Lucifer - 1971 - Black Mass

Quality: 4 out of 5

Trip-O-Meter: 4 out of 5

Lucifer is a psudonym for Mort Garson, the electronic madman behind freaky early electronic works such as "The Wozard of Iz." This purely instrumental album isn't quite as strange, but the wall of Moog synth that makes up the instrumentation is still something impressive to behold. It's chock full of that awesome analog clunky sound that so many musicians still strive for.

When I've strolled through Disneyland's Tomorrowland (at least the Tokyo version), they're usually setting the future-retro mood with stuff like the wacky pop interpretations of the Moog Cookbook. Some of this could fit in that mold, but with minor keys abound, the tracks here would probably serve better in the hellish variety of Disneyland; y'know, the one where Donald Duck is creeping behind you with a butcher's knife. That's pretty much where this disc is at.

Trackwise, there are a lot of goodies here. "Solomon's Ring" launches with a soaring yet creepy Moog melody, while "Incubus" dementedly contorts basic synthesizer sounds into a kind of electronic warning system. "The Evil Eye" almost gives us a soothing break, but let's keep in mind that it is quickly underpinned by electronic evil. Later on, we are presented with the sound lab of "Philosopher's Stone," while "ESP" closes the album with what sounds like an alien armada landing (maybe Garson was going for the opening of the gates of Hell).

While not necessarily the best of primitive electronic music, Lucifer does press most of the right buttons for those of us wanting to hear this sort of thing. It's trying to conjure the ghost in the machine using the darkest of magic, and for the most part it succeeds. You can merrily join along for this particular black mass.

Pierre Henry & Michel Colombier - 1968 - Les Yper Sound

Quality: 3.75 out of 5
Trip-O-Meter: 3.75 out of 5

This EP is an amusing concoction, lounging in the easy listening section of your soul but containing a pretty groovy blur of psychedelic synthesis to stir your mind. The "Psyche Rock" track will probably seem pretty familiar to you, even if you've never heard it. The theme song of the cartoon "Futurama" is a direct homage/rip-off of the track, depending on how you feel about the situation. The chord structure and rhythm are about the same, but we do get the jolly noises of early synthesis ripping through the track. Sounding even more psych-rock like than that titular track are the grooving "Jericho Jerk" and the full-thrust "Too Fortiche," in which an acid rock guitar battles with a sawtooth wave. You might also note that Stereolab nicked a song title from the title of this EP. This does make an impact as one of the more notable 'hipster' influences on that band's sound. There's a lot of droning noise here juxtaposed with dancin'-down-Carnaby Street sort of groove jazz. Take that for what it's worth. More reviews soon. Too many martinis right now. Mix the martinis with some psychedelic substance and you'll end up with this disc.

Homemade Lo-Fi Psych Compilations

I tend to shy aware from compilations, but this one deserves your psychedelic attention. Mike Floyd over at the Homemade Lo-fi Psych blog just got together another fine collection of tripped out sounds from an international constituent of musicians. In fact, there's a previously unreleased Glaze of Cathexis track there waiting for your ear. Give it a listen here:

Embryo Thoughts





If you dig it, check out the first volume (featuring a track from Damaged Tape's "Electric Ocean"), available here:

Relax and Float Downstream

Sun Ra - 1978 - Space Probe

Quality: 3.75 out of 5
Trip-O-Meter: 4.25 out of 5
(both 5's for the title track)

After all that talk about Sun Ra back in the Brother Ahh review, I feel like we need to take a look at some of Mr. Ra's music on its own terms. This album is not really one of his best, but as far as I know it's extraordinarily rare. I don't even know what the cover looks like for this one. That's part of the mystique, though. Although Sun Ra left for Saturn (i.e. died) almost 15 years ago, there's at least two or three of his recordings that are reissued every year, and most of them had absurdly low production runs on their original release, so they might as well be new. Space Probe is one that's still waiting to be properly unearthed.

