Psych / Prog
Far out, MAAHHHN!!!
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Jerry Rooth – But You’ll Try…Again b/w But You Loved Me AnywayJerry Rooth’s Higney-produced single is further evidence that Higney’s sonic philosophy was no accident. All the classic shimmers present are: muted drums, rough, desperate vocals, and the wonderfully inexplicable audio-temporal mixing that made Attic Demonstration such a classic. “But You’ll Try…Again” strays from Higney’s downer-rock and dives into a strange brew of hard-rock, power-pop, [...]
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Edward E. Levin – Live GameEdward E. Levin has been operating his “Magic Piano Shop” since 1971, giving lessons and tuning pianos.
He still enjoys composing, though a cerebellar stroke in 2009 impaired his ability to perform.
This 1980 LP features an odd parody of the Monopoly board game.
One of the game squares simply reads,
“FOLD BACK FOIL TO EXPOSE CHICKEN.”
(I [...]
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Johnny Cox and Wayne Cox – Two Of A KindI collect records that feature playing cards on the cover.
I don’t know why, but it’s fun.
Two Of A Kind didn’t look very promising, but check out their oddly progressive interpretation of Harleme Nocturne (sic).
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Various Artists: Night Club 68Released on the Czech Supraphon label, “Night Club 68” features not only a way cool mod pop art LP cover, but a nice sampling of the groovy young sounds from hip Prague nightspots. Pavel Sedlacek opens the proceedings by covering a couple of UK beat pop hits — his version of The Move’s “Flowers In [...]
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Jagad Guru Chris Butler & Friends – Mantra ElectricImagine if you will, Carlos Santana fronting Pink Floyd circa Wish You Were Here, with a dash of Camel and a little Popol Vuh for flavoring. Add some synth and smooth melodic vocal harmonies chanting devotion to Hare Krishna, and you’ve got the sound of Jagad Guru Chris Butler’s “Mantra Electric” double LP. Released in [...]
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Various Artists: Made in LeverkusenI was born in Cologne/Germany. Although Cologne is widely in peace with the cities surrounding it, there is however a strong rivalry with the neighbouring city of Leverkusen. Naturally, as a loyal citizen of my hometown I share this sentiment. This is fairly easy since Leverkusen is indeed a pretty boring city mainly consisting of the infrastructure of the Bayer drug company.
I had to pay my dues to the city though after finding the private pressed record “Made in Leverkusen” that reflects the musical scene of Leverkusen in the mid seventies. This scene might have been limited but was great nevertheless. Be it the most famous artist on the record Wolfram Brunke with his Gary Pacific Orchestra Outfit and some solid funk music, the equally funky inFormation Media Band, or the psych guitars of Quasimodo. Well, in the end Cologne won again. We had Can during this time, but “Made in Leverkusen” saves Leverkusen a well deserved second rank.
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Inneke Kusumawati – Pengen KenalIf you, like me, habitually check out Indonesian krontjong pop records, you know many of them look promising and some might have a good sounding backing band. But in the end, the songs are for the bigger part pretty formulaic. I was very happy to find this one though. The excellent backing group De Galaxies add [...]
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Estudiantina Electronica – Colombianas con vestido HippieA fun instrumental exploito record from Colombia 1974. The cover, with face painted hippie chics and the title, “Colombians in Hippie Clothes”, promise at least some psychedelic music. The drum-organ-guitar-bass combo has more of a cool South American surf/go go sound but derails frequently enough. In fact, I was initially a bit disapointed in this [...]
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V/A – Dove Project No. 9 (No Label, 1970)The Dove Project No. 9 compilation is one of the most obscure artifacts of Canadian psychedelia. The main individual responsible for this excursion into the remote recesses of rock’s underground was a young and aspiring musical businessman named Doug Wong. In 1969 Doug was a leading member of the student newspaper published at his high-school. Unlike [...]
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Jack Hennig and The Breaking Point Group – Busy People b/w Maybe Tomorrow (Cupid Records)Jack Hennig was one of the more prominent country singers living in Edmonton, Alberta in the 70s. However, unknown to almost everyone, he cut two singles with The Breaking Point Group sometime in the mid-to-late 60s. The Busy People b/w Maybe Tomorrow single is the second and last recording he did with the Breaking Point [...]
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Eugen Thomass – Scarabea OSTA rare 7inch EP on Hans Wewerkas tiny Austrian Inmus-Label. It’s the soundtrack to Hans-Jürgen Syberbergs Tolstoi adaptation “Scarabea – Wieviel Erde braucht ein Mensch”. Syberberg is one of the most obscure and controversial german independent moviemakers. Due to his neo-conservative and nationalistic views he plays a rather isolated role among the otherwise predominantly leftwing [...]
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Ersen – Cakmagi CakBefore I went to Istanbul in 2007 to study there for half a year I did some research about record stores in Istanbul. One Ebay seller from Turkey who I asked for info just moved from Istanbul to Ankara so he was so kind to share his knowledge of good spots with me. While some [...]
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The Exotic – Title UnknownThe Exotic is one of my favorite finds I ever made in Asia. Except one track it’s mainly a Thai pop album with some obscure and even psychedelic moments that unlike many other Thai albums you can listen to all the way through. The stand out track though is a raw funk track with Thai [...]
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Howard Nishioka – Street SongsIf I had to distill the essence of this album down to one word, I would go with Maelstrom. If I’ve got two words to work with then it’s Shit Storm. Howard Nishioka, who plays electric and acoustic guitar and bass guitar (and vocals on a couple songs), sounds like a man tearing holes in [...]
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Marquee Revue: LiveThe generic ’sun-dial’ cover keeps delivering hits, here in the form of an early 70s club band who pack a lot more punch than expected. Straight outta Omaha, the Marquee Revue have more in common with fuzzed out hippie cover bands like Smack or Marble Phrogg than the lounge-rock acts they’re usually lumped in with. They [...]
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Captain Foam – No Reason / Will There Ever Be a TimeThis heavy little 45 comes from the great state of Ohio, I have to assume it dates from the early ’70s based on the sound and the lyrical content of the b-side. All I know about Captain Foam is that the guy was billed as a one man band, I guess he played live with [...]
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Quincy Conserve – EpitaphIt seems that when you start out collecting records you are magically drawn to find specimens in your preferred genre which were created by local musicians. The problem you often encounter when collecting relatively niche genres is that the local examples you find will usually be pretty sub-standard compared with what you get [...]
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Rasberry Jam 2/People – If We Only Have LoveDollar bin find! Blank back cover & a stock front, the only other info besides band & title:”Produced by Sid Kleiner’s House Of Guitars, R.513, Califon NJ”. The People side consists entirely of covers: the Bee Gees (Words, To Love Somebody), Beatles (Birthday), Jefferson Airplane (White Rabbit), Monkees (Shades Of Grey), and The First Edition [...]
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Fuat Saka – Ayrılık TürküsüWith it’s use of delayed percussion, eastern scales and jazzy ney (flute), this folk pop album manages to create a nice psychedelic mood, despite the release date (1984). The 10 songs featured on it are very contemplative, sung with a dark brooding voice, but still there’s a drive to the music, not in the [...]
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Lightdreams – Islands in SpaceI was listening to this album hardcore at the same time I started reading William Gibson’s Neuromancer. They seemed to compliment each other well, each depicted a world in space so daring and different. Paul Marcano, the mind behind Lightdreams, dedicates the album to the colonization of space and this really sets the tone [...]
