Cirqles - 2014 - Meander

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

Falling headfirst through my submission and instinctively grabbing hold of the things that grab my ear.  Here we've got a meeting of the nexus between dreampop, Meddle-era Pink Floyd, and trip hop.  It's not a bad place to be.  Draw a line from possible electronic future from the U.K. sound of the 90's had brit pop not stormed the land and you may find your way here.  It's sort of like if Radiohead had gone for Kid A somewhere between Pablo Honey and the Bends.  Not as nuanced as what we got, but teeming with softly pulsing vibrations of the strange.

While the opening track suggests a psychedelically bending Renaissance Fair, the tunes settle into a 1987 synth pop groove, with the drum programming stuttering a various frame rates.  What do I dig most?  The sweet spot becomes apparent on the silk road following "Clouds," mirrored with their mercury glistening ossification of "In the Dark."  A groovy time is guaranteed for most.

Stretch out the new romantic tendons of your soul, and greet them with a touch of Thom Yorke despondence.  The sound pans through your headphones - prog rock slipstreamed through digital electricity.  Begin your journey here:

https://cirqles.bandcamp.com/ 

The Gateless Gate - 2014 - Myrrh

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

I get a lot of submissions, but a few artists really do strike my fancy.  I've got my ears open for the Gateless Gate, who attempt to bowstep their way towards transcendence.  This EP goes for a very subdued version of the M83 soundtrack-mode bombast.  I don't dig it quite as much as the Tibetian shadow mask, but it sounds pretty good with it's wafting synthetic clouds.

We've got a very unified bit of music here, with each track melding into its successor.  The pivot is a cover of the Church's Myrrh, which I believe is the first attempt at lyrical incantations by the groop.  It's good, but sometimes the bookends gleam more brightly.  "Nightmare Decent Into Jericho City" set upon us a strange Middle Eastern vibe, blasting its sinuous grooves into an as yet unrevealed Michael Mann flick.  At the end of the sequence, "Their Hollow Laughter, the Pain in Their Eyes" opens up the full-scale full moon L.A. cityscape - sound of the fog rising into a slowly disintegrating core.

I'm a rooter for the Gateless Gate.  Their debut drew my allegiance and I want to hear where they go next.  This EP is but another interesting detour, but I applaud that sort of quest. I think this set is for the initiated, but you'll get a glimpse of pure music shamanism even if you back into this unprepared.  Enter the gate this way:

https://thegatelessgate.bandcamp.com/album/myrrh

The Roving Sage

Scott Atkinson, the other member of Glaze of Cathexis, has a lot of words to say, and gets them out with his project as the Roving Sage.  Dig some of his tripped out poetry over at his youtube playlist, which you;ll find over yonder:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdqtky15oTgfuY0QGRtFelA

Glaze of Cathexis - A Few New Videos

We want you to find transcendence through our new psychedelic tunes here at the Psychedelic Garage.  Groove to the new Imaginary Being EP here:

https://glazeofcathexis.bandcamp.com/album/imaginary-beings-ep

But the point of being here are a few new videos punctuated by Scott Atkinson's trippy photographic vibrations:





Our LP, Trade Wind Navigators, will be heading your way early next year.  The mono mix will be free, with the stereo carrying a $5 fee if you are hep enough to back our sounds.

Bob Dylan and the Band - 1967 - The Basement Tapes Raw

Quality: 5 out of 5
Trip-o-Meter: 2.5 out of 5

It's not psychedelic, and it's not really obscure, but I'm here to pratter away about the Basement Tapes.  I think I found my way towards the 1975 album sometime in the late 90's.  It didn't really do it for me, and I never bothered to find my way to the bootlegs.  Turns out the reason was that the 1975 album has bundles of overdubs, it's missing some key Dylan tracks, and it has several contemporary recordings by the Band (I think I basically gravitated to those Band tracks).  That pretty much took the air out of the affair.  The whole point of the tapes is that it some guys dicking around in a basement with a dog sleeping on the floor.  I guess the powers that were needed to make it "marketable" for a mid 70's audience.  We've got official recordings to prove otherwise now, though.  I'm not a rich man and I went for the two disc version, but based on that I think it's worth your time and money for the six-disc epic.  It's a little counterintuitive here since the music diffused 1967 psychedelia, but when it's this good it doesn't matter.

Tunes like "Quinn the Eskimo" and "Nothing Was Delivered" find there way here finally, and this set ranks comfortably in with Dylan's 60's zeitgeist.  The Band are really just backing the Man, but their input is still indispensable.  No, drummer Levon Helm didn't show up until the tail end of the sessions, but we're best off making due with what we've got.  I've done my own basement recordings (as heard with Andrew Bland on "Paper Tigers," and I can dig just how much inspirational juice is fueling these recordings.  Damned if we could have touched it.  I've been obsessively listening back to front of the two discs, and I can't say that for a whole lot.  It perfectly distilled Americana.