The title track is by far the star of the show here. The 18-minute track features Sun Ra alone except for an arsenal of Minimoogs. If you're familiar with his 70's work, you will understand that this is a good thing. Ra coaxes sounds out of these machines that really do seem to plunge into the depths of interstellar space and sound positively ahead of its time even thirty years later. If you want to consider this track on its own, feel free to crank up both the quality and trip-o-meter ratings to a 5.

The other tracks here don't suck, but I'd rank them as a typical Sun Ra holding pattern. "Primitive" is a short percussive overture with a touch of clarinet bouncing off the walls. This leads into "The Conversion of J.P.," which is pretty much more of the same percussive template, except five times as long, and featuring some abstract, almost R&B sounding, acoustic piano playing from the Sun one.

This album is far from entry level Sun Ra. For that, I'd advise you to search for the still in print Space is the Place (Impulse) or maybe We Travel the Spaceways. Granted those two albums are already worlds apart in sound. However, if you've already been indoctrinated into Sun Ra's spaceship, you know that 18 minutes of Moog-ing Ra is an absolute necessity, and you'll need to hear this.

Bit 'A Sweet - 1968 - Hypnotic 1

Quality: 3.75 out of 5
Trip-O-Meter: 4 out of 5

Although saddled with a terrible name, Bit 'A Sweet turns out to be a fine psychedelic band. These guys get a gold star for psychedelic diversity, managing to stuff raga rock, straight up psych-pop, twee, bubblegum, and futurist Moog squiggles into a 40 minute album. I doubt you'll like everything here, but I find that the batting average is pretty high.


Really, it's difficult not to make this review simply a category of style, and I'm not going to try too hard to do otherwise. We'll get the negatives straight out of the way. The 'happy days toy town' vibe of "Monday-Tuesday" doesn't do it for me, nor does the watered-down Procol Harem organ soul of "A Second Time." Unfortunately, the latter goes on for 8:38 and typically convinces me to end the album early (it's the last track). The rest is much better. Bit 'A Sweet acknowledges the East in typical hippy-fied manner on the great opening raga rock of "Speak Softly," and the Indian-influenced folk rocker "Travel." Yeah, I know sitars are a cliche, but I still dig it when they show up anyway. "2086" is a gleefully stupid futurist track which builds stock with me through it's primitive Moog sounds and the pure mindless optimism of the lyrics (In 1983 we banished sad). The squiggly synth sounds also appear on the bubblegummy "Diamond Studded Eyes." "How Can I Make You See" is a decent enough rave up and the band even manages a worthwhile Beatles cover with "If I Needed Someone."


This should satisfy your hunger for psychedelic sound for at least a few days. The great thing here is that if you don't dig a track, just go to the next one and you'll get something completely different.

Brother Ahh - 1972 - Sound Awareness

Quality: 4 out of 5
Trip-O-Meter: 4.5 out of 5

This is a little more on the jazz side than what we typically see in the Garage, but it's definitely one of the more psychedelic offerings from that genre. Brother Ahh was an acolyte of the truly tripped-out Sun Ra (not tripped-out on any substances mind you, he was just gloriously nuts). Of course Sun Ra has no short supply of psychedelic obscurities, and we'll see a few of them here eventually. But before I get off on too much of a tangent, let's focus on the Brother in question. While this album probably doesn't touch the heights of Sun Ra's Arkestra at its best, Sound Awareness is far from a pale imitation.

The crux of this recording takes some of the percussive and echoing innovations from Sun Ra's best 60's albums such as Cosmic Tones For Mental Therapy and Atlantis, and finds a few new mis-en-scenes to place them into. We hear some very exotica-style female vocals on "Beyond Yourself," which expands to a full 90-member chorus for "Love Piece." I'd say that this recording shows an evolution into classical, ambient, and fusion styles that the laser-focused Sun Ra typically didn't mess with. The sound is more nebulous, but no less appealing. Also, while the Arkestra's percussion ensembles are nothing to sneeze at, Brother Ahh brings in the big guns here with Max Roach and some of his drummers appearing as guests. The spoken piece of "Love Piece" is a fine rant mixing black power and religious imagery before shifting to call-and-response new age philosophy on the power of love.

