding on the crusty dub grooves that closed side one, mixing in Middle Eastern flavours before collapsing in a glorious lycergic mess of twisted guitars and primitive electronics………it’s a trip People. Raw and with minimal overdubs, the Zone Six debut has matured well with age and holds it’s own when matched up against the more modern Space Rock bands (even though Psychedelic music does seem to exist in a weird temporal stasis where time is a pretty vague concept)……………..although well received by the Psychedelic community on it’s release in 1997, it’s a record that sounds far more relevant today and will now reach a bigger audience of heads that are going to have their minds blown. Well recommended for children of the bong.

Due for release 13/10/2017 on green vinyl limited to 500 copies and also on CD, the Zone Six reissued debut album will be available from groovy record shops, the usual on line sellers and direct from the Sulatron web site where pre-orders are being taken now.

THEE PSYCHEDELICATESSEN 

MINIATURES - JESSAMINES (Saint Marie Records LP, CD, D/L). CARTA - THE SAND COLLECTORS DREAM (Saint Marie Records LP, D/L). CRASH CITY SAINTS - ARE YOU FREE? (Saint Marie Records LP, CD, D/L). WHEN THE SUN HITS - WITHIN YOUR EYES EP (Saint Marie Records LP, D/L). LOTTE KESTNER - OFF WHITE (Saint Marie Records LP, CD, D/L).

We have had a batch of new releases that we want to tell you about from Saint Marie Records outta Texas………they are one of the more adventurous Noise Pop/Shoegaze/Alt Rock labels that look towards the future (with one foot firmly in the past) and don’t think that when Lush decided to split was the day the music died. Dig it kidz.

Originally from New Zealand but now based in Melbourne Australia, Miniatures have been creating cinematic and emotive soundscapes since 2012 with several EPs already released and their full debut album, Jessamines, hits the racks in October. With an absolute Tsunami of spiraling, twisted, distorted guitars and processed beats, Miniatures drag Dream Pop into the now, layering rich tones, beautiful textures, cascading melodies and angelic vocals, building soundscapes that rise and fall like the ocean tide. Guitars wash over you until the wave of sound sweeps you out to sea, swirling in a reverb riptide and drowning in delay. Infused with a late 80s Indie Pop sensibility (listen carefully and you will hear the influence of The Sundays, Lush, Cocteau Twins, Smashing Pumpkins, even a hint of Johnny Marr’s guitar adventurism), Jessamines radiates with shards of brilliant light where crystalline guitars tumble and cascade over a bedrock of supple bass playing and inventive drum programming as the album slowly reveals a myriad of textures, moods and colours…………simply beautiful. If you are looking for comparisons, the sound of the now defunct The School Of Seven Bells isn’t that wide off the mark. Due for release 06/10/2017, Jessamines will be available on vinyl, CD and as a digital download.

Outta California comes West Coast Psychedelic/Post Rock/Alt Rock band Carta with a new album of mesmerizing songs. Led by guitarist Kyle Monday, evolving from a loose collection of L.A musicians in 2002 to an actual real live band, Carta have released a series of critically acclaimed albums over the years, being favorably compared to artists such as Gregor Samsa, Tarwater, Stars of the Lid, Low and This is Your Captain Speaking along the way. The Sand Collector’s Dream is the fourth release from the band and no doubt their best to date, it’s a beautiful mix of abstract guitars and ambient electronica that is really hard to tie down to just one genre. Flitting from expansive soundscapes to twisted, stripped back Americana and most places inbetween, Carta have crafted a beautiful record of modern American psychedelic music that twists and turns elegantly through two sides of vinyl. It’s a spellbinding record, with most of the band chipping in on lead vocal duties and guest vocalist Odessa Chen, blending with the men in a series of duets, really stealing the show. Their voices blend together like a Lee Hazlewood with more “haze” and a Nancy Sinatra with more “sin”. It’s an album of vast stylistic breadth, the band’s description of their sound as “paranoid inner-vacuum micro-dub and ruminative post-space hypno-drone” doesn’t really do it justice……………. Just say it’s the missing link between Another Green World and tripped out Alt Rock, what the band so eloquently refers to as “the eternal internal struggle” as they trace a journey from entanglement to solitude, from optimism to defeat. It’s that feeling when your mind is clear but everything around you is fog.  This is the way the world ends—not with a bang, and not with a whimper, just beauty & regret. Out NOW on vinyl and as a digital download.

