Happy End - 1971 - Kazemachi Roman

Quality: 3.25 out of 5
Trip-O-Meter: 3 out of 5


Happy End's second disc is pretty much their attempt the band's attempt to refine and crystalize their basic sound. It's a brighter and folkier affair than their debut, and I'd say that they seem more confident and both songwriting and playing. This doesn't necessarily mean that I think it's a better album however. Like the cover art you see, the music comes across as a lot more 'blah.'

What I really dug about the first disc was it's often almost tongue in cheek experimentation. It seemed to somehow mix the sound of a solid, but not completely inspired professional band and the sound of some very talented, but undisciplined kids making music in a garage. Here, the balance is more on the side of the competent, but less interesting band. In particular, the band seems to be exchanging their more psychedelic sounds for CCR rhythms and pedal steel channeled through the Eagles. Personally, I don't think that is a very exciting prospect, but maybe you do.

So this is a nice, solid album, even if not providing much variation; I guess you could say the same for a Poco album. You've heard "Kaze wo Atsumete" if you've seen the film "Lost In Translation," and it's most certainly responsible for Happy End's recent international visibility. If you dig that track, you'll find more to like here, although you should expect a stronger infusion of imported country rock on other tracks. Nothing really hits the peaks of the first album, but everything here is at a consistently "pretty good" level. I prefer tracks like "Haikara Hacuch" or "Taifuu," which shift to a more rock sound. Elsewhere, "Ashita Tenki ni Naare" is an extremely stange attempt at funk. Basically, you need to hear this album at least one, but my guess is that you'd play the first one a little more often.

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Happy End - 1971 - Kazemachi Roman

Happy End - 1970 - Happy End

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

Getting into popular world music is often a slippery slope. Of course you can always track down traditional and/or folk sounds and at least appreciate it. With popular world music, however, I feel musicians tend to take one of two routes. Most artists latch on to the sounds of best-selling American and British artists and copy it. Unfortunately, this falls victim to the law of diminishing returns, and woe to our ears for the artist that is using bad western pop as their template. Restoring my faith in humanity are the more select artist who still may use western popular music as their basis, but really try to incorporate something new and/or distinct from their culture.

Happy End is not one of the best bands I've heard, but they deserve some respect. In the 60's, Japanese rock tended to consist of instrumental 'surf' style bands and folks covering western rock songs or trying to write their own in often broken English (those wanting Japanese lyrics had to turn to the ultra-melodramatic Japanese pop called 'enka'). Happy End did draw a lot from light psych bands and sunshine pop in the west, but they carved out their own unique sound with some interesting production touches and sang completely in Japanese, often drawing their melodies from native folk ideas.

This debut is a solid psych/folk groover, with the band creating their own spacey atmosphere rather confidently. The disc starts well with the catchy "Haruyo Koi," but I think they saved their better material for the midsection of the album. The backwards swishes of "Tobenai Sora" signal a shift into more experimentation and stylistic shifts. This and the three following tracks could have made a perfect sundrenched Japanese psych EP. The band's eponymous track near the end is another folky winner starting of like Appalachian porch music in the middle of the Japanese Alps before shifting into a groovy marching rhythm. This runs into the weirdly experimental "Zoku Happyend," which closes the album.

For me, the big hook for this band is Takashi Matsumoto's vocals. Often coming as a double-tracked wall, Matsumoto usually sings in sort of a strange dispassionate tone. Yet, the emotions of the song still come through, even with a language barrier in place for non Japanese-speaking listeners. It's as if he is able to suggest emotion rather than express it.

While not the best psych album you'll ever hear, Happy End is a nice comfortable 36 minutes that is a distinctly different flavor from more western sounds and certainly worth a little of your time.

Buy Me:
Happy End - 1970 - Happy End

The Hollies- 1966 - For Certain Because...

Quality: 3 out of 5
Trip-O-Meter: 2 out of 5

This album came out in late 1966, and unfortunately the Hollies were a little behind the times. For Certain Because... has a lot more in common with the pure pop rock of 1965 than of the wild experimentation steady building to a Summer of Love explosion. The Hollies do attempt a few more contemporary production touches here, but they mostly fall flat on their face and leave the convention rockers here as the highlights.

For Certain Because... starts off strong. "What's Wrong With the Way I Live" bursts straight out of the gate with a strong composition and plenty of the immaculate harmonies that were the Hollies' trademark. "Pay You Back With Interest" was a deserving medium size hit and "Tell Me To My Face" has a slight touch of bossa nova that works well.

The Hollies then spend too much of the rest of the album uncomfortably trying out random styles. "Clown" and "High Classed" are dripping with that kind of 60's cheese that keeps forcing images of Davy Jones into my mind. Meanwhile "What Went Wrong" includes pompous orchestration that sounds like it belongs in a 1960's Vegas awards spectacular. By trying to stretch their sound they end up just sounding hopelessly square.

Not that there aren't some bright spots later on. "Suspicious Look In Your Eyes," "Peculiar Situation," and "Don't Even Think About Changing" are all solid pop, although I'd imagine that they sounded dated even in late 1966. The Hollies only manage to stay on the crest of the wave of musical change on the closing track "Stop! Stop! Stop!" It's the only track here that I'd actually rate as being psychedelic, and it's a harbinger of the next two albums where the band would find a lot more footing to expand their sound.

Also included on this disc is the non-LP "On A Carousel." It's another track that would have been a perfect track for 1965; meaning once again that it's a solid pop track, but has little new to offer. We also get the stereo and mono mixes of everything. I wouldn't say that there's much of a difference, although my personal pet peeve concerning extreme stereo separation is very present in the stereo mix. I prefer at least a little percussion in both channels.

Those looking for the more psychedelic sound of Evolution or Butterfly will only find small hints of that sound here. If you're cool with some B-list 1965-style folk rock, you should end up with a couple choice tracks from For Certain Because...

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The Hollies- 1966 - For Certain Because...

Shpongle - 2005 - Nothing Lasts... But Nothing Is Lost

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


This is a damn fine album. Here Shpongle refines some of the atmospherics and world beat elements of Tales Of The Inexpressible and uses them to create a voyage more like their first album. The concept here is a series of dreams which equates to what I like to think of as some awesome audio paintings. Although there are 20 listed on the back cover, it's better to think of these as several long tracks, especially as there is no pause between many of the tracks.

Posfords guitars return here as do many of the female vocals and other worldbeat elements. But where the last album used these in a jarring manner that sometimes threatened to make these psychedelic explorers sound more like Deep Forest, everything here is fully integrated into the trance-inducing rhythmic structure. Of course Raja Ram is present to contribute some odd utterances and make sure things are properly twisted.