Overall, this worthwhile album provides us with a worthwhile different flavor of the innovations made by Sun Ra and his cohorts. Fortunately, the albums holds up very well on its own, but as a contrast tool with the sound of the Arkestra, Sound Awareness is educationally invaluable.

Boris with Michio Kurihara - 2006 - Rainbow

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

Boris is a top rate Japanese metal band with some pronounced noise rock, drone rock, and psychedelic flourishes. Michio Kurihara is the amazing, spaced-out guitarist from Japan's premier psych-proggers Ghost. Together, these two forces create some psychedelic nirvana. Boris gets the chance to aim their wall-of-noise at some top flight songs and cathedrals of sound while Kurihara-san end up with some musicians that promote the best out of his infinitely oscillating torrents of guitar noise without feeling the need to jam pedantically.

"Rafflesia" starts things out extremely strong with almost pained vocals placed upon a stately rhythm while Kurihara slowly but surely launches the song into orbit far above the outer reaches of your mind. "Starship Narrator" brings in the noise and ends up hitting right on an acid-rock sweet spot. Nevermind that the lyrics are all in Japanese. The understanding and appreciation of this music resides between the lines. Soon the album floats through the lattice of clouds that must be near the titular rainbow before slamming into the full-scale powerhouse "Sweet #1." Finally, we get the music box-esque lullaby of "..And I Want" to send us off calmly.

As far as neo-psych goes, this is some of the best we've gotten this decade. I caught the band with Michio Kurihara in tow a few weeks ago in Atlanta, and their stage show is not to be missed. As good as this, and some of the choicer other Boris albums are, the live rendition is a true narcotic. Still, Rainbow will get you most of the way there and it doesn't fail to shine with the light of true psychedelic creativity.

Buy Me:
Boris with Michio Kurihara - 2006 - Rainbow

Ghost - 2004 - Hypnotic Underworld

Quality: 3.75 out of 5
Trip-O-Meter: 4.25 out of 5

Not to be confused with the late 60's psychedelic obscurity of the same name, Ghost is part of Japan's psychedelic underground. Let me be straight with you. I lived in Japan for three years and found a good 90% of Japanese pop to be derivative crap. The upswing of this is that those who actually want to rebel do so extravagantly, and end up with some pretty wildly extreme music. Ghost does so with a quiet concentration for the most part, but the end result shows them to be pros at the sonic warping of reality.

This LP, which is among their best, splits not so evenly into two parts. The first, superior part is the four part title track. Starting with subtle percussion and delayed horns, the music really seems to take the plunge into the underworld, building up with intensity. "Escape and Lost Down in Medina" ups the voltage with relentlessly crescendoing drums and a repetitive plunk of the piano keys. Finally we reach bottom with the distorting guitars and choral vocals of "Aramaic Barbarous Dawn. It's a fine psych rocker that more than earns its keep.

The second part of the album is a lot more conventional, and is a touch disappointing to me. It still stocks up plenty of creativity, even if it lacks the white hot focus of the "Hypnotic Underground" suite. "Hazy Paradise" lives up to its name while "Piper" starts of drinking Japanese tea with Donovan (not a guest appearance) before making a fly-by a little closer to jam band territory without quite succumbing to that sound. The ten minute "Ganagmanag" lands right smack in the middle of jam band land, which they do as tastefully as possible, but for me is still quite a comedown from the better parts of the album. Those tendencies do tend to slightly mar the second half of the album in general, even though the root songwriting and performances remain generally strong.

Although cursed with a need to stretch things out a touch longer than necessary, Ghost's high points on Hypnotic Underground are worth the trouble. The musicianship creates a sonic tapestry where no one musician ends up as the star of the show, but instead shows us a united front of psychedelic weirdos. Some of the music here is the best psychedelia that modern Japan has to offer.