Are You Free? By Crash City Saints has been out for a few months now. It’s a concept album of sorts about growing up in the early 90s in the small American town of Kalamazoo (it’s in Michigan……we had to Google it) and the influence that Shoegaze and Alt Rock had on their outlook on life and their possible futures. As the album is a “journey” of sonic awakening, it pulls in influences from the era mixing up familiar leftfield Alt Rock and Shoegaze tropes to tell a story over the course of twelve tracks that hails the significance of the music as the record unfolds and is housed in a cover that replicates the style of 23 Envelope/Vaughn Oliver’s iconic artwork for 4AD. Crash City Saints have been previously described as “a powerpop band in shoegaze clothing” or as the band says their music is like “a sandblaster spraying sugar” which ain’t far from the truth. Are You Free? Is awash with a sweet Pop sensibility colliding with the squall of Noise Pop guitars overdriven to infinity, showering sparks and blowing minds. It’s a slow burner of an album, taking about half the record to really get up to speed………………however when the Madchester baggy beats and swirling fuzzed out guitars of ‘Spirit Photography’ kick in then Are You Free? hits full velocity and escapes gravity s pull. The second half of the record is a love letter to the early 90s British Shoegaze bands with Crash City Saints at times sounding more like MBV than MBV…………………it’s a cool record. Fans of early Brit Shoegaze will really love this album as it is a distillation of everything that was great about late 80s/early 90s Underground Indie Rock music. It may not be original, but that’s not the point. Out NOW on vinyl and CD, you can check it out/stream it/buy it here………

https://saintmarierecords.bandcamp.com/album/are-you-free-2

Calling your band When The Sun Hits takes away any ambiguity about where your major influence/inspiration is coming from straight away…………..however the 5 piece Nottingham band are more that mere Slowdive copyists. Behind the crashing waves of blissed out guitars there is a steely Post Punk backbone and a dynamic propulsive rhythm section. New from Saint Marie Records, When The Sun Hits’ 6 track Immersed Within Your Eyes EP mixes together expansive soundscapes (check the gorgeous ‘Cooper’s Secret’) with grittier songs, such as ‘Lovedead Town’, that evokes the scene from back in the day but sound thoroughly modern. The EP is out NOW and you can check it out/stream it/buy the vinyl here........
https://saintmarierecords.bandcamp.com/album/immersed-within-your-eyes-2.

And finally………………Lotte Kestner is the pseudonym of Anna-Lynne Williams, formerly the singer in one of Saint Marie Records most popular signings, Trespassers William, and collaborator with the Chemical Brothers. Off White is a treasure, an album of shadows and silhouettes, songs unbearably moving, so jaw-droppingly intimate, stripped down to minimal piano, acoustic guitar, synth washes backing framing Anna-Lynne Williams’ stunning voice. Dim the lights, spark up a forest of candles and drop the needle on the record for a almost transcendental out of body experience. Out NOW on vinyl, CD and digital download, you can check the record out on Saint Marie Record's Bandcamp site here.

All these records are available on line direct from the Saint Marie Records store and all good local record emporiums…………

THEE PSYCHEDELICATESSEN 

THE LORDS OF ALTAMONT - THE WILD SOUNDS OF THE LORDS OF ALTAMONT (Heavy Psych Sounds LP, CD, D/L).

Cool……………..The Lords Of Altamont are back with a new long player. L.A’s finest bad ass biker bar band return to action with the long awaited follow up to their 2014 release The Lords Take Altamont, firmly adhering to the old maxim “If it ain’t broke…..don’t fix it”. The Wild Sound of Lords of Altamont is another hi-octane white knuckle ride mixing together 60s Garage/Punk and scuzzball 70s Heavy Rock riffing in a full on brutal sonic assault………….it ain’t big and it ain’t clever, but that ain’t the point.

The new Lords Of Altamont platter blows the roof offa th’ mutha with some of the greatest unpretentious amped up primitive Rock n Roll we have heard all year!!!…………it’s the sound of the cocksure raunch of the Flamin’ Groovies meeting the Detroit howl of the Stooges and the MC5 and no one gets out alive. Fans of their previous records are not going to be disappointed, if anything The Wild Sound of Lords of Altamont sees the band leave the garage and head out on the highway bringing……….erm……..heavy metal thunder. It’s everything that was great about American Heavy Rock at the turn of 70s and includes a tip of the hat to band’s such as Steppenwolf and the other biker boogie bands on the scene with 11 powerful late-sixties/early-seventies sounding tracks which manage to sound fiendishly contemporary. The Lords Of Altamont don’t fuck about…………opening with the blistering ‘Like A Bird’, they then hit the afterburners and don’t ease up till the last track, tearing through the songs and taking no prisoners along the way. They don’t make records like this anymore, well not ones as good as this. Fucking Ace!!!

Due for release in October on vinyl, CD and also as a digital download via Heavy Psych Sounds, The Wild Sound of Lords of Altamont is available to pre-order here…..

http://www.heavypsychsounds.com/shop.htm#HPS060

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RICHARD THOMPSON - ACOUSTIC RARITIES (Beeswing CD, D/L).