Take the plunge.  The best music needs no qualifiers and we can't be psychonauts all the time.  Still, it transportative sounds, and that's what we're all looking for in the end.  Give it a shot in one of these spots:

Six disc version:
http://www.amazon.com/Basement-Tapes-Complete-Bootleg-Deluxe/dp/B00MXILU3S/ref=sr_1_2?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1418399041&sr=1-2&keywords=basement+tapes

Two disc version:
http://www.amazon.com/Basement-Tapes-Raw-Bootleg-Vol/dp/B00MXILUH4/ref=sr_1_3?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1418399041&sr=1-3&keywords=basement+tapes

Glaze of Cathexis - 2014 - Imaginary Beings EP

Psychedelic rock to prime you for the Glaze's full-length release, Trade Wind Navigators, due early next year.  We're on a mission of musical enlightenment for both you and us.  Dig our musical shamanism with tripped out lyrics and echoes of the Beatles, Sonic Youth, and Manuel Gottsching.  You can listen to the music over at our Bandcamp site.  It's free, but we would really appreciate any contribution you can muster if you groove to the sounds:



There's a direct download at this link:

https://glazeofcathexis.bandcamp.com/album/imaginary-beings-ep

And Scott's got a video featuring his transcendental photography that may spark up your eyes:



And finally, it took us until 2014 to start a Facebook page, but here 'tis:

https://www.facebook.com/GlazeOfCathexis

Head on back in February for the Trade Wind Navigators LP, featuring "Imaginary Beings."

Terence McKenna with Zuvuya - 1993 - Dream Matrix Telemetry

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

I was going to suggest that this disc was ripping of Shpongle, but the date on it is 1993, so I guess it's the other way around.  Anyway, place this mentally between Shpongle ans Alan Watts and you'll have a good idea of what you're getting into.  Terence McKenna is one of the modern world trippiest thinkers, so there's no questioning his cred.   So the trick is that he hooks up with the right musicians.  Hooking up with Zuvuya probably wasn't an archetypal event in the cosmic cards, but their ambient electronic soundscapes serve well enough.

Anyway, ol' Terence wants to talk to you about DMT, and that's just what he does for neigh on an hour.  Don't see myself giving it a shot - not that I'm opposed to the idea - more that I'm not really in a life position to take that trip.  You'll be jetting through the prismatic tunnel of reality to meet the crystalline aliens who hold the secret knowledge of our DNA.  But only for a few hundred seconds.  Listening to the track will take an hour, though.  I don't think Zuvuya's electronic accompaniment breaks any major ground, but I suppose it's a complement that I assumed this was recorded in 1993 and not the early 2000s (and wiki says he passed away in 2000 - oops).

This could change your reality - I don't know.  My first pick would be for Alan Watt's "Om," but you've got to leave McKenna in the running, jah?  This sonic film will appeal to all you true psychonauts, though.

Fairport Convention - 1970 - House Full: Live at the L.A. Troubadour

Quality: 4 out of 5
Trip-o-Meter: 3.25 out of 5

Well, they're pretty straight up folk rock by this point, but we did the last one so let's do this.  The angelic-voiced Sandy Denny left just before Fairpoint Convention's "Full House" album, but they retained their classic status until guitarist Richard Thompson left a year or so later.  Apparently Denny hated flying, so this window of time gave the band a chance to tour properly while still in their prime.  This recording is smooth, if a touch muddy (as opposed to Heyday's crisp, but slightly warped sound) - it is in a echoey club.  You'll hear Richard Thompson debuting the signature Fender Stratocaster sting that he's been successfully pushing for over forty years now (although I must admit I slightly prefer his 60's P90-driven Les Paul crunch), and Dave Swarbrick's fiddle is nicely front and center.  You'll miss Denny's (and Ian Matthews) vocals if you think about it, but Thompson and Swarbrick are still pretty classic British folk rock vocalists in their own right.

"The Lark in the Morning Medley" and "Jenny's Chickens" are very folky instrumentals that have every right to be cheesy, but the fire under the collective ass of the Convention pushes it into the realm of amazing instead.  Then "Sloth" develops into a twelve minute jam out that give the frontline instrumentalist to absolutely explode your minds.  It's a little odd to hear Thompson belting out "Matty Groves."  We'll get back to my earlier statement, though, that you'll only miss Sandy Denny if you really think about it.