As far as I can tell, the first dream sequence is like a surreal trip to Rio, maybe a little fear and loathing during carnival. The second sequence makes me think of a flying dream, an out of body experience perhaps above the London skies. For the next sequence we have an encounter with ancient Mayan shamanic culture. The fourth sequence places images of a extremely technological future in my head; sort of a happier Blade Runner landscape. For the finale we get a sequel to "Divine Moments Of Truth," which sounds like another DMT trip to me, including a Ned Flanders sample from the psychedelic chili pepper episode of "The Simpsons."

Of course the beauty here is that everyone will probably come up with completely different images and interpretation. This is a concept as no concept, or perhaps an attempt to tap into the collective unconscious.

Shpongle's third album is a nice Roarshach Test. It's not enough to listen to this album passively. To really appreciate it properly you must imprint a bit of yourself into the music and listen actively and using your own imagination.

Buy Me:
Shpongle - 2005 - Nothing Lasts... But Nothing Is Lost

Shpongle - 2001 - Tales Of The Inexpressible

Quality: 4 out of 5
Trip-O-Meter: 4.25

Shpongle continued to inhabit their distinctive little musical niche on this 2001 album. Fortunately, they did not attempt to recreate the blueprint of their debut as many electronic acts tend to do. I don't think this is quite as good as the debut, but it is still quite impressive and manages a different feel.

While the first album evoked wild psychedelic trips through multi-dimensional space, this one sounds a little more like the hip tribal ceremony down by the beach. The tracks are somewhat shorter, focusing on a distinct vibe rather than the shifting canvases of the first album. Additionally, there is far more organic sounds here. Simon Posford breaks out his Spanish flavored guitar straight away on "Dorset Perception," and it turns out that his fine playing fits perfectly in Shpongle's music.

Shpongle does a great job matching atmosphere to song titles. "A New Way To Say "Hooray"" takes on a humorous bent as we listen to the almost plodding march-like rhythm. Raja Ram gets plenty of space for his strange exhorations and spacey flute too. Meanwhile, "My Head Feels Like A Frisbee" is set to a rhythm that seems to be sonically spinning, before it collides with a little space age mambo. The most 'epic' track here would be "Around the World in a Tea Daze." It shows some signs of Berlin school pulsing, but ends up throwing a wall of worldbeat sounds and vocals. Honestly, it probably comes close to the line of being a bit cheesy, which was never an issue on the first album. If you're ok with a couple symphonic synths and an occasional club beat, you'll be fine. Besides the song eventually glides into Raja Ram nice introspective "Flute Fruit," which closes the album.

I would definitely suggest picking up Shpongle's debut first, but if you find that the atmosphere is your thing, then Tales Of The Inexpressible will add some fuel to your musical fire.

Buy Me:
Shpongle - 2001 - Tales Of The Inexpressible

Shpongle - 1998 - Are You Shpongled?

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

Shpongle is a criminally underrated electronic psychedelic band which successfully mixes the sound of pulsing psychedelic trance, with first rate ambient atmospherics. Like Steve Hillage in System 7, Shpongle is the modern home for a former 60's underground psych musician. Raja Ram, formerly the flautist and vocalist for Quintessence, provides the personality and basic aesthetic for Shpongle, along with some flute and strange chanted vocals. Supporting him the more nitty gritty side of drum and sequencing programming, and synths is Simon Posford. The two apparently hooked up musically after witnessing a solar eclipse in India while tripping the life fantastic. That scenario pretty much sums up the sound of the album too.

Are You Shpongled? presents a very unique and interesting form of psychedelia. The tools here are made up of your basic late 90's electronic music kit, although with some nice organic sounds sprinkled in, but the aim has more to do with the 60's. Posford and Raja Ram seem to be attempting some sort of spiritual nirvana through their music, which I doubt the Chemical Brothers tend to try (even if they have managed several awesome electronic psych tracks).

The first half of this disc presents some relatively short songs (only 7-9 minutes!) that are a fine introduction to the world of Shpongle. There are lots of world percussion sounds, cool samples, and plenty of Raja's flute. I tend to view this as the prelude for the second half, however.

Starting with "Behind Closed Eyes," the album takes on a more epic bent. The 12 minutes track is like a voyage through a dance club slowly but shifting into a ayahuasca induced Peruvian forest. It's very visual music, especially if you follow the instructions of the title.

Even better, and the peak of the album is "Divine Moments of Truth." Pick out the initials and you'll find that this is a tribute to this strong psychedelic substance. Fortunately, the music does a perfectly fine job on it's own evoking the kaleidoscopic, multi-dimensional world beyond this one. The shifting beats, and vocoded and organic chants do an amazing job of pushing the listener through an auditory trip. Following this is the far more chilled out "...And the Day Turned to Night," which owes more than a bit to late 70's and early 80's Tangerine Dream synth epics, while still including Shpongle's own trance-like bent.

Shpongle's debut does a great job melding modern electronic beats and effect to music that aims for a 60's aesthetic. There's really nothing else that sounds quite like this band.

Buy Me:
Shpongle - 1998 - Are You Shpongled?

Mort Garson & Jacques Wilson - 1968 - The Wozard Of Iz

Quality: 3.25 out of 5
Trip-O-Meter: 4.5 out of 5

Occasionally, you run across an album that almost gives psychedelic exploitation a good name. This certainly rates in that category. What we have here is a positively strange combination of elements which tried to be completely turned on and tuned out, and failed to a certain degree. Yet, in it's failure it turned out so odd that it is still wildly tripped out.

Let's go for the negatives first. The whole "Wizard of Oz" overlay is pretty cheezy. Apparently, here Dorothy (who may or may not be voiced by Nancy Sinatra) is a Kansas kid who tries to become one of the groovy people and getting to where it's at, but ends up surrounded by her psychedelic new friends in a reality bending field of poppies. Yes, we get about every psychedelic cliche possible in 1968 thrown at us during the course of this album. Hopefully you'll find this naively charming as I did rather than annoying. More annoying for me are the voices of the Wozard, Scarecrow, and Tin Man. It sounds like they pulled Sid Caesar, Carl Reiner, and Milton Berle off of a Borscht Belt stage, hopped them up with 28 hits of acid each, and tossed them into the recording studio. Actually, now that I've read my description, you might dig it.

On the sunburnt side of the teeth (I got this fine descriptor from the album), we have an interesting pedigree running the show here. Jacques Wilson wrote the poetry for the Zodiac's Cosmic Sounds album, and the ramblings here are equally strange and amusingly cliched. "Blue Poppy" in particular gives us a truly deranged stream-of-consciousness ranting. The scoring here is also an interesting slice of early electronica. Here's a couple quotes I found just from randomly clicking around the album. Really, it's full of them:

"We have forgotten things that we've never known"

"I have to find out where my head belongs, and listen to the songs, the groovy people sing. I want to do my thing."