Buy Me:
Ghost - 2004 - Hypnotic Underworld

We're Late For Class - 2007 - Live in the Theater of DisBelief

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

Digging through the archives of these internet psychedelic troubadours, I found this gem hanging out among the group's many recordings. At base a 32 minute collection of wild, improved psychedelic racket, this one presents itself as a pretty oddball concept album. Apparently, this is based on a random idea for a sci-fi television show whereupon a group of Star Trek-style explorers cavort about the galaxy searching for oddball radio waves out in space. This performance, therefore, would be an example of this interstellar noise. I'd say that the band pretty well achieved their goal.

Never truly coalescing, these sounds really seem to ride the strange waves that float through the emptiness of space. It's really hard for me to even make out what instruments I'm hearing, which is always a plus for me. This is a true tightrope walk of an improvisational performance, with no core holding the sound together and the musicians forced to plow further in their sonic exploration or fall apart. I'd say that 32 minutes is a pretty good run to hold together. Last year I reviewed the Pyramid album, which presented itself as a 1974 krautrock performance, although its authenticity was in question. This does not come with the krautrock label, but if it did I'd be pretty easily convinced that it was the real deal.

Live in the Theater of DisBelief is not comfortable music. It probes pretty deep into the unknown and will probably not be playing at your next dinner party (if it is, invite me). For those of you that like to hear the stranger end of those 'bleepy-bloopy' sounds, this should be right up your alley.

Listen to Me:
We're Late For Class - 2007 - Live in the Theater of DisBelief

We're Late For Class - 2008 - The Jim Morrison Seance Tapes

Quality: 4 out of 5
Trip-O-Meter: 4.75 out of 5

We're Late For Class is an internet-based psychedelic improv group which manages to deliver an unadulterated psychedelic maelstrom on their better recordings (there are 30 so far, so you have plenty to choose from). This latest release is fortunately one of their better ones, complete with the unwilling participation of the ghost of Jim Morrison; better known as some of the poetry readings that Jim did while about to slip of this mortal coil.

What we've got here is basically one 14-minute track... twice. I guess it's wise to pass along the non-Jim version, but it's the one with him that really works. The music here is simply a jam from college-related folks (students? professors? hard to tell). The musicians are clearly listening to each other well, but the entire 14-minutes is based on a repeating bass line. I have to say that I prefer something a little more free-form and without a net, but these guys pull it off about as well as anyone's going to. There are lots of weaving delayed and de-attacked guitars at work here, and it's a pretty hypnotic affair. On top of all of this we are treated to the strange rantings of Mr. Mojo Rising about indians and blood while an engineer occasionally chimes in to keep Jim on tracks ("How about the post-death stuff, man?). I have to admit that I'm a bit of a Doors junkie (they very well be my most listened-to band) and this does it for me. In fact, these folks do a better job with Jim's poetry reading than the Doors themselves did on An American Prayer. The second track is the Jim-less version. It's nice to listen to in order to hear exactly what the musicians are doing, but the magic is definitely on the first track.

A lot of people, myself included, are whoring away their music on the internet but this is one of the better ones I've come across (side note: if you've sent me your music and I haven't posted it, it doesn't necessarily mean that you suck; just that I'm busy). In fact, I'm a touch jealous of this band. The only real strike against them is the somewhat terrible band name; I really hope they change it because they deserve more than a novelty. Give them a listen... and, uh, me too.

Listen to Me:
We're Late For Class - 2008 - The Jim Morrison Seance Tapes

Flower-Corsano Duo - 2006 - The Radiant Mirror

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

Here's one that I've been anesthetizing my brain with for the past couple weeks. The All-Music Guide calls this one jazz, although the drums and distorted guitar combo definitely suggest more of a rock air. Really, with the modus operandi resting on a drone this is more of a future-injected raga. It kind of feels like the final five Cylon music out of Battlestar Galactica, but stretched out over 40 minutes. I mean that as a positive thing.

