Glaze of Cathexis - 2010 - Underground Sound (first mix)

Here's the new set of Glaze of Cathexis recordings, which has been percolating since May 2009. It was originally going to be a sort of stoner metal thing, then a folk rock affair, and finally I just went straight for the marrow of my favorite 60's bands. 'Pala Ferry' has some elements of all three of those mindsets. This is a lot more guitar heavy than the last set. Every track here is anchored by guitar, and I just went to the Moog synth a few times to add some rubbery density. For once I had the opportunity to record some actual drums, so you get my spazzy drumming all over this album as well as a little bit of drumming from Gonzoriffic filmmaker Andrew Shearer. Hopefully you'll dig these psychedelic rock sounds. Here's some song notes for those of you who have the yen to listen:

Pala Ferry - At various times I was aiming for R.E.M., mid-period Byrds, and Dennis Wilson on this track. I think the Beatles 'Rain' was stuck in the back of my head as well. Lyrically, this is an invitation to join my cult, which doesn't actually exist. I always got that sort of vibe from the Millennium's Begin, which was my first post on this blog and is one of my absolute favorites.

Further Instructions - Here I'm commanding you to do abstract and impossible things. In my head it was going to be a fireside, smelly hippy folk rock chant, but then some Talking Heads style beats, Chuck Berry guitar riffs, and the goofier side of the Beach Boys backing vocals invaded my muse as well. This comes in second as I wanted to continue laying down the groundwork for my meaningless cult.

Launch - I'm not sure what this one's about lyrically, but I wanted to go for a Black Sabbath sort of riff heavy song. Some Cream found its way into the wah-wah'ed out lead guitar as well. Apparently my attention span ran out as the coda takes a sudden and strange turn into electronica.

Sign From Your Face - This is another one from my folk rock phase, and I was going for a Rubber Soul sort of vibe here. One with the Harrison parts being beamed in from the early 70's. My original vocal take tried to emulate Lennon and Dylan all at once, but it sounded ridiculous so I ended up dialing it back for this finished version.

Blues For A Red Planet - This is from a basement jam with Andrew Shearer on drums and myself on rhythm guitar. For the overdubs, I ran my Moog for a vacuum tube for the first time, and I kind of got off on it. I couldn't find my guitar slide for the lead guitar overdub and ended up using a plastic ear cleaner instead. The title is from an episode of Carl Sagan's Cosmos, which you should all watch right now.

Sometime With You - This song has been bouncing around in my head since my university days ten years ago, so I had to record it just to get it out of my damn head. Actually, the lyrics in my head were far dumber, but I was able to get away from those.

My Little Utopia - I wrote this sitting on a 50 meter cliff on a small Canadian island about seven years ago. I re-extrapolated the melody of the Dean Martin standard 'Melodies Are Made of This' for this track, but if Brian Wilson can get away with turning 'When You Wish Upon a Star' into 'Surfer Girl,' I might be safe.

City of the Domes - My buddy had just put a bunch of Iron Maiden onto my ipod, and I got the urge to write that kind of guitar riff and meld it with a tacky sci-fi reference. When it came time for the vocals, I found that I couldn't do a convincing metal growl, so I defaulted to glam Bowie instead. The electronic coda here has a little more relevance if you've spent some time with the strangely awesome film 'Logan's Run.'

Cliffs - I wrote this one back in 1999 on a bit of a bender in my college dorm room. I had recently been introduced to Syd Barrett's music at that time, so this is one of the Barrett-iest tracks I've come up with. I could never get quite happy with a recording of this, but it turned out that it needed those swinging Soft Machine-style drums.

Visions of the Unreality - This is another basement jam with Andrew and myself. My frequent collaborator Scott Atkinson crops up here with a bit of visionary poetry. It's actually the first time we've worked on music together while in the same room (or same country for that matter).

It Means a Lot - Ironically, the lyrics pretty much mean nothing. I set out to rip off "Yur Blues," but got sidetracked by another period of obsession with the Doors, and then decided to top it all off with my Dylan vocal impression. I guess I was getting into that whole Dukes of Stratosphear 'be your favorite band' sort of vibe.