"Johnny is marching home again... and again... and again. No, not again!"


Mort Garson, the arranger of Cosmic Sounds, teetered on the edge of being one of those Moog pioneers who devoted their talents to those strange bleepy and bloopy easy-listening albums of standards that you can hear daily in Tomorrowland at Disneyland. Fortunately, this being facinated with exploitative psych, he juxtaposes this kind of easy listening side with some wild screaming synth sound and plenty of odd sound effects. Once again "Blue Poppy" is the freaked out six minute focus for all of this. We also have "Leave The Driving To Us," which comes across as a first draft of Pink Floyd's "On The Run."

I can't guarantee that you'll like this album, but you owe it to yourself to give it a listen. It's alternately embarrassingly cliched and mind-blowingly insane. Leave a comment and tell me what you think.

Kevin Ayers - 2007 - The Unfairground

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

A musical slacker in the best possible sense of the word, Kevin Ayers has apparently been lounging on the beaches of Spain for the past 15 years strumming these songs on his guitar. Someone fortunately heard the quality of these songs and has been occasionally shoving Mr. Ayers into the studio for the past few years. The final product is surprisingly prime Ayers and comfortably sits on the shelf along with his great late 60's early 70's psych/folk.

The production distinctly harkens back to the sound of "Joy Of A Toy." There's a extremely diverse and organic collection of instruments on "The Unfairground." Fortunately the glam/prog experiments of the 70's and the thin, uninspired sound of his 80's recordings are nowhere to be found here. If anything, the well-done orchestrations present here suggests "Sgt. Pepper's" or "Forever Changes." Still, this is just icing on the cake as the core of the tunes here really is just Kevin and his acoustic guitar playing some of his best written tunes since, uh, well... ever. Ayers' also manage to dodge any signs of aging in his vocals. The fellow is well into his 60's, but sounds pretty much the same as he did in 1969 (maybe there's a slight touch of gravel, but it sounds fine). I'm sure it helps that Ayers has always sung in a warm baritone rather than a soaring falsetto or something.

Even on the classic "Joy Of A Toy," Ayers often let his ideas overstay their welcome and threadbare constructions would drone on for five minutes. Here we have fully realized compositions, so the production serves the songs instead of the other way around. I'd be willing to say that what would make up the first side on vinyl ("Only Heaven Knows," "Cold Shoulder," "Walk On Water," "Friends And Strangers") is Ayers' best run of songs ever and is even able to stand side-by-side with a classic like "Forever Changes." The second half of the album loses a little steam, but "Wide Awake" logs in one more essential Ayers tune.

With the first side presenting some of the best tunes of 2007, "The Unfairground" isn't just a comeback, but rather a complete reinvigoration. Hopefully given a couple more years on Spanish beaches, Ayers will find a little more inspiration in the back of his mind and bless us with a follow-up to this fine album. If not, this is the perfect coda for an underground psych superstar.

Buy Me:
Kevin Ayers - 2007 - The Unfairground

Steve Hillage - 1977 - Motivation Radio

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

Now this is a horrific album cover. Apparently, the execs at Virgin Records decided that they wanted to market Hillage as some sort of new age Jesus figure, and I feel that this cover really reflects this. Fortunately, it does not effect the music inside, and if you get past the poor visual design, you'll find another solid Hillage album.

Once again, there are some changes here. Hillage had finally hooked up with a stable band (and still skilled) at this point, and Miquette Giraudy is now working her synth magic as a full member. To get an awesome dose of what she does, head straight for "Searching For The Spark." The songs here are also much more concise, giving Motivation Radio much more of a pop edge. It's a really happy, positive sounding album.

Hillage always came up with killer guitar riffs, and they work quite well in a more traditional song context. "Motivation" and "Saucer Surfing" in particular have some classic riffs. I like to refer to this stuff as sounding like the happy version of 70s era Pink Floyd. Feeling comfortable as a solo artist, Hillage references Gong a little more, especially in the goofy call and response of "Light In The Sky" and the Radio Gnome informed "Octave Doctors." He scores another great cover song too with the closing version of Buddy Holly's "Not Fade Away," which retains the Bo Diddley beat but injects the song with a cosmic vibe.

As a warning, there is a certain amount of cheese present here. Hillage's lyrics are often hopelessly new age naive, but he sounds so happy singing them that I can't help but forgive him. He projects a lot of joy in his music that glosses over some potential rough spots. There's also even more 70's white boy funk present here, but the band is more than limber and I think they make it through ok.

Motivation Radio may be the best introduction to Hillage. It retains most of his trademark sound, but serves it up in a more pop sort of context. As a result, Hillage's best compositions are present here.

Buy Me:
Steve Hillage - 1977 - Motivation Radio

Steve Hillage - 1976 - L

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

Let's try to ignore the terrible new age hangover cover art, L is where Steve Hillage really comes into focus as a solo artist. Giving him some focus is producer Todd Rungren, who also brought along a few musicians from his Utopia band. Also joining the band is Hillage's longtime girlfriend, Miquette Giraudy. She would eventually match Hillage's guitar with her cosmic synths, although here she is just providing some background vocals and playing something called 'Isis vibes." Still, this is the start of a great musical collaboration that continues to this day in their electronic act System 7.

Ironically, Hillage finds his own voice in part through a few covers, which bookend the album muc has the prog epics did on Fish Rising. He opens the disc with a phenomenal version of Donovan's "Hurdy Gurdy Man." Bypassing the proto-heavy metal crunch of the original, Hillage uses the track as a launching point for his echoing sonic explorations. The track eventually drifts into the sweeping pads and eventual climax of the original composition "Hurdy Gurdy Glissando." Closing the album is a cover of George Harrison's "It's All Too Much." This one is far less essential and somewhat closer to the sound of the original, but it's very pleasant.

Between these tracks is one of of Hillage's signature tracks, "Electrick Gypsies." It very much encompasses what will come to define the Hillage vibe, with soaring guitar, a slight 70's funkiness, and cheesy but earnest new age lyrics. Hillage's voice doesn't have much range and it's a bit thin, but he always sounds completely committed and I find his singing infectious. I don't think anyone else could sing this one without making it cringeworthy. "Lunar Musick Suite" is another prog epic, although slightly more condensed than the Fish Rising tracks at twelve minutes. Rundgren's production also helps a lot, giving the track the crisp sound it requires and more focus. His Utopia band mates fill in nicely for Hillage's missing Gong comrades.