We've got tracks for three of the elements here; I guess these fellows aren't to hip on water. "Earth" gets this to a roaring star over its ten minute length. This must really send my brain into a trance as I've never had the impression that ten minutes have even passed when this one ends. The drone acts as the bedrock of the track while the drums spill all over the place in a style similar to Rashied Ali's pummeling on John Coltrane's very late period recordings (like the amazing Interstellar Space). I suppose that's where the jazz comes in. On top of that are some free form modal guitar runs that are pretty much the top form for that sort of thing. "Wind" brings things down a notch, although the basic instrumentation is the same. Our wild drummer does manage to reign himself in for an actual beat while the guitar attempts to cross the sitar barrier. Then everything comes together for the twenty minute "Fire," which passes us through raging torrents and graceful ebbs of roaring sitar-guitar and beats that seem to crest over rolling hills and epic mountains. This music will make you travel.

On The Radiant Mirror, you'll have the opportunity to hear rock/jazz/raga improvisation at its finest. I hesitate to refer to this as fusion as it doesn't really match up with that particular genre, but you will get an amazing blending of sounds different from anything you've experienced before. This is a true psychedelic experience.

Earth Island - 1970 - We Must Survive

Quality: 4 out of 5
Trip-O-Meter: 3.75 out of 5


We Must Survive is a sunshine psych gem that I had no prior knowledge about. The disc seems to date a little past the expiry date of the genre, but the sounds are definitely the real deal and recall the better moments of Curt Boettcher's and/or Gary Usher's love fest freak outs. There's a slight nod to prog here with some of the meatier instrumental parts, and I can't help but note the strong environmental awareness aspect that crops up here the very same year as the first Earth Day (I think). In fact, there seems to be a bit of a concept concerning that topic which ties the whole disc together.

As any good album should do, the opening tracks are winners. "Earth People's Park" takes a little of Brian Wilson's pocket symphony idea to heart with it's multiple sections, as does the somewhat harder rocking "Ride the Universe." Forsaking straight up lead vocals, most of the songs rely on a weave of harmonies that compare favorably with just about anyone else. The first bump in the road is probably with "This Island Earth," where the band unfortunately takes on the opportunity to sing the title in a ludicrously rising chorus. It might just be that images of the wonderfully cheesy movie of the same name are filtering through my head. Things get back on track with the ever-so-slightly morose "Doomsday Afternoon" (I'd expect something a little more hardcore with that title). Highlights later on the disc include the entertaining hippie nightmare, "Mother Earth Is a Beautiful Lover," which spins through both waltz time and a chilled version of a garage rock rave-up. A few of the references to Tin Pan Alley among the tracks don't really do it for me, but it comes across better to me than Harper's Bizarre doing similar affectations.

Finding really listenable sunshine pop can be a sometimes harrowing affair as you wade through endless oceans of saccharine sugar wads. Earth Island manages that tinge of melancholy that really takes the music to a higher level. It's not the absolute best in the genre, but I'd wager that it has more to offer than your average Spanky and Our Gang or Orpheus recording.

Tommy Roe - 1967 - It's Now Winter's Day

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

Tommy Roe's career stands mostly as a textbook example of a teeny-boppin', bubblegum rockin' "how-to." For a year or two in the late 60's, however, Tommy must have gotten the itch to be more relevant, and this great album is the result of the fruits of his labors. First off, Mr. Roe clearly chose the right producer in the guise of psychedelic sunshine master Curt Boettcher. Along with Boettcher came some of the awesome musicians who hovered around the Sagittarius and Millennium projects. Even beyond this first-rate psychedelic gauze, we've got to give Tommy Roe credit for penning some great pop songs (he has a credit on every track and sole credit on about half of them) and laying down some vocals that at least the Monkees would have been envious of (and keep in mind that I consider Mickey Dolenz a great vocalist).

Most of the tracks here sound like prime singles fodder, although this ended up as the low point of Roe's career commercially. I can't imagine why as the first four tracks here have pretty much been in constant rotation in my head since I bought the disc a few weeks ago. "Leave Her" is a driving, harmony-laced rocker, followed by the backward cymbals and endearingly goofy lyrics of "Moontalk." "Aggravation" and "Golden Girl" easily match the bubblegum psych standard of the Monkee's Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn and Jones. Later on the album we get the oddly ominous sounding ballad "Cry On Crying Eyes," which resembles a jukebox track from 1956 slowly melting over a psychedelic furnace. Even better is the title track, closing the album with ethereal pads of Boettcher-arranged harmonies and strange reverberating shimmers of sound.