This is not quite as essential as the Heyday set, but it's another one whose existence eluded my until my trip to the Ueda Departo last week.  While Heyday lives up to its title, this one displays the fully focused instrumental firepower that the Convention possessed at their best.

P.S. - Pour out a little bit of your 40oz. for Dave Mattack's drumming here as well.

Fairport Convention - 1968-1969 - Heyday: BBC Radio Session

Quality: 4.5 out of 5
Trip-O-Meter: 3.75 out of 5

I came into Fairport Convention backwards.  I've been a fan of Fariport's legendary guitarist Richard Thompson since high school and caught him and Roger McGuinn live in 1995, but I never really got to the band until a few years ago.  Oops.  The Convention has the rep of being Britain's prime folk rock band, but folks often forget that they started off as the country's answer to the Jefferson Airplane.  With some serious instrumental firepower and Sandy Denny's fantastic vocals, they may be better in a live setting than on their already great studio albums.  As a set of BBC sessions, there's a touch of studio work, but these recordings are basically live.  The sound quality can be a touch iffy in places, and there are a few annoying on air announcements, but I might peg this disc as the best way to hear Fairport Convention (er... second best - I'd still give to top spot to Leige and Lief).

First off we've got some of the Convention's album tracks coming off fire-breathing here.   "Fotheringay" and "Autopsy" sound fantastic, and "Tam Lin" is better than the studio track with Thompson's guitar ripping a hole through the universe.  Would've done nice with "A Sailor's Life," but you can't get them all.  The value added here is with the cover tunes.  Producer Joe Boyd says in the liner notes that he basically told them to piss off with most of their cover choices, but they got them rolling at the BBC.  I totally dig their takes on Leonard Cohen's "Suzanne" and "Bird on a Wire," and they don't do so bad with Johnny Cash's "I Still Miss Someone" and Joni Mitchell's "I Don't Know Where I Stand," which they did on their debut album, but without Sandy Denny, who knocks it out of the park here.

Is this actually obscure?  Maybe not.  But it does need to be better known.  I've been properly diggin' the Convention since 2010, but I only came across this in an oddball used record store last week.

Comminique

Gettin' properly moved deep into the mountains of central Japan.  The reviews will start rolling again properly in November.  Might I interest you in our trippy advert for Glaze of Cathexis in the meantime?  The keep the psychedelic rock groovin', we've got to justify it to our, uh, wives with some return (the new Psychedelic Garage is very groovy, but is currently equipped with nothing but my Epiphone Casino).  Fortunately, you can do this by watching our youtube videos, or if you're a real solid sender, downloading out (mostly) free music from Bandcamp: https://glazeofcathexis.bandcamp.com/

Stan Brakhage

Hi, folks!  I'm in the middle of a move right now and haven't had any time to write up any reviews. While you're waiting though, have a gander at a few phantasmagorically trippy short films from experimental demigod Stan Brakhage.  I dig him enough to have named my band after one of his films.  In fact, a lot of his films are silent.  In fact, may I be presumptuous enough to suggest augmenting them with some recordings by Glaze of Cathexis?

Glaze of Cathexis - 2014 - Focus on the Sun EP

We do hope you've been grooving on the videos for our psychedelic, shoegazin' soundblast during August.  Here's the free download for the tunes.  The tunes are a little older, but the recordings are new.  We're only trickster clowns, but our goal is still to expand all beings spiritually through the sound of music.  Take the space trip with us.  Scott ripped the images out of a bunch of Japanese astronomy magazines, and I wrote the tunes in various states of strange.  "Spinning Top" is the accusatory glance that ultimately looks inward, while the title track and "Endless Sky" endeavour to open the eternal eye of the cosmos.  It all get pulled back into the nexus of the throbbing, surfy "Black Holes."  Do share your vibes with us, and please share around and spread our altruistic virus.  The road may have an ending, but we'd like to follow it as far as we can.

Bandcamp link:
https://glazeofcathexis.bandcamp.com/album/focus-on-the-sun-ep

Download directly:
http://www32.zippyshare.com/v/43844171/file.html

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

Glaze of Cathexis - Endless Sky Video

Here's our video for the last track that'll be on next week's free Focus on the Sun EP.  Bringing on the Cure vibes for this one:



Do dig our sounds and lend some support at our Glaze of Cathexis Bandcamp page.  Everything but the last three LP's are free:

https://glazeofcathexis.bandcamp.com/

Glaze of Cathexis - Spinning Top Video

Moving on towards the September 2nd release of our free "Focus on the Sun" EP, here is the video clip for "Spinning Top," which takes on the images of Scott spinning around in a Tokyo park:



Along with an odd little promo clip featuring a baby rattle:



Dig our sounds over at bandcamp:

https://glazeofcathexis.bandcamp.com/