It’s been 50 years since Richard Thompson first emerged as a fresh faced teenage guitar prodigy, spitting out fiery lead lines on stage at the UFO Club with Fairport Convention. Regarded as one of the finest songwriters of his generation, through his work with Fairport Convention as they evolved from a very English version of Jefferson Airplane into one of the most important British Folk Rock bands of the 60s, the wonderful records he recorded with his then wife Linda and his long distinguished solo career that followed, Thompson has been recently revisiting his extensive back catalogue of songs, recording stripped back acoustic versions of his best known work. Released in 2014, Acoustic Classics contained a selection of some of his best known songs from his post Fairport albums with the recent, critically lauded, Vol. II going further back and including acoustic versions of ‘Meet On The Ledge’ and ‘Genesis Hall’ among the tracks.

Recorded as a companion piece to the Acoustic Classics albums, Acoustic Rarities is a collection of new recordings of some of the more obscure songs in the Thompson catalogue, some previously existing only as cover versions……………included here are Thompson’s own take on ‘Rainbow Over The Hill’, a song gifted to The Albion Band, and ‘Seven Brothers’, previously covered by Blair Dunlop. Still possessing one of the most distinctive English Folk Rock voices and sparkling guitar skills undiminished by time, Richard Thompson breathes new life into songs first recorded over 40 years with a pair from the Fairport Convention album Full House (‘Sloth’ and ‘Poor Will And The Jolly Hangman’), an acoustic reworking of ‘Poor Ditching Boy’ from Thompson’s under rated debut solo album Henry The Human Fly and brilliant versions of two of his finest songs recorded with Linda Thompson……………..at the time of their release in the mid 70s when Thompson was still in his mid twenty’s, ‘End Of The Rainbow’ and ‘Never Again’ felt incredibly cynical, but now with his seventieth birthday on the horizon, they are songs that have seasoned as their writer has aged. Let’s be honest, with Richard Thompson’s most recent recordings being pledge funded by his large, hardcore fanbase and with at least half this album made up of previously unreleased songs, it is clear that this record and the Acoustic Classics albums are aimed clearly at existing fans of this most enduring of artists…………if you are looking for a “young person’s guide to Richard Thompson” you really need to be looking elsewhere. Along with both volumes of Acoustic Classics, Acoustic Rarities is an essential purchase for fans of early Fairport Convention and Thompson’s work since he set off on his own idosincratic path at the start of the 70s.

Released on Thompson’s own Beeswing imprint via Proper Distribution, Acoustic Rarities is available on CD and as a download. Available to pre-order on Amazon with a due release date of 06/10/17 and then available from proper record shops.

THEE PSYCHEDELICATESSEN 

FOUR BY ART - INNER SOUNDS (Area Pirata Records CD, D/L).

Originally part of the first wave of early 1980s Neo-Psychedelic/Mod revival bands that got it together on the Italian scene, outta Milan, via Carnaby Street circa 1966/67, comes the first album of new material since 1986 from Four By Art. Formed back in 1982, Four By Art played a blend of Mod/Beat inspired energetic R&B and Power Pop with strong 60s Psychedelic Pop influences stirred into this potent brew, recording a self released EP and a couple of albums for the Electric Eye label before calling it a day towards the end of the decade…………………..the collected works from this period, The Early Years '82-'86, were released on CD by Area Pirata Records, the home of Italian Garage Rock, back in 2008 and is still available from the label, you can check it out/ stream it/buy it here https://areapiratarec.bandcamp.com/album/the-early-years-82-86

Reforming in 2002 and returning to playing live to enthusiastic audiences for over ten years, Four By Art have finally been able record the follow up album to Everybody's An Artist With...Four By Art!………..and guess what???? It’s really cool!! There is some great stuff here………..from the album’s Psych Pop opener. ‘Alive’, to the pastoral, trippy Small Faces groove of the closing track ‘Say Something’, Inner Sounds twists and turns through 13 tracks taking in the Power Pop head rush of ‘I Ask You’ and ‘At Your Door’ , the funky Psychedelic Soul of ‘Allora Mi Ricordo’ full of mad brass stabs and jazz flute, the R&B/Garage Rock squall of ‘Sorry’ and ‘The Loop’ and the stunning Jangle Pop of ‘Take Your Time’. It may have been a while since their last album, however Four By Art have returned with a record that both recognizes their 80s heritage and is also relevant to the now. Maybe not the most original album we have heard all year, however mixing Maximum Mod R&B/Soul influences with catchy as hell Power Pop and Psychedelic flourishes, Inner Sounds is the vibe of the Small Faces transposed into the second decade of the 21^st Century………with a mix of crunching guitar riffs, rolling piano and swirling Hammond Organ underpinned with solid bass playing and awesome drumming, Four By Art whip up a storm of familiar sounds from the past but are much more than just a heritage act. Well worth a listen.