I feel that L is the first real Hillage solo album. Here he carves out a sound that can recall his old bands, but also brings something distinctly new to the table. This is Hillage as the quintessential new age informed space rocker.

Buy Me:
Steve Hillage - 1976 - L

Steve Hillage - 1975 - Fish Rising

Quality: 3.5 out of 5
Trip-O-Meter: 4 out of 5

Steve Hillage was a phenomenal space guitarist (not that he's dead or anything; it's just that now he's more of an electronic guru) best known for being the axeman during Gong's prime, although he shines in lesser known projects such as Khan. In terms of sheer skill and interstellar trippiness, Hillage blows the far more famous space guitarist David Gilmour out of the water. For this particular niche of guitar music, Hillage really is the best there is.

This album was recorded while Hillage was still affiliated with Gong. The basic sound of this album seems to be an extension of Gong's You. In fact, he dragged along Gong drummer Pierre Moerlin, saxophonist Didier Malherbe, and bassist Mike Howlett along for the ride. This isn't to say that there aren't some major differences. While You drifts into extended grooves and synthesized ether, there is far more instrumental interplay and soloing here. I'd say that Fish Rising is much more of a tradtitional prog album than anything Gong ever did. For me, this is a tiny strike against Fish Rising as I'm not much of proghead, but it could very well be a positive for you. Also, a key component of earlier Gong is the strange humor of Daevid Allen and Gilli Smith. They are nowhere to be found here, and while Hillage has a quirky charm of his own, it doesn't come out as strongly in an atmosphere so reminiscent of Gong.

More annoying is the production. Hillage takes the production reigns himself, and while he would eventually become a fine producer, the sound here gets a little muddy. After hearing Moerlin's drumming with a crisp sound on Gong albums, it's a little disappointing to hear him smeared along the canvas. Keep in mind that this disc is very much a proper remaster, and is far from unlistenable, I just feel that this music would be best heard with a little more definition.

Songwise, the album is bookended by some prog epics. "Solar Musick Suite" and "Aftaglid" both clock in around 15 minutes and include some very extended instrumental sections. I prefer "Solar Music Suite" as it flows more and has a much less lumbering main riff than "Aftaglid." In the end though, both tracks tax my attention span a little bit. Sandwiched between is the short "Fish," the synth swirling "Meditation Of The Snake," and "The Salmon Song." "Meditation Of The Snake" recalls the more esoteric synth side of Gong's You, and that makes it winner in my book. "The Salmon Song" is a far more 'concise' prog rocker at eight and a half minutes, but it has the benefit of including a killer guitar riff.

I feel like Fish Rising was conceived more as a 'side project' to the mothership band of Gong. Hillage would sound much more committed on his second solo album after leaving Gong. Hillage did better soaring than grounded with a heavy prog sound. Just as a side note, I always get an image of midgets dancing around a tiny model of Stonehenge 5:44 into bonus track "Pentagrammaspin."

Buy Me:
Steve Hillage - 1975 - Fish Rising

Spacemen 3 - 1991 - Recurring

Quality: 3.5 out of 5
Trip-O-Meter: 4 out of 5

Recurring is really a Spacemen 3 album in name only. Once the 90's had rolled around, Sonic Boom and Jason Pierce's relationship had become so acrimonious that the two wouldn't even enter the studio together. In fact, I don't think they both appear on any of the album's tracks. Thus, we get sort of a weird double EP with Boom's tracks on side one and Pierce's tracks on side two. Even the backing is different as Boom uses some friends and a few folk that would follow him on to his next project, Spectrum. Pierce's backing is in fact the first line-up of Spiritualized. I guess Spacemen 3 simply had a contract to finish. Let's look at this as two separate collections.

I thought Sonic Boom supplied the better tracks on Playing With Fire (although only by a hair or two), but he sounds positively wasted here. Tracks like the opening "Big City," "I Love You," and "Why Couldn't I See" include some lame automated-sounding backing and a half baked 'Madchester' influence. Unfortunately, that influence comes through like a second-rate Inspirial Carpets. To add insult to injury, his vocals are a big cut below previous performances and he comes across as drug-addled bored rather than surreal and altered. With some different arranging and performances, these would've been a lot better. Maybe that's where Boom needed Pierce. I can't really say that for "Just To See You Smile," which appears in a vocal and instrumental version. Actually, it's a fine song with great production, but it was also a fine song with great production on Playing With Fire, where it was called "Honey" and sounded EXACTLY THE SAME.

Fortunately for this album, Pierce came in with his game face on. His tracks with the soon-to-be Spiritualized take the gospel vibe of Pierce's Playing With Fire tracks and amp up the production and dreaminess. With Boom out of the picture, Pierce goes for an airy, atmospheric drone rather than Spacemen 3's previous pulsing drone (not that there's anything wrong with a pulsing drone). Blessed with some great organic performances, this side of the album seriously contrasts with side a's badly programmed beats. The tracks on this side are uniformly great and serve as the not-so-missing link between Spacemen 3 and Spiritualized.

If you're new to this album, it would probably be in your best interest to skip to track 8 in case you have trouble stomaching Boom's songs. Or you might try the Mudhoney cover of "When Tomorrow Hits" on track 7 which harkens back to the Sound Of Confusion-era style. Mr. Boom manages to come through ok on that one.

Buy Me:
Spacemen 3 - 1991 - Recurring

Spacemen 3 - 1989 - Playing With Fire

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


Spacemen 3 finally live up to the space rock potential of their name on their third album, Playing With Fire. Excepting some programmed sounding drums, the band basically drops all conventional rhythmic structure, building songs of of pulsing, delayed, and droning guitars and synths. Most of the album creates a dreamy pad for the songs to float on, although we do get the buzzsaw drones of "Revolution" and "Suicide" to break things up.

At this point, the band was no longer projecting a united creative front, and it's clear that Sonic Boom and Jason Pierce were veering off in very different directions of psychedelia. Pierce's tracks like "Come Down Softly To My Soul" and "Lord Can Your Hear Me" are very dreamy, but seeped in old school R&B and surprisingly gospel. It's no coincidence that his later band would be dubbed Spiritualized, and the roots of that band are more than apparent here. Pierce's lyrics are surprisingly direct. Sonic Boom goes for a much colder sound, working with cycling drones and dispassionate, surreal vocals. Fortunately, on Playing With Fire these approaches compliment each other well and make the album all the better for it.