Centrifugal Bumble Puppy - A gold star for those of you who get the title reference. I set out to write a song of my surreal and false triumphs, with each line starting with "I" and then a different verb. Music wise, I wanted to do a 'dude' version of the dronier and harder rocking Stereolab tracks.

Taking the Time Out - This one kept popping up in my head as a crappy emo punk song, but I think I successfully guided it into 'Who' territory instead. If I ever make it onto a neo-Nuggets compilation, I could imagine this being the one.

Hope you dig this stuff. I'd love to hear your comments and impressions, even if you end up thinking that this is a steaming pile of poo.

Listen to me:
Glaze of Cathexis - 2010 - Underground Sound (256kbps mp3s)
Glaze of Cathexis - 2010 - Underground Sound (full quality wav)

Vangelis - 1978 - Beaubourg

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

I've heard of this album being likened to Vangelis falling on the keys of his Yamaha CS-80 synthesizer while taking a nap. This is very abstract music and there may very well be some truth to that. But hey, if you're going to fall on a synthesizer, the mammoth, horribly expensive, and analog CS-80 is probably a good one to go for. Really, I feel like this is comparable to some of the stuff that Morton Subotnik has been hailed a genius for. Even with the avante-garde instinct at full throttle, hints of Vangelis' melodic instincts shine through. Beaubourg is far from a fan favorite, but I think it ranks as one of Vangelis' best outings.

This is basically one piece of music, split into two album sides. It's not really music to be listened to with a full attention span, nor does it serve as background music. This is simply music that has to be experienced. The esoteric is at center stage here as the music shifts from mood to mood without a comfortable reference point. Otherworldly synth tones attack your ears and evoke a truly alien landscape.

I'll easily admit that this is not for everyone. Much of Vangelis' 70's works aim for grandiose cosmic tones, but this is a different creature entirely. You have to shut off the logical centers of your mind and let the sounds take you where they will. This is late night music to prime your subconscious for the surreal. It's far from perfect, but it contains a visceral wallop that more conventional musics do not. This is what the music of the spheres sound like as they come crashing through Earth.

Buy Me:
Vangelis - 1978 - Beaubourg

Vangelis - 1977 - Spiral

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

As far as I'm concerned, Spiral is Vangelis' masterpiece. Much of the prog and rock influences from his past couple albums are minimalized in favor of trance-like sequencing and a wide stage for the spacey synthesizers. It's a little more of a minimal approach, but it allows for Vangelis' melodies to shine through without coming across as cluttered and pompous as my least favorite parts of Heaven and Hell did.

The opening title track has a massive sound backed by a properly spiraling sequencer. This is more like the sound of opening up the gates to Heaven or Hell - your choice which. "Ballad" employs some early vocoding while the grooving "Dervish D" is a perfected form of the electronic groove that Vangelis was playing around with on much of Albedo 0.39. You may note that "To the Common Man" is awfully similar to Vangelis' later Oscar-winning "Chariots of Fire" theme. This more understated track is far superior, though. The album closes with a track somewhat similar in structure to "Spiral," but ends up sounding more like the Electric Light Parade at Disneyland and is the only mild misstep on the album.

Although he doesn't quite make it all the way, Vangelis comes within spitting distance of the rarified electronic air of Klaus Schultze on Spiral. Still, Vangelis' melodic gifts come across well and make this a must hear for fans of 70's electronica.

Buy Me:
Vangelis - 1977 - Spiral

Vangelis - 1976 - Albedo 0.39

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

After his journey through Heaven and Hell, Vangelis saw it fit to launch himself into space. I think it suits him a lot better. This sounds an awful lot like the music that Tangerine Dream would make in the mid to late 80's (as well a Vangelis himself), but the funky, clunky analog sounds and 70's production makes this sound far better. The live drums that show up here and there help a lot too. Let's face it, music of this sort walks a fine line between 'awesome' and 'cheesy,' and the digital sheen of the 80's sent these sounds careening over the edge into a new age abyss. But we're looking at Albedo 0.39 for now, and it's the real deal. As far as the orchestral synthesized sub-genre goes, this is space music at its best.

