| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| lemonade kid |
Posted - 09/09/2011 : 18:26:14
"Whether by drugs, religion or music that was the purpose of psychedelia, to connect with that we cannot grasp in ourselves except through the shortest glimpses of forgotten childhood. In this, [psychedelia] provides that, not only in sound, but in it's quest, attempts to connect the broken synapses of memory."
We have a favorite psych songs thread or two, but not albums.
I'll start with a very obscure but cool one..OOP
Mark Fry - Dreaming With Alice - 1972
Song For Wild...have a listen while you read on...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maT9bN_4a-s
When ARKAMA reissued it....man, they ripoff the Barabajagal cover..to bad. The music is not a rip off!
This album was originally recorded in Italy and England during 1972 by an almost unknown artist who is now a mystery. The album was only ever released in Italy and was almost entirely unknown in the UK and elsewhere around the world. Like many albums after a limited release it receded to a forgotten back page of musical history. It was in the late 1990s that Akarma Records in Italy reissued the album on CD with the original sleeve on the evocative cover.
When we read of an album being labeled 'psychedelic folk' it is often a dubious use of the term and a listener may be at a loss to find the elusive element of psychedelia. However there can be no such doubt with regard to this album which is a defining masterpiece of the style.
From the cover it is clear that this album seeks to fuse the whimsical text and graphics with a deep sense of the rural and with the tarot styled cards elements of folk low magic are also implied. The back cover shows some kind of pagan princess or holy woman in a trance like state and inside we see a young woman asleep. With such an evocative cover the scene is set for something special and for once here is an album that lives up to it's fusion of the surreal, rural and magical.
The whole album seems to be about sharing some kind of surreal psychedelic dream with Alice from the Alice Through The Looking Glass book. This book had like the nonsense wordplay of Lear been a defining influence on British psychedelic culture, linking the new mental expansion with a quaint gentle surreal element. Throughout the album minute long miniature songs explore these dreams and visions carrying on the 'Dreaming With Alice' theme and eventually submerging it in echo, fuzzed wah wah guitar and backwards tapes. From the first version of this onwards we immediately experience something strange, a little one verse song with just acoustic guitar and heavily processed, echoed vocals that seem distant, removed and emotionally disconnected. The first lyrics we hear start as it then continues.
"Did you pass the glass mountain?
Where Salome opened her dress.
Did you see the dolphins feathered fountain?
Oh the King made a bloody mess"
Disconnected and remote it may be but it is also warm and enveloping, a hazy opiate lullaby. It is then quickly on to 'The Witch' weaving guitar with pulsing eastern percussion and sitar topped by flute and the vocals which carry on the heavy processing. This is a darker song which seeks the Witch to cure his loneliness by coming through the window, the sound is heavily psychedelic and gives way to a beautiful ballad which is followed by the innocent childlike 'Roses for Columbus', a song s delicate it almost seems an effort to sing it and considers the discovery of America. Next is 'A Norman Solider' which seems beamed from the twelve century and provides a picture of a fog filled landscape, the solider half seen through grey light. By now the 'Dreaming With Alice' interludes are becoming ever stranger as some kind of inexplicable narrative develops with Cleopatra eating Christmas cake and asking to be called Pyramid Prostitute, however the words are almost beyond meaning becoming a soft tapestry over the soothing music which has you similarly drifting mentally. 'Lute and Flute' is baroque medieval folk that is quite exquisite and similar to Amazing Blondel.
'Down Narrow Streets' roots us back in some kind of memory from the singer's past, it is very moving yet cannot be placed. The guitars weave around each other in layers, the vocals shimmer and glide across the music, as though trying to remember the distant, hazy recesses of childhood. From here we enter the psychedelic epic of 'Mandolin Man' which clearly is meant to be the singer and even has this in the title. This starts as a driving primitive folk rhythm with a fantastic riff, if this had been earlier I'm certain it would have inspired a Jimmy Page adaptation.
'Oh Mystery man, where are you going?
I can see, your eyes are snowing'
The guitar probes and pushes with a circular riff and blues slide soloing over the top, a heavy deep drum beat comes it and it evolves to take in seething wah wah guitar with banks of hugely processes vocals like a heavenly choir, the soloing becomes more frenetic and it achieves a deep heavy folk sound that few have ever achieved.
The final version of 'Dreaming With Alice' is so heavily processed, so 'gone' that the lyrics are all but indecipherable and we end as we began, in thrall to Alice and her entrancing dream.