Everything on the proper album is quite good. As much as I enjoy Pierce's gospel-psych (which he would majestically perfect in his later band), it's Boom's strange droning that really does it for me here. "How Does It Feel" in particular takes the sound world of the earlier "Ecstasy Symphony" and gives it a little more definition and shape. The lyrics are somewhat cliched, but Boom's distant, unattached vocal gives it a few more layers. It's easily one of my favorite Spacemen 3 tracks. "Revolution" and "Suicide" adds distortion to the drones and basically tries to pummel your brain into a trance state. Once again, "Revolution" includes some strange lyrics, with Boom desperately pleading that revolution "takes only five seconds." It doesn't make any sense, but he sounds damn serious about it.

The opening track "Honey," is the only one that even tries to combine Pierce's and Boom's visions. With the vocals practically backshifting through time and an echoplexed sound, Boom's contribution is apparent. But unlike his other tracks on the album, Pierce's undercurrent of soul is also present. I guess they were playing nice that day (as they functioned mostly as bitter rivals by this point), and it resulted in one of the album's best tracks.

This disc is probably not the best introduction to this band, the Perfect Prescription is still a better place to start. Once you've attuned yourself to the sonic sphere of Spacemen 3, you may find that Playing With Fire is the band at their very peak. The kind of recent reissue includes a plethora of live tracks, demos, and a couple of random tracks. There's a Pierce-led version of "May The Circle Be" unbroken that is fun.

As a little note, the 4.25 Trip-O-Meter rating is basically averaging about 3.5 for Pierce's tracks along with the full 5 for Sonic Boom's tracks. The quality is obviously very high throughout.

Buy Me:
Spacemen 3 - 1989 - Playing With Fire

Spacemen 3 - 1987 - Forged Prescriptions

Quality: 4.5 out of 5
Trip-O-Meter: 4.75 out of 5

Forged Prescription is sort of an outtakes collection, with the core of the set focusing on alternate versions and mixes of the Perfect Prescription album. Typically outtakes suggest lesser or unfinished versions of songs. Here, however, we find the tracks adorned with additional production and coming across as arguable trippier. Supposedly the band did not issue these versions in the first place because they couldn't reproduce these versions live. Considering the fact that these guys haven't played a concert for more than 15 years, I now consider this version of the album to be almost definitive (in fact, I'll be skipping the Perfect Prescription for now as my disc is at my parents' house- unless someone wants to help me out with some mp3s).

Within the space of a year, Jason Pierce and Sonic Boom seemed to have sharpened their vision considerably, and this album is the Spacemen 3 sound in full blossom. Whereas Sound Of Confusion had a very dark edge to it, Forged Prescriptions is much more friendly and accessible album. These guys still come across as junkies as titles like "Come Down Easy," "Feel So Good," and "Call The Doctor" do little to refute, but the sound is far more textured and bright. It's sort of the reverse of the Velvet Underground's "Heroin." That song had a harrowing musical edge combined with lyrics about the ecstasy of drugs. Here, the lyrics are quite self abusing while the songs themselves float above the surface of the waters. Maybe Nancy Reagan's "just say no" crusade had at least a subliminal effect on Pierce and Sonic Boom.

The original album did have a superior sequencing documenting a blissful narcotic trip taking a eventual severe shift down (the album ends with "Call The Doctor," but it wouldn't be too difficult to resequence the tracks. I'd also replace the still good demo of "Come Down Easy" with the slicker produced version hanging out on disc two.

At this point, Boom and Pierce were still working together pretty well, giving the album a great unity. After the pounding fury of "Thing's Never Be The Same," starting off the album here in a far more swirling and intense mix, the album becomes quite a bit more chilled out, juxtaposing cloudy atmospheres with some wasted white boy blues.

The strange centerpiece of the album in my mind is the peak trip duo of "Transparent Radiation" and "Ecstasy Symphony" (unfortunately separated here; make sure to stick them back together). "Transparent Radiation" is a Red Crayola cover, although I consider Spacemen 3's take definitive. The band distills the Red Crayola's phased chaos for a truly interstellar atmosphere. "Ecstasy Symphony" takes it one step further, bringing the pulsing sound into an extended instrumental exploration of psychedelic bliss.

Among the extra tracks here are some also nice covers of Sun Ra's "Starship," and Rock Erickson's "We Sell Soul," which was originally played by Erickson's first band, The Spades. They aren't quite as inspired as "Transparent Radiation," but they are still quite successful. WE also get a few 'virtual' covers. "Ode To Street Hassle" is an original song, but as is apparent from the title, they are clearly attempting to channel. They also go for Reed on the Velvet Underground referencing "Velvet Jam," and "Soul 1," which always makes me think of the Velvet's "Booker T" jam. These last two tracks are more of instrumental noodlings, not in league with the A-list material, but still enjoyable.

My only real complaint here is the submersion of The Perfect Prescription album opener, "take Me To The Other Side." I guess they didn't have an alternate for this stellar track- it only appears in demo version on disc 2.

Although not a 'proper' album, Forged Prescriptions is Spacemen 3 at their best. They'd continue to make some great music after this period, but the personal and working relationship between Pierce and Sonic Boom would severely fracture after this. Here we get a unified Spacemen 3 at the top of their game.

Buy Me:
Spacemen 3 - 1987 - Forged Prescriptions

Spacemen 3 - 1986 - Sound Of Confusion

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

The 80's as many of you know harbored a psychedelic/garage revival. Solid bands like the Chesterfield Kings but out some very nice, although dated sounding albums reliving the raunched-out dreams of garage deviants. Spacemen 3, however, existed in a separate sphere. On their debut, Sound Of Confusion, the band clearly exists in a garage band line-up with bass, drum, a couple guitars, and sneering vocals, and they had the playing chops of your average garage band (which is to say not much). Conceptually though, Spacemen 3 were something else entirely and even here don't sound dated. On top of the garage compositions present on the album (originals and some choice covers), the band has adopted a Velvet Underground stomp and the industrial drone of bands like Suicide and Throbbing Gristle to basically create a new form of psychedelia. This is definitely evocative of the "bad trip" and a creepy narcotic buzzing. And it's all the better for it.

At this point in time, band leaders Jason Pierce and Sonic Boom were working very much in tandem and it's difficult to make out whose contributions are what. Their songs are relatively simple, but wonderfully direct. "Losing Touch With My Mind" is a great stomping opener which is as good an introduction to the group at this point as anything. Also standing out as a highlight is "O.D. Catastrophe," which lives up to it's name and is an early attempt at the band's epic drone.

Spacemen 3 also try their hand at a few cover tracks, stamping their own identity on the songs as a good cover version should do. They alter the 13th Floor Elevator's "Rollercoaster," eschewing Rocky Erickson's wildman wail and the pulsing electric jug for a narcotic rush. It's difficult to talk about this band without making drug references, as the band itself basically begs for them. They sound pretty seedy and dangerous most of the time. Girls, don't take these fellows home to mom; they'd probably have an overdose fit and then steal your jewelry to sell for more scag. Personally, I love their music, but I'd be scared to be in the same room as them (unless it's a concert hall) judging by the sound here.