As readers of this blog know, I'm a big fan, so let's give Boettcher's production some closer attention. At it's heart, this album really is not a far cry from Roe's teeny boppin' days. The difference is all in the details. The backing vocal arrangements are every bit as spaced out as the best moments of the Millennium while Boettcher throws in just enough instrumental twist, turns, and oddities to keep Roe floating somewhere past the ozone layer. It probably helps that Roe's lead vocals are not a far cry from Boettcher himself.

You've got to be receptive to a taste of sugar to really dig this one, but those of you willing to stare into the sunshine very well may end up regarding this as at least a minor classic. It's not quite up to the level of the Millennium's Begin, but it inhabits the same ballpark of sound and more than deserves your ear.

Buy Me:
Tommy Roe - 1967 - It's Now Winter's Day

The Olivia Tremor Control - 1997 - Those Sessions

Quality: 3.5 out of 5
Trip-O-Meter: 3.75 out of 5

Here's a bit more OTC esoterica. These sessions (I hope that doesn't count as a pun) date from some late 90's Peel Sessions, and give us the only taste of the live experience that I know of unless you happened to catch these guys in concert back in the day (I did!). Although obviously lacking the psychedelic tapestry feel of the band's studio creations, this is another essential addendum for a few reasons. Among the couple of song suites present are a few tracks that were either unreleased or were drawn from obscure EPs. We also get a few renditions from the great LP, Dusk At Cubist Castle. More importantly though, the songs are stitched together in a series of mini-suites that almost play like proper EPs. It's also interesting hear the band attempt to fuse their bass/drums/guitar core with various sound effects and odd instrumentation in a live setting.

Leading things off is the only isolated song, non-LP track "I'm Not Feeling Human." The next two tracks are eight minutes each, and meld together about four songs a piece. These sport a far drier sound than their studio counterparts, and truthfully are not as good, but they do have the benefit of sounding very different. Hearing the altered atmospherics and more immediate punch is worth the price of admission.

If you have more than a passing interest in the Olivia Tremor Control, you'll find this an interesting listen. It doesn't come close to upstaging the band's short but masterful recording career, but it adds welcome perspective to that legacy.

Gruppo Di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza - 1967 - The Private Sea of Dreams

Quality: 3.5 out of 5
Trip-O-Meter: 4.5 out of 5

Somewhere past the precipice of sound, we find these avant-garde Italians making a curious racket. The ensemble began in 1954, obviously long before the psychedelic era, and their approach was along the more atonal side of contemporary classical composition than anything resembling popular music. Enrico Morricone was the most notable member of the group, although I have no evidence if he is part of this particular recording or not. Regardless, the mostly improvisational results here are definitely mind bending, and are sure to create a curious atmosphere in your music space.

Nothing here really resembles 'music' in the traditional sense of the word. We're looking more at alien soundtrack-scapes. There are plenty of seemingly random percussive and piano strokes scattered about the tracks, along with the occasional wailing horn. A few tracks like "Perfect Union," "String Quartet," and "Sunrise" scare me off with the screechier sound of string instruments, but I'm down with the more percussive odysseys of "Rkba -1675 Take One" and "Side One-Band Four." Honestly, even the more adventurous of you will probably find a few hits and a few misses on this one; it just depends on your personal tastes or aversions regarding abstract yet sparse orchestral sounds.

The big draw for me here is that this album is an interesting aural document of a specific artistic time and place. A few of you might be a little more up for the avant-garde orchestration, but I doubt that you're going to break this one out for your next dinner party. If you're looking for interesting nightmares, this could be a good bedtime album too. 'Private sea of dreams' could be 60's Italian code for nightmares for all I know.