'And I'm With Alice In Wonderland
Skipping through the rain
Flowered marbles in our hands
as we roll on down the lane
as we laugh on down the lane' (repeat last line to fade)
Reference points for the album are hard as it is truly unique. Donovan was often as surreal but never as distant, Nick Drake explored acoustic music in a similar way but to far different more personal effect, artists like Steve Tilston were never as extreme. Perhaps it is closest to the modern generation, to such as In Gowan Ring' who merge the psychedelic with a focused distant quality, or Fit and Limo with their genuine sitar folk sound, or Stone Breath with their mystical evocations that beguile and scare in equal parts, or Drekka with their low-fi rumbling darkness. However none are truly close and that is because the artist here is not giving us his personal feelings but connects on a deep more sub-conscious level, with our innate feelings, with the part of ourselves we cannot reach. Whether by drugs, religion or music that was the purpose of psychedelia, to connect with that we cannot grasp in ourselves except through the shortest glimpses of forgotten child hood. In this it provides a defining album that not only in sound, but in it's quest attempts to connect the broken synapses of memory. Inevitably by the end the processing of the music is so extreme that the fragile connection is lost, we cannot find these places in ourselves except in the fragmented transitory illusions of sleep when we once again dream with Alice. (theunbrokencircle.co.uk)
track 1-Dreaming With Alice
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdLOqEZxISU&feature=related
track 2-The Witch
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBQ8DIVBLq4&feature=related
track 7-A Norman Soldier
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXhpK2WJEfU&feature=related
d/l here along with some other really obscure folk psych
http://peppermintstore.blogspot.com/
_____________________________________________
Sometimes I have good luck...
& write better than I can.
-Hemmingway |
| 10 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Joe Morris |
Posted - 09/11/2011 : 16:16:08
Transformed Man of course
probably Shatners best album. Mr Tambourine man, Lucy in the sky with diamonds, etc! |
| lemonade kid |
Posted - 09/11/2011 : 01:02:18
Gothic Horizon - The Jason Lodge Poetry Book
(uk 1970, acoustic-folk)
Formed: Hertfordshire, United Kingdom
Members:
Andy Desmond (vocals, guitar, bass),
Richard Garrett (vocals)
Tracklist:
01. The Jason Lodge Poetry Book
02. Song For Susan
03. Odysseus
04. A.J. Lone's Dog
05. Willow Tree Vale Song
06. Six Summers Back
07. Song
08. Althea Williams
09. Wilhelmina Before Sunrise
10. St. Valentine's Day Massacre
11. A Third For Jason Lodge
12. Pisces
13. A Farewell Ode To Port Sunlight
Beautiful debut album by UK band Gothic Horizon. The music exposed on this album is highly unique, transparent and fragile. Kinda like Left Banke meets Honeybus larded and sauced with UK folk. A real beautiful album. Originally released on Argo in 1970.
Gothic Horizon made two albums: 'The Jason Lodge Poetry Book' (Argo ZFB 26) 1970, which also gained an American release: ([USA:] London PS592) 1971; and 'Tomorrow Is Another day' (Argo ZDA 150) 1972. Their music is not gloomy, brooding, damp, ghoulish, dark, threatening, creepy, bloody, horrifying or any of the other adjectives which spring to mind when one thinks of "Gothic". Instead it is warm, chatty, light, breezy, informal, witty. The albums are sometimes hyped as "psych-pop" (the former especially on account of its convoluted title and colourful pop-art cover) or even "acid-folk", but essentially they are neither of these things; they tends mostly towards folk and acousticism. However there are some tracks here to delight the psychedelically-inclined. The title track of the first album, 'The Jason Lodge Poetry Book', is great. Complex pop of sufficient quality to delight the pop-syke faithful. 'Song For Susan' is so close in sound and style to Fairfield Parlour that it just about escapes charges of plagiarism. 'A J Lone's Dog' is ragtime pop; and unsurprisingly with a title like 'Willow Tree Vale Song' this song is folk. But 'A Third For Jason Lodge' is very weird. Bizarre changes and references to flying, mushrooms and toadstools!
~ (by Dave Thubron)
d/l
http://sharebee.com/67ad08d6
Track one...this will play the whole album if you like.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TCF9dZh-DY&list=PL6B726285C5E95675&index=8&feature=plpp_video
Song For Susan...beautiful
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyA7NGmRCWA&feature=related
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Rock and roll never sleeps, it just passes out.