For you Carl Sagan junkies, "Pulstar" and "Alpha" were a few of the tracks that were used in the phenomenal score for Cosmos. There might be some more here as well, but those two were distinctly burned into my head. "Pulstar" features some brains piercing synth stabs while "Alpha" is a perfect crescendo. The other major tracks here are "Main Sequence," which sound like a band of robots playing fusion, and the two part "Nucleogenesis," which most recalls "Heaven and Hell Part 1," except that it's rocked up and sounds far superior to my ears (was this one in Cosmos as well?). There are some enjoyable shorter pieces as well. "Freefall" has a touch of world percussion added to fine effect, and the star chart recitation on the closing title track is fun as well. I think most of my trance music listening is at least in part my trying to recapture the vibe of sitting in a planetarium at age 8, and this one does a fine job of doing that.

Yeah, this music is on the cusp of 'new age,' but I think that term usually applies to failed space or spiritual music. This album definitely gets the space dynamic correct. Vangelis certainly beat both 80's Tangerine Dream and his future self at their own game ten years before the fact.

Buy Me:
Vangelis - 1976 - Albedo 0.39

Vangelis - 1975 - Heaven and Hell

Quality: 3.25 out of 5
Trip-O-Meter: 3.75 out of 5

The way I see it, Vangelis has had four major periods in his career. There's of course his mostly awesome stint with the psychedelic rockin' Aphrodite's Child, his insane experimental/prog period of the early 70's, his 'golden artistic period' of the mid 70's and the new age drivel period he's been often stuck in since about 1979 (there are things like the Blade Runner soundtrack which definitely get a pass). This album is often seen as the start of his most artistically valid period, but to tell the truth I'm not that enamoured with Heaven and Hell. The are some touches of synth and melodic genius sprinkled throughout this record, but Vangelis was going for an orchestral prog vibe that tends to turn me off. If you're into that sort of thing, expect to add another point to the 'quality' meter.

This appears to be a side-long track sort of affair, but I think it would have been a much better for the big 'Heaven and Hell' suites to be split up, or at least given names. It hard for me to conceptualize what's here and separate the wheat from the chaff, so to speak. "Heaven and Hell Part One' starts of well, but the choral vocals get pretty silly a few minutes in and it veers a little too far towards the orchestral prog vibe for my taste. That said the last few minutes of the 15 minute long suite is the music used for the theme to Carl Sagan's Cosmos, and that stands out as one of my favorite pieces of music in general. It's just too bad that I either have to fast forward or listen to pompous choruses and synth themes bellowing into my ear. "So Long Ago, So Clear to Me" doesn't appeal to me at all. Word on the street is that Jon Anderson of Yes and Vangelis were an inspired pairing, but it seems like the most hellish thing here in my view. "Heaven and Hell Part Two" fairs a little better with it's ambient vibe, but there are still a few sections where I see happy elves dancing in the shire or Lord of the Rings pomp instead of the more tripped out soundscapes that I look for in the best 70's electronic records. Like part one, the final section is the spaciest and the best.

I suppose I'm being a little harsh with this album, but it's often held up as Vangelis' masterpiece whereas I prefer pretty much all of his other 70's albums over this one. Still, there are some spots of really great music to be found here, and if you dig Jon Anderson, then you'll have a nice treat under your pillow instead of the turd I found.

Buy Me:
Vangelis - 1975 - Heaven and Hell

Ravi Shankar - 1997 - Chants of India

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

I'm still having some problems with my internet connection, but I went out of my way to share this one with you as I've been listening to it regularly for the past five years (and almost daily for the past month or two). Ravi Shankar and George Harrison are certainly not obscure fellows, but this is apparently out of print, so here we are. Despite the marquee names, you won't hear Ravi Shankar's sitar or George Harrison's voice or lead guitar. Still, this is one of the best things that either recorded in their careers. Shankar took it upon himself to arrange a number of ancient Indian chants, while Harrison took on the role of producer and contributes some acoustic guitar parts as well as some instrumental textures such as the vibraphone. This is truly transcendent music - much of the music on this blog may take on additional layers after ingesting a few psychedelic substances, but all this album needs to take you on a trip is a ray of sunlight piercing through your window.

