Neo-Psychedelia has become the fastest growing musical trend, and the genre that everyone who wants to be associated with. With that in mind, it’s easy to forget that it is people who make all of this possible and get the music out into the public domain in the first place.
Say Psych plans to address this issue by speaking to some of the labels most keenly associated with the best new psychedelia emerging and finding more about the men and women who are taking the time and energy to makes this great music accessible.
Next up we meet with the newest label in town, The Acid Test Recordings.
Hi Brett! Thanks for taking the time to talk to us, we hear you have some very exciting things in the mix!
So let’s start things off by you telling us what your motivation to start a record label?
Well, the attraction of bring a cottage industry record label is pretty obvious to any music fan. Thanks to the internet, the cottage industry record label can now be a global thing. Seeing the fruits of your passion and labour come together as 12” round piece of moulded petrochemical with great music contained within its grooves is a wonderful thing. It can be an expensive, challenging enterprise filled with peril, but let’s face it: it’s definitely worth it!
We are inclined to agree with you! Tell us a bit about the genres you’re gonna be featuring?
I’d imagine that a lot of what we will release would be informed by our long-term interest in psychedelic influenced music, but not exclusively. I know that the word ‘psychedelic’ has become a bit of a contested term in recent years, but personally, I don’t think that we want to get too hung up on that. Not only do you end up gatekeeping as to what that term means, but you can also end up painting yourself into a corner. I’ve always thought that psychedelic is a better descriptor than it is a discrete genre – and I think that opens up a lot of space to do whatever you want. At the end of the day, if we heard a folk, garage, reggae, country, oom-pah, whatever etc album that we wanted to release, we wouldn’t feel hemmed in by a word that at the end of the day, is pretty vague anyway.
So, we gotta ask because its brilliant! Where did the name come from?
The name came from Ken Kesey’s posters that advertised ‘The Electric Acid Kool-Aid Acid Test’, and yes, it is that classic heady psychedelic imagery, so it does kinda nail our colours to the mast in that sense, but as previously mentioned, we see no reason to limit what the word ‘psychedelic’ means.
Can you tell us a bit about what releases you have lined up and about the bands that they will be from; how did you come to work with them as a new label?
Our first releases are with our Stateside friends, Little Cloud Records. These are Los Mundos – No Hay Quien Se Salve, which is a great Jesus and Mary Chain influenced racket and Ancient River – After The Dawn, which marries a shoegazey vibe to heavy Dead Meadow style riffs Ready your purse strings! We also have the new album by Nest Egg coming down the pike. A little further into the future, we have some classic re-releases by Acid Mothers Temple being set up on the slate, some that have never been released on vinyl. We also have a couple of albums being readied as we speak by Zone Six.
Do you have a vision for where you want the label to go?
At this stage of the game, we are looking at things that will both establish us as a label but also give us a chance to bring some superb music to vinyl for the first time. Given time, this will give us the strength and confidence to branch out with new ideas. We have also bandied about a few ideas for some choice re-issues that we’d like to see make it back onto vinyl. I’m not sure I’d want to say at this stage of the game as it’s still early days at this point – but really, if you don’t ask; you don’t get.
Order the upcoming releases here
