A total mix of stuff this week. I started with a clean slate about two hours ago and have put together 15 tracks that help express how wide contemporary psychedelic music can be. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did putting it together.
Tortuga by Earthling Society
Taken from the 2014 Riot Season album ‘England Have My Bones’.
Jammin’ on the 13th Floor by You’re Smiling Now But We’ll All Turn Into Demons
“‘Jammin’ on the 13th Floor’, however, gives some greater variety to the album, it is a much cleaner number with the distortion and feedback turned right down. It’s kinda like Gane and Sadler from Stereolab walked into the studio to have a bit of a jam. It’s a really good diversion and the sort of cleanser that the album needs before normal service is resumed again.”
Read the full review of ‘Contact High Wit Da Demons’ here.
New Cruiser by Blown Out
“What this isn’t is some utopian space journey past beautiful nebulae and swirling star systems. This is a journey onboard a well-travelled freighter bound for a distant galaxy, not some casual bucolic trip around the universe. This is a hard, uncompromising and cathartic journey that you come out of feeling somehow cleansed…perhaps sandblasted would be a better analogy.”
Read the full review of ‘New Cruiser’ by Blown Out here.
NEUicide by Al Lover
Neuicide! is an obvious tip of the hat to two ground-breaking bands that are ironically revered by todays nostalgia-drenched underground music scene, German Kraut pioneers Neu! and New York proto-punks Suicide. Not quite remix, not quite cover version. The outcome of the project lies somewhere between the two as a snarky allegory for todays copy-cat throw back music culture. What better way to comment on repetition then with repetition.
Neuicide! is officially released November 12th on 10″ vinyl on Fuzz Club Records.
抱朴子 “Pao-P’u-Tzu” by 破地獄/Scattered Purgatory
“This is such a beautiful album. I could leave it at that because in a sense that is all you need to know. It is an album that would not be out of place in a Zen garden, with all the notes seemingly placed quite exactly in order to create just the right sort of ambience that allows the listener to sit comfortably and let the stresses and strains of life melt away. Like a Zen garden, though this is not ambient music, rather it is music that facilitates…it is active not passive.”
For the full review of the 芒神 – God of Silver Grass click here.
We Ask You To Ride by Wooden Shjips
From the band’s debut album on Holy Mountain.
Radio Tokyo by Hookworms
“…before exploding into ‘Radio Tokyo’. Originally released as a single last year by the Too Pure Singles Club, ‘Radio Tokyo’ has been an essential part of the band’s live set for some time, and the extended version here shows what an amazing track it is which seems to just get stronger and more relentless.”
For the full review of the Hum album, click here.
Ballroom Spritzer by Muertos
“Backseat mafia are privileged to present the first video taken from their forthcoming self-titled debut EP Muertos which will be released on Wrong Way Records on 4th November 2016, with a handsome 10” white with red splatter detail vinyl and digital download.”
Another Nocturnal Day by B-17
“B-17 formed in 2011 in Toronto Canada, featuring members of past toronto psychedelic warriors (The Hoa Hoa’s/Action Makes/Easy Targets). Born out of a love for heavy psych rock (Spacemen 3, Hawkwind) and classic american fuck up rock (MC5, Stooges) B-17 recorded and produced their first EP “Wishing Wont Make It So” and released it on local Toronto label Optical Sounds.”
Fyre Balls by Ball
A few weeks ago I did a playlist of great Swedish psych music (here). Had I known about this new single from new band Ball I’m pretty sure I would have included it on there. It’s a great piece of fuzzy funky trippy psych that will have you grooving along to the beat and wishing that it was longer than two and a half minutes.
The single will be released on Waxploitation Records on 7th October.
Bathroom Laughter by Pissed Jeans
From the Sub Pop album ‘Honeys’. You really need to see this band live, here’s why.
Another Change by Psychic Ills
“Getting to know ‘Inner Journey Out’ is something of a journey in itself. For me it started off feeling fairly bland, yet as I listened to it more and more I came to realise that it gives up its secrets slowly. It is an album that, like its tempo, gradually creeps up on you. It is an album that keeps Psychic Ills firmly within laid back psych, but provides the opportunity for us to explore other musical ideas in a way that is far from being in your face…while at the same time making a pretty compelling argument for doing so.” P.S. I have continued to love this album more and more since this review.
Passing Us By by The Urges
“The Urges are five men from Dublin, their individual identities are not important, but what is is the sound that those five men create collectively. Having been a mainstay on the Irish scene for sometime, The Urges have absorbed and incorporated their influences and arrived at a sound that is distinctly their own.”
For more about The Urges’ debut album, click here.
King of the Arcade Music Video – Sludgefeast
Nothing short of awesome, er, that’s it on this one!
Dark Star Blues by Acid Mothers Temple & the Melting Paraiso U.F.O.
A band that really need no introduction. I just love the utter relentlessness of this track. Just sit back and let it invade your brain!
You can find my other writing for Backseat Mafia here.
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