A track-by-track review doesn't really seem appropriate when dealing with deeply religious music, so I won't bother. I will say that the chanting is top notch to my ear, while Harrison's instrumental contributions adds a little incentive for the modern rockers among us. Shankar's arrangements do include much of the East with the chanting and drones, but a fair amount of western sounds show up as well with acoustic guitars and some string embellishments wafting over the music. One session of this was recorded in London, while the other two took place in Mumbai. As such, it's not an entirely authentic Indian experience, but it is as near a perfect musical and spiritual experience as you're likely to find on a physical slab of media.

This would easily make my list of ten 'Desert Island Discs' for those of you that used to peruse the pages of Tower Records' "Pulse" magazine. I've been playing this a lot around my one-year-old daughter as what I hope is mind expanding children's music. This album is truly a part of my life and a very welcome gift from Shankar and the departed Harrison. I hope you will dig it as well.

Agitation Free - 1972 - Malesch

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

Poor Agitation Free, having their members continually poached by better known krautrockers like Tangerine Dream and Guru Guru - and all before their debut album! Fortunately some travels through Egypt helped them get it together, and this album is pretty sweet. Featuring echoes of Middle Eastern music along with touches of the glacial sounds of Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schultze and some prog rock grooving, Malesch makes for a fine 40 minutes. The drumming here is well played and recorded, and the organ riffs sometimes recall something Terry Riley would target.

With a touch of early sampling, "You Play For Us Today" does a fine job setting the gliding groove that the album pretty much sticks to. "Sahara City" serves up a full blast of the Middle Eastern sounds before turning into a full-fledged freak out. Then it all comes together for the album's best track, "Ala Tul." That one makes me picture a wild solar medina (Arabic marketplace) orbiting Neptune. It's even a little groovier than the Star Wars cantina - at least in my head. The rest of the album is no slouch. The title track is only a shade under "Ala Tul" while striking a similar vibe, and "Rucksturz" sends us off with a final though of glammy, acid guitar.

While there are plenty of elements on this disc that some of the other 70's German musicians pulled off even better, Agitation Free hits their marks well and the Egyptian sounds help set this one apart. With clean production and fine playing, this is a necessary listen.

Amon Duul - 1970 - Para Dieswarts Duul

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

Please note that this group of krautrockers are Amon Duul, and not Amon Duul II. The original Amon Duul was a communal group of freaked-out German hippies of which being a band was only one facet, whereas Amon Duul II was an offshoot of the more musically inclined members of the commune. Although Amon Duul II is by all rights more musically accomplished and focused (while still retaining a strong avant garde edge), I tend to find myself listening to the spacey ramblings of the commune's recordings far more often. This album is the final set from the original group.

The album begins with an extended side-length jam out, which starts off with a minimalist, proto-Spacemen 3 drifter which features vocals about time machines, and ends with a long acoustic guitar driven jam. They're both well and good, but my favorite part is the echoing guitar scales and noise in the middle of the track that stitches them together. The proper album contains two fully separated tracks on side two. While it's pretty primitive sounding, I'm charmed by the chiming guitars and probing bass of "Snow Your Thirst and Sun Your Open Mouth." Paramechanische Welt" isn't bad, but it does reek a little more of screwing around in a drum circle than I'm usually happy with. The reissue contains a couple bonus tracks that make a nice addition. "Paramechanical World" sounds almost like one of the early tracks that Damo Suzuki recorded with Can.

Although not quite an ultimate krautrock classics, Para Dieswarts Duul is one of the better early entries in the genre. I'm usually not particularly attracted to jammy rock unless played by top notch musicians, but Amon Duul manages to create some very cool atmospheres even if they don't always sound completely in control of their instruments. For those of you that grab anything with an Ohr Records label, this will be a most satisfying listen.

*Note - My internet connection is still pretty screwy. I'll post when I can.

Far East Family Band - 1976 - Parallel World

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

Far East Family Band was one of the absolute best psychedelic/prog bands from Japan, while producer Klaus Schultze was (and is) at the top of the electronic krautrock pile. Even with such strong credentials from the outset, this album is more than the sum of its parts. The two musical forces meld perfectly, with the best parts of their musical identities at the forefront without obscuring the other. Parallel World is how every collaboration would go down in a perfect world (a perfect world that is parallel to ours I would suppose).