-George Thorogood |
| lemonade kid |
Posted - 22/10/2011 : 22:29:10
DUNCAN BROWNE
http://www.insyncnet.com/duncan
Duncan Browne: Biography
Duncan Browne: BiographyÂ
Give Me Take you
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6X23wlL3V0g&feature=related
Duncan Browne was born on March 25, 1947. The only child of Air Commodore and Mrs. C.D.A. Browne, Duncan initially intended to follow his father into the Royal Air Force. He was turned down on health grounds while still at the Worksop College, where he was a promising schoolboy actor and clarinetist.
A classical guitarist, he attended the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art for three years, where he studied Composition and Harmony with the legendary Anthony Bowles, who encouraged him towards a career in music. Duncan also had intentions of becoming an actor, but his music career took off in 1967 when he encountered Andrew Loog Oldham of Immediate Records, which led to the release of his first solo album, “Give Me Take You” in 1968. Browne’s sound embraced the most lyrical elements of Paul McCartney, Donovan, and the Moody Blues.
Later, he played a major role in the German feature film, “Zeit fur Traume” (“Time for Dreams”) before his association with Mickie Most, which culminated with the 1973 album on RAK Records, “Duncan Browne”. His British single, “Journey”, with its extraordinary Spanish guitar figure, went top 20 in 1972 and was voted “most unusual single of the year”.
In 1973 he decided to transfer his classical technique to electric guitar, during which period he met Peter Godwin. They worked together for two years in Paris and London on the prototypical songs, sound and style of what was to become “Metro”. Duncan’s only album with Metro was released in 1976 on Logo Records. David Bowie later recorded “Criminal World” for his album “Let’s Dance”.
After leaving Metro, Duncan entered what was to be his most creative period, culminating in two fantastic albums, “The Wild Places” in 1978, and “Streets of Fire” in 1979. The band Duncan assembled for these albums was potent. The rhythm section of Tony Hymas (keyboards), John Giblin (bass), and Simon Phillips (drums) later recorded with Peter Townshend, Jeff Beck, and Jack Bruce.
During the 1980's, Duncan turned his focus to writing music for the theatre, television and film, most notably working with Sebastion Graham-Jones on “Travelling Man”, the soundtrack from the Granada TV series , released in 1984. Also memorable was “Salva Me” sung by the soprano Isobel Buchanan for BBC’s drama series “Shadow of the Noose”, and most recently, the musical score of three films for BBC’s “The Essential Guide to the History of Europe”.
For the BBC’s World Service and Radio 4, frequently working with the producer and arranger Nick Magnus, he composed and recorded themes for “Newshour, Mediawatch, Network UK”, and much else. He wrote music for the Royal National Theatre and was musical director and co-lyricist for “Brel”, starring Sian Phillips at the Donmar Warehouse Theatre.
Duncan Browne piano
In the 1990's, battling cancer, Duncan had begun work on his first album of new songs in well over a decade. But tragically, Duncan would not see the completion of “Songs of Love and War”, succumbing to cancer in May, 1993.
The following appeared in Melody Maker in June of 1993:
In another tragedy, DUNCAN BROWNE died on May 28, after a long battle with cancer. He was 46. The singer-songwriter is best remembered for his 1972 hit single, ”Journey”, and for David Bowie’s cover of his ”Criminal World”, which appeared on Bowie’s 1983 album, ”Let’s Dance”.
Following his solo success, Browne achieved cult status in the mid-Seventies as part of glam-pop duo, Metro. In 1984, he enjoyed another brush with the singles chart via his minor hit, ”Theme From The Traveling Man”. He leaves a wife and an eight-year-old son.
This is an excerpt from the obituary that appeared in The Times, Thursday June 24, 1993:
Duncan Browne, composer and musician, died of cancer on May 28, aged 46.
…..Largely self-taught, his musical horizons and knowledge were, respectively, limitless and encyclopedic. He possessed, invaluable, a remarkable gift for judging the contributive value of music to drama and documentary.
He is survived by his wife Lin and one son
The task of completing the album fell to Nick Magnus, who with the help of Colin Blunstone and Sebastion Graham-Jones, put the finishing touches on a haunting and beautiful collection of songs. The album was released on Nic Potter’s Zomart label in 1995.
Duncan Browne’s songs have been covered by Patti Smith, Ian Matthews, Barry Manilow, Colin Blunstone, John English, and particularly successfully by David Bowie.
