Baldiun - 2014 - All in a Dream

Quality: 4 out of 5
Trip-O-Meter: 4 out of 5

A few months ago, we looked at a career-spanning compilation of Balduin.  The psychedelic troubadour can knock it off pretty well for a complete album as well.  It's totally authentic sounding 1967 vintage psyche pop.  One of those albums with a psychedelic cover running away with McCartney's music hall catchiness run through a prism of technicolour sound.  It doesn't quite fill the stomach of your mind all the way, but it leaves you with the candy coloured grooves to make your trip worth it.

The music is pretty solid all around, but the tracks that lend a trippy gimmick serve the songs and stand out as the highlights for me.  "Which Dreamed It" grabs my attention with the sitars, but stays put there because the songwriting is high quality.  Even an instrumental like the loping drums of "Prisma Colora" makes for a groovy soundworld, although I can't help but think that the track is just waiting for the layer of prime Brian Wilson-sounding pop symphony vocal which could push it over the top.  "Father" goes Lennon on us for a bit, making for a happier vibrations of the influencer's primal screaming "Mother."  No need for the screaming with the vocally satisfying Balduin, though.  A bit of the twee acid folk creeps through on the later tracks, and they occasionally pour on a bit too much syrup.  "Waves, Stars, and Moon" bring on that kind of sound, but in the end it's more like a super happy tune coursing from the Barrett-led Pink Floyd.

This is the kind of album that really does wear its influences on its sleeve.  Balduin's got enough songwriting and production punch to warp it all into a voice that is distinctive enough to command your attention.  It's the aural soma that we all need in our chaotic world.  This is one to dig a pony on.

Bring on the happiness here.  The actual release date is October 10.
th:
http://www.balduin.org/2014/06/all-in-dream.html

Balduin - 2014 - A Post From Mars

Quality: 4.5 out of 5
Trip-O-Meter: 4.5 out of 5

This is a compilation from the fantastic psych warriors over at the Active Listener for the equally groovy Balduin.  It seems that this Swiss fellow has been at it since 1988 (at age 10!).  We get a lot of meticulously created revival psych in the inbox at the ol' Garage, but this is a rare case where the artist grabs the ineffable vapours of vintage psychedelia and runs away with it in inspired directions.  Perhaps due to its nature as a compilation, this music runs all over the map of Tripsville, with straight up harpsichord-laced baroque pop, garage band grinding, folkish dulcimer pounding, and goofy electronica sometimes inhabiting the same song.  It all works quite well, though, as Balduin has the innate ability to set his musical thumbprint upon all of the different sounds.

Hit any track and you'll likely hear something to catch your attention.  But here are the things I dig the most:  I'm totally down for the fantasy forest at night vibrations that we get on tracks like the opening duo, as well as the hazy orchestral psychedelia of tunes like "A Hope For Loving You," and "A Simple Chime."  Balduin also nicely pulls off some more modern, indie-baiting electronic sounds with "The Shadows of Your Mind" and "Post From Mars."

Give "A Post From Mars" a listen - it a very impressive listen informed by both the insular bedroom studio as well as the orchestra capacity 1966 studio.  The tunes bear a slew of influences ranging from the Electric Prunes, to Donovan, to the Magnetic Fields, but the sound is not mere re-creations as this artist ultimately defines his own psychedelic visions.

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Balduin - 2014 - A Post From Mars