"Metempsychosis" is sort of a prelude track, working a tribal groove not too far removed from Schultze's "Moondawn." Schultze's presence is felt even more with his cascading Moogs on "Entering," which eventually crashes head on with the full blast of the Far East Family Band on "Times." Yeah, they're probably echoing Pink Floyd's "Set the Controls For the Heart of the Sun" a bit too much, but I'll forgive them as I think "Times" is ultimately a superior track. We then get an extended 'sad Japanese man' psychedelic ballad with "Kokoro." It's my least favorite track here, but the quality of this album is so high that it would be a highlight on a lot of other albums. Side two consists of the "Parallel World" song suite, and of course is not to be missed. "Amanezcan" provides some modular Moog haze, while the band cranks up the voltage into some fine psychedelic funk beats on "Origin" and "Zen." The rest of the album lets the sonic DMT kick in as we're treated to some cosmic sounds that rival those on Tangerine Dream's Alpha Centauri.

Parallel World is one of the best psychedelic/prog albums of the 70's. It's definitely the best the Far East Family Band ever sounded, and it's a high point for Klaus Schultze as well. This reaches farther out into the space rock aether than most of the space rock luminaries ever managed, and deserves the ear of all the heads out there.

Gaa - 1973-1987 - Alraunes Alptraum

Quality: 3 out of 5
Trip-O-Meter: 4 out of 5 (for the first three tracks)
-268 out of 5 (for the rest of the album)

Gaa was one of the more obscure krautrock bands, which I suppose is already a somewhat obscure genre. The first three tracks were earmarked for their never completed second album, while the rest comes from their "second wind" in the 80's. They don't sound like the same band at all. 70's Gaa has a smooth psychedelic jazzy sound while the 80's stuff is more like manna for leather-clad eurotrash neon-lit club dwellers of the period.

You'll want to give this a listen for "Autobahn" and "Morgendammerung." The first has nothing at all to do with the Kraftwerk tune, but sounds sort of like if Roger Waters had taken his World War II obsession to the next level. I'll admit that it could just be because they're singing in German. Either way, it's got a pretty awesome spacey groove. "Morgendammerung" is a lengthy jazz-rock instrumental that has a great flow, even if the bass player seems to have trouble holding the beat a few times. "Heilende Sonne" is a perfectly listenable track, but the rest of the album is ridiculous. I don't necessarily want to dismiss the rest of the album as the inspiration for David Hasselhoff's musical career, but I can help but get an imagine of the Hoff himself working his way through a no-budget karaoke video as this stuff plays. I bet seeing the 80's Gaa in concert would have been a memorable experience, but it sound silly on your sound system.

So we have the memory of a pretty decent 70's krautrock band side-by-side with a bit of the absurd. At least the last four tracks are jaw droppingly bad in a 'I can't believe this is happening' sort of way. That's got to make it worth one listen during which you can pump your spikey bracelet-lade fist. It also a fine album for you to subtly end your next party.

Note: Yes, I know that the first "a" in "Gaa" has an umlaut, but I'm too lazy to figure out how to type that out.

Note 2: While I do enjoy the bug green on the cover, the rest of the art work makes me extremely unhappy and I think gave me a nightmare last night. Fortunately, the other dream where I went skydiving is the one that I remembered well.

Gandalf - 2007 - Gandalf II

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

If for not other reason than the spectacularly psychedelic cover art, I'd wager that a fair amount of you psych-heads out there know Gandalf already. The thing is that the baroque popsters had already broken up by the time that first album came around in 1968, and these recordings are mostly from 1968-1970. No, this is more of unearthed odds and sods from Gandalf luminary Peter Sando - but this is not a problem at all. Sando wrote the two original songs on the first Gandalf album, and I lamented in my review that there should have been more. I was very happy to find that we get eight more Sando tunes on this disc. Now, fans should come forewarned that the organ sounds and endlessly echoed vocals that formed the band sound is not often present here. In fact, these songs are pretty much all over the place stylistically, with acid-folk, psych rock, and pop rock along the lines of the better early 70's Beach Boys recordings representing a few of the genres bouncing around the grooves of this album. The recording quality varies a lot as well from full production numbers to sputtering demos.