© 2001 InSync Design & Publishing. All rights reserved.
No material may be reprinted without written permission from the publisher.
Dwarf In A Tree
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCiTTX_Gr7M&feature=related
Ragged Rain Life
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNHwG9m0E6A&feature=related
Cast No Shadow
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoNQqSUbXps&feature=related
Any of our UK friends..did you know of him or see him live?
Many more plays on youtube..enjoy!
_____________________________________________
Don't you know there ain't no devil,
There's just god when he's drunk.
-Tom Waits |
| captain america and billy |
Posted - 15/09/2011 : 15:29:02
Writers back then had a great degree of artistic insight probably to begin with,just what's lacking in the industry today.Someone on acid now probably couldn't write as well as many of the sixties/early seventies personalities could even if their imaginations were NEVER fueled by the drug.Today there are many technically skilled musicians and singers,but it is rare now to come across someone or band with a intrinsically keen sense of the art.You must put vision first instead of these conjured pretensions I'm hearing.And the word and phrasing schemes now are conceptaully superfluous.Almost like their writing ad jingles.Maybe this is all the writer is gunning for in some cases where they're just looking for a hit,but sometimes when I see interviews with some of them,they come across like they really think they're on to something big in the artistic circuit.Pathetic. |
| lemonade kid |
Posted - 14/09/2011 : 20:04:07
Fever Tree-"Fever Tree"....in my top 3 psych albums!
San Francisco Girls...great 60's trippy vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ts0Y7uKtaAI
 |
| lemonade kid |
Posted - 13/09/2011 : 01:07:30
STORY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jT8OrhdTQeo
HONEYBUS-"Story" 1970
Honeybus were a 1960s pop group formed in April 1967, in London. They were best known for their 1968 UK Top 10 hit single, "I Can't Let Maggie Go".[1]
Honeybus cut three singles in 1967 and 68, written and fronted by Pete Dello who promptly quit after I Can't Let Maggie Go hit and embarked on a fascinating and complex solo career. Not to be outdone, the band re-grouped and cut three further singles and an album that almost never got released. The story goes that upon their split in early 1970, somebody at their label, Deram Records, heard the recordings and demanded that it be released. And hence it was, posthumously and to little fanfare in 1970.
Blending the kind of pure, crystalline folk-tinged baroque pop that had characterised most of their singles with flashes of psychedelia, country and bubblegum, the twelve songs that make up Story are uniformly stunning creations, played with skill and confidence, arranged for strings and woodwind and blessed with a sympathetic, understated production.
d/l
http://sharebee.com/dcdf7ab1
Under The Silent Tree
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLISzPC4d6w&feature=related
Black Mourning Band
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aq13esSceFE&feature=related
_____________________________________________
Sometimes I have good luck...
& write better than I can.
-Hemmingway |
| lemonade kid |
Posted - 12/09/2011 : 17:48:32
quote:
Originally posted by captain america and billy
Where does the quote from the top of the page come from?Now THAT definition really hits home.I love the use of the word "synapses".After all,more than a little psychiatry IS involved here(LSD).
It is further down in the review above for Mike Fry's album....whether the reviewer grabbed it from somewhere else, he gives no credit...but I had never heard it before and thought it quite good!
_____________________________________________
Sometimes I have good luck...
& write better than I can.
-Hemmingway |
| captain america and billy |
Posted - 12/09/2011 : 15:16:53
Where does the quote from the top of the page come from?Now THAT definition really hits home.I love the use of the word "synapses".After all,more than a little psychiatry IS involved here(LSD). |
| Kula John |
Posted - 10/09/2011 : 10:49:14
I've been listening to
'A Letter to Katherine December' by Jake Holmes.
It's a great album with some strange styles.
'Saturday Night' - Jake Holmes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BawDjOmTvdQ |
| lemonade kid |
Posted - 09/09/2011 : 20:25:47
CANNED HEAT-"Livin' The Blues" 1968
Super psychedelic blues!! Love to play this intro on the drums!!
Refried Boogie-part 1A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4uqySChPPc
part 1B
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSNsxkvPsvo&feature=related
part 1C
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNewECDLLmk&feature=related
part 2A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7SqJ2GuuyI&feature=related
2B
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8Ri_sw51BM&feature=related
2C
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dv1jPgHfdcM&feature=related
_____________________________________________
Sometimes I have good luck...
& write better than I can.
-Hemmingway |
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