They also do a fine version of the Stooges "Little Doll." It still sounds more like Spacemen 3 than the Stooges, but the desperate proto-punk sound of the Stooges is a little closer to what these guys do. I guess that the difference is that Spacemen 3 drain the song of it's swing and syncopation, focusing the song's rhythm like a needle into the vein (dammit! there I go again). There's also a cover of Juicy Lucy's "Just One Time" renamed "Mary Anne," but I have to admit that I'm not familiar with the original. The version here is pretty groovy on its own.

Stressing their arrangements as much as anything else, Spacemen 3 would often rework their songs in very different ways. Here we get an early version of "Walking With Jesus" from the same-titled EP as a bonus track. Later it would become a floating, acoustically interstellar track, but here we get it in a primitive sounding pummeling. It's not better or worse, just different, and very interesting. There's also the 17 long minute of "Rollercoaster" which adds some more sound effects, cuts out the drumming, and of course gives the listener far more time to succumb to the tracks distorted drone, if that's what you want to do. It's the best dose of Spacemen 3's trademark hypnotism present on the disc.

Spacemen 3 would perfect their very own form of psychedelia on their next two albums. The tracks here are a little more informed by the past, but as a good debut should, it provides a great entry point for the band. I think Sound Of Confusion is often underrated in Spacemen 3's catalog, but I feel it's just as essential as one of their great albums.

Buy Me:
Spacemen 3 - 1986 - Sound Of Confusion

Spacemen 3 - 1986 - Taking Drugs To Make Music To Take Drugs To

Quality: 3.5 out of 5
Trip-O-Meter: 4 out of 5

These tracks make up Spacemen 3's first stab at recording Sound Of Confusion. The title pretty much sums up the band's credo, although I feel that their music works perfectly fine as a drug without the listener having to ingest anything. It does make for a damn fine album title though.

Supposedly the band prefers these demo-quality tracks to the actual album. Personally, I think the drop in recording quality loses more than we might gain from any increase in the playing confidence; they did a damn good job on the proper album in that department anyway. I'll leave it to you which one is better.

Even if you don't consider this essential, the band does try out a few songs that they wouldn't return to for the proper album or tracks that they would later alter quite a bit (although "Come Down Easy" appears in a low-fi version of pretty much the same arrangement). It's worth a listen for the dedicated Spacemen fan.

Buy Me:
Spacemen 3 - 1986 - Taking Drugs To Make Music To Take Drugs To

David Axelrod - 1970 - Earth Rot

Quality: 4 out of 5
Trip-O-Meter: 3.5 out of 5

Earth Rot finds David Axelrod crawling a bit out of his comfort zone. There is still a great amount of Axelrod's trademark jazz-lounge arrangements at work here, but also a few notable changes. Unlike the first two solo albums, we hear some vocals on here, begging more comparisons with his work with the Electric Prunes.

Axelrod always worked with some sort of concept for his albums, and here he's tackling an early environmental message. The tracks titles break the album into two halves with his "Warning Talk" and "The Sign." Realistically, these still function as eight individual tracks, but I think it helps to consider this as part of a greater whole as Axelrod never ventures to far from his primary sound. With this in mind, we'll give the second side's "The Sign" the edge although "The Warning Talk" is still some solid music.

The vocals do help add a little diversity to Axelrod's style, and what vocals show up serve more as punctuation to the music rather than the backbone of the songs. The core is still instrumental, but I do enjoy the 5th Dimension style interruptions. Thus we can take Earth Rot one step past the psychedelic lounge label into psychedelic muzak (but in a good way). The opening and closing speeches makes me think of a bleached-out version of George Clinton's early Funkadelic epics (Axelrod and early Funkadelic did share the Stateside label around this time).

As always, there's a slight touch of jazz-funk twisting the music into something a little more interesting. The breakbeats still crop up regularly. It's still best to approach this with an open mind, as the psychedelia is often subtle and probably requires a few listens.

With it's slightly later date and slight stylistic shift, Earth Rot tends to be a touch underrated, especially when compared with Axelrod's first two solo albums. I like to think of it as a strong close to a trilogy of solidly strange albums. In many ways, the more pronounced concept makes it my favorite of Axelrod's work.

Buy Me:
David Axelrod - 1970 - Earth Rot

David Axelrod - 1969 - Songs Of Experience

Quality: 3.5 out of 5
Trip-O-Meter: 3.25 out of 5

David Axelrod continued his jazz-inflected, William Blake inspired instrumental psychedelic ramblings with with second solo album. As usual, Axelrod's compositional and arranging skills are quite enviable. If nothing else, there's an extremely professional hand at work behind these recordings. Alas, it's not quite as freaky as the albums chronologically surrounding it, but it's still a pretty solid listen.

Once again, Axelrod coaxes some funky, sample-worthy performances out of the rhythm section. In general, the sound here is pretty close to the previous year's Song Of Innocence. On this one, the melodies are a touch darker, perhaps the 'experience' at work, and there is even more orchestral presence. Keep in mind that this probably fits the 'psychedelic lounge music' bill to an even greater degree than Axelrod's other late-60's recordings.

With no slacking off in the arranging department, we've got to look at the melodies. I have to admit that these don't do it for me quite as much as what we heard on the previous album. The sound here is a little more crisp, but I kind of enjoyed the slightly murky sound that Axelrod achieved on the last album. Songs Of Experience is rear-loaded, with the best compositions showing up at the end. "The Human Abstract," "The Fly," and "The Divine Image" do the best job of creating the strangely phased out of the mainstream sound that I consider Axelrod's strong suit. Opening track "The Poison Tree" mixes a enjoyable typical Axelrod arrangement with a touch of solo violin.

This is still part of Axelrod's prime, and should be considered essential listening for anyone wanting to enter his sound sphere. Still, I'd go for Song Of Innocence or the next year's Earth Rot first, and come here if you feel yourself hankering for more.

Buy Me:
David Axelrod - 1969 - Songs Of Experience

David Axelrod - 1968 - Songs Of Innocence

Quality: 4 out of 5
Trip-O-Meter: 3.5 out of 5

Song Of Innocence was David Axelrod's proper solo debut. Freed of the rock trappings of his work with the Electric Prunes, Axelrod takes on a much jazzier sound than those productions entail (and Axelrod was in fact a renown producer for jazz legends such as Cannonball Adderley). The truth is, it's best to view this as psychedelic lounge music or psychedelic elevator music if you will. I have an affinity for exotica like Martin Denny, and this is really halfway between that and the Electric Prunes. If this doesn't turn you off, you'll likely find something here to enjoy.