We get the best tunes at the beginning and the end of the album. "Bird in the Hand" is a great opener and could have slipped in nicely on the Beach Boys' Sunflower. "Days Are Only Here and Gone" and the cover of "Ladyfingers" do drift a little closer to the more recognizable Gandalf, so you don't get left completely high and dry with this collection. The tail end of the album has some live tracks that are not of the best recording quality, but they do rock out. "Golden Earrings" is arguably better than the studio version and they make a nice Yardbirds' style rip through "Downbound Train."

I don't think this really qualifies as a real Gandalf album, but there are lots of groovy sounds for you to pick and choose from. Besides, when dealing with a good band that only released one album, there's something to be said for any attempt to scavenge for some more tracks. It certainly plays better straight through than Syd Barrett's Opel.

Buy Me:
Gandalf - 2007 - Gandalf II

Mike Mainieri - 1968 - Journey Thru an Electric Tube

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

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you're probably aware that I'm a sucker for sitars. I don't think I've quite let readers on to my obsession with the sounds of the vibraphone (I've got a shrine to Roy Ayers in the closet of my mind), but we've got a fine album here to scratch that itch. Mike Mainieri may not be on the A-list of jazz vibraphonists, but he definitely manages to work out some great grooves on this LP. Helping out immensely is flautist Jeremy Steig. His contributions should erase that image of Will Ferrell rocking the jazz flute in Anchorman. This will be in regular rotation on the sound system when I open my chain of opium dens.

On Journey Thru an Electric Tube, we've got several groovers and ballads. All of the groovers are top notch - "It's All Becoming So Clear Now" and "We'll Speak Above the Roar" glide through time and space quite well, with the rhythm section providing a nice platform for Mainieri, Steig, and some fuzz guitar to train off from. "The Bush" makes me thing of early Allman Brothers if you're up for that sort of thing. I'm not quite as hep to the ballads here, but they are perfectly listenable. "I'll Sing You Softly of My Life" fares the best of those tune. But for all of you psychonauts out there, we have the extended "Allow Your Mind to Wander" for your discerning ear. This track has some wild improvisation, strange echoing effects, and is firmly planted in the more avant guard realm of existence. You'll be best of following the instruction of the track's title.

Once you've played out your Cosmic Brotherhood from Bill Plummer, this is a nice destination for your fix of psychedelic jazz. Several of the tracks here have the ability to launch your mind straight through a psychedelic basement club at 3am (well, that's where the electric tube took me), and the rest are perfectly listenable affairs.

Colours - 1968 - Colours

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

Here's a distinctly American take on the more psychedelic, orchestral sounds that the Beatles were known for. The project was initiated by songwriters Jack Dalton and Gary Montgomery and features fine session players that also played with A-listers like Derek and the Dominos and Taj Mahal. Besides the obvious Beatles influence, the music here is crossbred with the sounds you'd find with Three Dog Night or hippy musicals like Hair, but this one immediately scores an extra Twinkie on the totem pole of psychedelic sounds as I much prefer this to Hair or Three Dog Night. The production is meaty and top notch, and the vocals are of high quality, both with the singer's Lennon-on-quaaludes sound and the Brian Wilson-worthy back ground harmonies. My only major critique with this one is that a fair portion of the lyrics sound like they were written by a 12-year-old ("Smoke a while, think a while - I feel I'm getting mighty bored - I know what I can do - I think I'll rob a liquor store..." FAIL!!), while the rest don't make much of an impressison. Fortunately, the music half of the songwriting more than makes up for this problem with some top notch psychedelic/sunshine pop melodies.

It's hard to pick out the choice tracks here as the album almost plays like a 'best of' collection, which serves to illuminate the quality of the songs. I could live without the music hall/vaudeville schtick of "Don't You Realize," but I have a bias against that sort of thing on rock albums and it's not as bad as the typical late 60's journey into that territory. My favorite tracks are stuck in the middle of the album, although everything here is pretty good. "I'm Leaving" benefits from a groovy beat and a fine fuzzy guitar solo, while "Brother Lou's Love Colony" brings out the sitars and has what I believe is the most memorable. "Love Heal" veer the closest towards Hair territory with it's call-and-response chorus, but the perfect Magical Mystery Tour emulation (the drums and bass are spot on) makes it awesome. "Where Is She" and "Rather Be Me" start off with pretty lame intros, but stick with them for 10 seconds and you'll find some very groovy tunes.