Inner Sounds is out NOW on CD and digital download from Area Pirata Records in collaboration with the band’s own Artrecords. Available from the Area Pirata website or from their bandcamp site here……………………

https://areapiratarec.bandcamp.com/album/inner-sounds where you can also stream the album.

  

THEE PSYCHEDELICATESSEN    

STRANGE THINGS ARE HAPPENING VIDEO PREMIERE.... CRICKETBOWS - END OF THE NIGHT

STRANGE THINGS ARE HAPPENING
 VIDEO PREMIERE

CRICKETBOWS - ‘END OF THE NIGHT’

"Our town and county (Montgomery County, Ohio) is at the center of the 'Heroin and Opiate Epidemic' - we're leading the nation in heroin and opiate overdoses per capita and the song and video is sort of about that. I'm losing friends and acquaintances weekly. Our coroner has had to bring in restaurant style portable freezers because we don't have room for all the bodies."

CHAD WELLS - CRICKETBOWS

Taken from the forthcoming Cricketbows EP Communion.

Available September 8th on CD, digital and streaming formats via Mosquito Hawk Records.

http://www.cricketbows.com/

Luv from THEE PSYCHEDELICATESSEN 31/08/2017

VARIOUS ARTISTS - DANA & CARL PRESENT : THIS IS ROCK 'N' ROLL RADIO VOLUME 4 (Kool Kat Musik CD).

As a genre Power Pop is pretty difficult to tie down as it spills over into so many other genres…………………but roughly (and we mean very roughly) it’s the bit on the Rock n Roll Venn diagram where Nuggety Garage Rock, the influence of British bands such as the Kinks and Beatles, the Punk Pop smarts of the Ramones and post Psychedelic 70s Pop radio intersect. Trace the roots of Power Pop back to the turn of the 70s and major influences such as Badfinger, The Raspberries, Todd Rundgren and Big Star emerge before the genre went seriously overground with Cheap Trick’s zillion selling Live At Budokan album. Moving into the 80s, Power Pop mutated and shared influences with the children of Nuggets, cross pollinated with the new breed of Neo-Psychedelic and Post Punk Garage Bands before more or less spluttering out as a commercial force in the 90s with the Badfinger tribute band Jellyfish. Still thriving in the underground, mainly in the USA, Power Pop is alive and well with new bands putting out great records and festivals dedicated to the genre such as International Pop Overthrow and the Power Pop-A-Licious music festival attracting an audience of dedicated fans.

Broadcasting outta Syracuse on their local Internet Radio station, since forever, former GOLDMINE writer Carl Cafarelli and his co-host Dana Bonn have been blasting out the finest Power Pop on their weekly show This Is Rock ‘n’ Roll Radio with Dana & Carl mixing up tunes from the better known bands with the new breed, unearthing a few obscurities along the way. Carefully compiled by Dana and Carl, This Is Rock ‘n’ Roll Radio Volume 4 is the latest release in a ongoing series of collections of their favourite Power Pop tunes since Volume 1 dropped in 2005. With The Rubinoos, The Grip Weeds and The Smithereens among only a few bands reasonably well known outside the Power Pop scene (no doubt due to licensing issues), This Is Rock ‘n’ Roll Radio Volume 4 features the best of the less known and newer bands on the scene who have been influenced by……………..erm………..Nuggety Garage Rock, British bands such as the Kinks and Beatles, the Punk Pop smarts of the Ramones and post Psychedelic 70s Pop radio and includes absolutely killer tracks by Stepford Knives, Popdudes, Ronnie Dark, 1.4.5, The Rulers and The Legal Matters’ stunning take on Teenage Fanclub’s ‘Don’t Look Back’. As previously mentioned, Power Pop has a habit of spilling over into different genres and this compilation is no different…………….it mixes together The Bottle Kids bubblegum Psych/Surf Pop with crunchy Cheap Trick style riffing from Chris von Sneidern (now a Flamin’ Groovie), the furious Punk Pop of The Rulers brilliant ‘I Want My Ramones Records Back’ with 1.4.5’s cool Pop Rock and The Smitheerens Dixy Beatles groove of Big Star with The Grip Weeds Byrdsian jangle…………showcasing the best of what is a pretty wide ranging mix of styles that could be loosely be described as Power Pop . Although Power Pop aficionados are going to really dig this, the range of music here is universal enough to catch the ear of a wider audience and well worth checking out.

Dana & Carl Present: This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio Volume 4 is out NOW on CD, released by the very groovy Power Pop/Alt Country specialist label Kool Kat Musik with a portion of the proceeds going to Spark Syracuse, the community radio home of This Is Rock n Roll Radio.  Available directly from the label’s shop or if you are brave enough you can get your local Indie record store to order it for you.

THEE PSYCHEDELICATESSEN