Axelrod's compositional style remains intact here, but his sonic ingredients are far more varied. The almost pompous burst of orchestra remain, but we also find some juicy interruptions from vibraphones, horn solos, along with more chilled out psychedelic-jazz licks. Also of note is of course the rhythm section. In the past 15 years or so, Axelrod's breakbeats have been endlessly sampled by the hip-hop and electronic scenes (DJ Shadow has practically made Axelrod samples his signature). There's a fine line between squareness and hipness present in Axelrod's music.

Once again (for Axelrod) coming in well under the 30 minute mark, Song Of Innocence works best as a piece. Although immaculately arranged, there is a stylistic unity running through these tracks. The parts are pretty good, but they best exist together. I personally dig the square-funk vibe of "Holy Thursday,"the slightly more rock like title track, and the arranged psychedelia of "The Mental Traveler."

Technically, this is a concept album, with Axelrod inspired by the peoms of William Blake, but I don't think a familiarity with Blake is necessary; this is all instrumental. Axelrod thrives on goofy pretension, and I suppose Blake is a fine a springboard as any for his sonic journeys.

If you're approaching this from a psych angle, make sure to give this one a few listens. Song Of Innocence is all about texture, and chances are you'll not really "get it" this first time around. Once you find the sonic key to Axelrod's world however, it can be a highly amusing place.

The Electric Prunes - 1968 - Release Of An Oath

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

Pretty much dipping into the same well as Mass In F Minor, Dave Hassinger and David Axelrod worked out some traditional Jewish chants for a second religiously themed concept album. This time out though, there really were no actual Electric Prunes present. Hassinger and Axelrod simply had rights to the established name, and constucted a new core band along with a compliment of L.A. session players for this one. Even more than Mass In F Minor, Release Of An Oath should probably be labeled with David Axelrod's now cult-worthy name.

The album remains a strong effort, and there's a touch more melody and assimilation of the themes into the arrangements. "Holy Are You" in particular manages to equal and maybe even top F Minor's "Kyrie Eleison." Maybe the Jewish melodies just have a little more meat on the bones (edit: Wikipedia says only the first track is Jewish; the rest is actually based on orthodox Christian prayers). This too is a short album (24 minutes) and doesn't have a ton of variation. Axelrod is very much working in the same style of hip-hop precursor drums, wailing acid guitar leads, and bombastic swoops from the orchestra. Yes, it still sounds good, but there's nothing new to really distinguish the album from the last. According to the liner notes, Mr. Axelrod sort of got shoved into making this one, so it may just stem from a workmanlike effort and a lack of inspiration.

More annoying for me is that the chants on Release Of An Oath are all sung in English. I thought that the Latin-sung chants of F Minor added a mysterious atmosphere to the proceeding that is lost here. It brings everything a small step closer to being a real religious rock album instead of a tripped out approximation of one (I prefer the latter if you're keeping count).

Although laden with a few shortcomings, Release Of An Oath does make a nice pair with Mass In F Minor. I suppose it's only fair that we get a psychedelic synagogue to go along with the cathedral. These two albums also make a nice rock introduction to David Axelrod, whose first three albums we'll visit in the next few posts.

Buy Me:
The Electric Prunes - 1968 - Release Of An Oath

The Electric Prunes - 1968 - Mass In F Minor

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

I used to think that F minor was the psychedelic key, kind of like how A minor is often cited as the best key for depressing songs. Anyway, I'm sure that I made the connection out of strange recollections of this album. It's one of the best examples of pre-fab production psych out there

Realistically, this isn't really an Electric Prunes. It's more of a studio based wacked out concept album along the lines of the Zodiac's Cosmic Sounds. The Prunes became tenuously attached as producer Dave Hassinger wanted to find a more commercial vehicle for the band and somehow came upon the concept of psychedelic Catholic chants. It seems that the Prunes ended up a bit used and abused, but the word is that they went along for the ride anyway.

Holding the creative tiller was none other than cult jazz/psych guru, David Axelrod. Axelrod is responsible for all of the arranging duties on this album (I think we'll keep the basic composition credits with some long dead Catholic monks), and he did a very groovy job. The trouble was that his arrangements were a little over the heads of the talented, but not musically schooled fellows making up the garage rocking Electric Prunes. Thus, the band ended up as little more than session musicians on their own album accompanying even more session musicians. There's an urban legend that the Prunes don't even show up on the record. The rhythm section of bassist Mark Tulin and drummer Quint do play on every track, and singer James Lowe remains as the lead voice of the monastic vocal, but it's still clearly Axelrod in the creative driver's seat.

Once you get the bad taste out of your mouth of the band being sidelined, you'll find that this is a damn fine album. In fact, it's more consistent than any of the band's proper releases, although the awesome pop punch of "I Had To Much To Dream Last Night" or "A Long Day's Flight" is notably absent. You will find the psychedelic religious strains of "Kyrie Eleison," which is very recognizable from its use in the film Easy Rider. It's also the most basic psych rock style track on the album, especially with the nails-on-glass noise explosion of the instrumental mid section.

For the rest of this short album (26 minutes!) Axelrod adopts an M.O. that renders the tracks a little formulaic. We get short passages of the Latin-language church chants bridged together by instrumental sections mostly alternating between blasts of acid fried guitar leads and amusingly pompous fanfares from the orchestra. "Benedictus" includes a notable keyboard and bass guitar break as well. Fortunately, Axelrod's arranging skills are top notch and keep things interesting throughout.

This disc is really more of an Axelrod album than an Electric Prunes album, and if you approach it as such I think you'll find plenty to like. Listen and enter the psychedelic gothic cathedral.

Buy Me:
The Electric Prunes - 1968 - Mass In F Minor

Silver Apples - 1969 - Contact

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

Silver Apples second album, Contact, seems to be of a pair with their debut album in most respects. It's another fine example of primordial electronic rock, but the band did manage to refine and shift a few elements to keep things interesting. First of all, the band's songwriting has kicked up a notch. There are more rhythmic and melodic variations to distinguish the song, although the band does retain it's basic drone. Even more obvious is the increased presence of Simeon's, uh, "Simeon" instrument. There is a much thicker wall of electronics saturating the album while the production of the instrument is also much cleaner. Simeon also throws a banjo into a few tracks like "Ruby" and "Confusion," but I'm not sure if electronic bluegrass was the best idea. We'll count those two as misses.