If you frequent the Psychedelic Garage for psychedelic pop, then this album is what you're looking for. No, it's not perfect, but I would say that the flaws here are more endearing than annoying. Yes, they probably borrow a bit too much from the Beatles, but they do it well enough that it's not a problem. At least this makes for a better faux-Beatles album than those of Klaatu or ELO.

Buy Me (this includes a bunch of bonus tracks and their second album):
Colours - 1968 - Colours

Brad Smith - 2010 - Moon8

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

I have to confess that I really don't like Dark Side of the Moon very much. Maybe I've just heard it too much. I tend to stick to left of the dial stations on my radio, but I feel like whenever I venture into the higher frequencies, I end up hearing "Money." Yet I can't deny that there is some fine artistry behind the Floyd's efforts, and fortunately the last couple years have seen a strange cottage industry of folks covering the entire album. I dug the Flaming Lips faux-krautrock take on the album last year, and I'm a fan of the reggae version that the Easy Star All-Stars cranked out. Here's another one that's gotten my attention. Brad Smith is a video game programmer and musician out of Canada who has managed to make an 8-bit rendition of the music. For those of you who are not retro gaming geeks, these are the sounds that populated Nintendo's FamiCom system back in the 80's, so all of the sounds have to be programmed to fit on a chip set on a game cartridge. I'd say that the man has done his job quite well.

Now, I'm not one to listen to retro game music outside of a game. 8-bit tones can wear on your ears pretty quickly, and they don't make you feel very cool while gliding down the highway. That said, Mr. Smith has managed to stuff in most of the arranging quirks and harmonic tones of the original album using a very small set of musical resources. I think it's fun to hear the saxophones, soul singer, and Roger Waters reduced to simple square waves. Of course with the self-imposed limitations, this is all instrumental.

While this may not be the best album as seen out of context, I would proclaim it the best retro video game soundtrack ever were it actually in a video game. Still, I think that there is something a little more than just novelty value behind Moon8. This is a fine place to try and hear the ghost in the machine. I'd suggest giving this one a listen while running your emulation (or Famicom if you've still got one) of something like Metroid or the first few Final Fantasy games. That would make this one sound like an utter classic.

Note: The files for this are only listed as "Side One" and "Side Two." This is the artist's preference. Head here to take a look at Brad's website:
Moon8 Website

Listen to Me:
Brad Smith - 2010 - Moon8

Drum Circus - 1971 - Magic Circus

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

Something pretty strange must have been seeping into the Germanic water supply in the early 1970's. This uber-freakout involves Swiss drummer Peter Giger, some folks from Brainticket including Joel Vandroogenbroeck playing flute and sitar, and apparently Timothy Leary sending some of the lyrics their way. The sound here is definitely follows a firm trajectory through the outer reaches of the krautrock universe, but there's also a notable jazz influence that sets this one apart.

The main event here is the twenty-four minute long track, "Magic Circus." This tune offers several distinct sections, with percussive walls of sound, clouds of flute, sitars, modal jazz passages, spoken word, and odd chants. The chanting in particular makes me start thinking about the Firesign Theatre or the Monkees' oddball chant from their film Head. It's a first rate musical trip and chances are that even if you don't dig all of it, some of it will get your attention. Side two brings us some shorter form pieces, with "Papera," "Groove Rock," and "All Things Pass" putting on a convincing jazz and/or funk hat on pretty convincingly, and "Now It Hurts" and "La-Si-Do" recalling the lysergic sounds of Brainticket.

If there's nothing else you can say about this album, it's pretty diverse. But I can say a lot more in favor of it and I'd be willing to toss it at least in the "underrated minor classic" category. Drum Circus is very ambitious in terms of their sonic targets, and I think you'll find that they mostly hit the mark. I just wish that someone had made some groovy psychedelic artwork for the cover instead of the 'I just learned Photoshop yesterday' look (I'm assuming this art is for a more modern release).