Much better ideas crop up on the opener "You And I." With the new forest of oscillators in place, Simeon intones some truly cosmic lyrics to a catchy, yet unpredictable melody. Even better is "I Have Known Love," which is one of my favorite songs pretty much in general. The very tripped out lyrics like "I have learned what truth denies/I drank the teardrops from her eyes" are apparently courtesy of Simeon's then-girlfriend. The pulsing electronics here are top notch, and I find the slightly out-of-tune harmony vocal strangely charming. This is the quintessential Silver Apples track.

The band does better with long forms songs here too. There are four songs present hanging around the six minute mark, and they're all better than "Dancing Gods" off of the last disc. "Gypsy Love" and "You're Not Fooling Me" manage this by successfully stretching out the band's trademark drone. "Gypsy Love" sounds what would've been a fine garage punk song a few years earlier, bludgeoned by the electronic prism here. "A Pox On You" is more on the creepy side of things, with the "Simeon" throwing out some horror movie tones into the mix.

The closing "Fantasies" is a mixed bag. Much of the instrumental work is truly awesome (especially the drumming), while on the other hand there is a solo of "Nanny Nanny Boo Boo," which is probably never a good idea anywhere. Also, Simeon rants along in a badly recorded vocal track which I could probably do without. Oh well, maybe you can play some mental games and try to tune him out for this one.

Contact includes enough evolution to act as an interesting counterpart to the debut album. Basically the tracks here are either better or worse than the ones from the first disc. Make what you will.

Buy Me:
Silver Apples - 1969 - Contact

Silver Apples - 1968 - Silver Apples

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


Even among the cutting edge early electronic rock acts of the late 60's, the Silver Apples were an anomaly. Bands like The United States Of America, The White Noise, and Fifty Foot Hose (all of who should eventually appear on this site) tended to perform more traditional songs, albeit with electronic instrumentation, juxtaposed with wild electronic weirdness. Silver Apples had a more consistent, unified, and droning sound. They're always at their strangest.

The band is only a duo, with hugely underrated drummer Danny Taylor provided complicated, organic beats while his partner Simeon supplies the vocals, electronic bass lines, and wailing oscillations from his namesake instrument. Yes, Simeon plays the "Simeon," a series of custom made oscillators which provide for most of the overt freakiness here.

"Oscillations" is a fine introduction to the band with it's pulsing beat and echoing, alien tones. This band's ace in the hole was the ability to actually write catchy songs, even if they were dresses in interstellar clothing, and "Oscillations" will stick in your head like glue.

Truth be told, there isn't a ton of variation in the Silver Apples sound (it is a duo after all), but no one else has ever sounded like this, so they certainly could deliver for two albums in the 60's. There are some minor touches to distinguish the song, such as flute in "Seagreen Serenades," and found sound in "Program."

As odd as it is, most of the songs here really are pop songs mutated into something sounding like it was beamed from Neptune. The band only attempts epic, chanting mode on "Dancing Gods," and it's probably my least favorite track on the album.

Even beyond the songs, this is very worth hearing as the source for plenty of influence. Suicide would later borrow this band's droning electronic pulse, while modern analog disciples such as Stereolab have to count this among their influences. Silver Apples don't quite have the punch of a Velvet Underground, but they inarguably have earned "groundbreaking" status.

But Me:
Silver Apples - 1968 - Silver Apples

Holger Czukay - 1979 - Movies

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

This Holger Czukay solo disc does share many attributes with contemporary Can. There is a strong focus on dance rhythms and not so much instrumental experimentation. But where latter day Can could never quite "let it all hang out" so to speak, Movies seems very comfortable in it's campiness. It also provides a fertile field for Czukay to go wild with his innovative sampling techniques. In fact, I'd say the trip-o-meter rating is exclusively based on the sampling as the music itself often straightforward (the long tracks get a little stranger).

Even more than Can, Movies is of a kin with David Byrne and Brian Eno's My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts. Both place samples over kind of funk/jazz like instrumentals. Byrne and Eno would use samples as the backbone of the song. Czukay doesn't sample to this extreme ("Cool In The Pool" has a distinct non-sampled vocal), but he did manage to do this first, although he rarely seems to get credit for it.

There are only four tracks present. "Cool In The Pool" sounds like a Steely Dan song with a Victorian-era cross dressed on vocal. It's really campy, but fun, and the sampling is really the main event. "Oh Lord, Give Us Some Money" is far more Can-like, featuring Can's signature descending riff. It's 12 minutes long and is far better than the "epics" can was recording at the time. Actually, there is a strong Can presence throughout this album as Leibezeit is playing drums at the top of his game throughout the album, and Karoli and Schmidt each appear on a track.

Side two follows a similar pattern with "Persian Love" once again giving us camp that you'll probably love or hate, and "Hollywood Symphony" outdoing Can's epic tracks of the same era. The latter tracks seems to incorporate a little bit of fusion into its sound, which is a nice touch.

Rather than Can's Saw Delight or Out Of Reach, I would recommend Czukay's Movies. It is after the same sort of sound as latter Can was, but tends to be much more successful, and gives a full view of Czukay's innovations in sampling. Besides, everyone from Can shows up here anyway.

Buy Me:
Holger Czukay - 1979 - Movies

Holger Czukay - 1969 - Canaxis

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

Although usually cited as a solo album, Canaxis is in fact a collaboration between Can bassist/sound manipulator Holger Czukay and producer/engineer Rolf Dammers. The album credit, is in fact listed as Technical Space Composer's Crew. Although recorded a short time after Can's inception, Canaxis shares little with that band's sound except maybe in their most experimental and freaked out moments.

This disc's foundation is a series of field recordings, mostly from Vietnam. Mistakingly playing some of these recordings together with a completely different music source, Czukay realized the possibilities of found sound manipulation, and began work on this album. This has absolutely nothing to to with rock at all and is more a realization of contemporary avant music theory. If you've got a taste for that sort of thing, you very well may enjoy this.

The album proper comprises of two album side pieces. "Boot Woman Song" rests heavily on samples of Vietnamese women singing. It's very interesting and Czukay weaves in some like instrumentation to flesh everything out. As a warning though, if you find the singing annoying, side one is not going to get better.

I do like side one, but side two's title track is the real gold for me. Starting off similarly to "Boot Woman Song," the tracks fades into some chanting which is like a more mellow version of the Ligeti tracks used in 2001:A Space Odyssey, finally ending with a wall of pure electronic sound. It's very dream-like music, although it does move extremely slowly, so you need to come in with you attention span.

The recent reissue contains two bonus tracks, "Cruise" and "Epilogue." These are relatively short tracks that continue the more electronic sounds of the album. I believe that these recordings are contemporary to the album's recording dates, although my reissue says 1997. It also credits Malcolm Mooney with liner notes that were clearly written by Mr. Czukay, so make what you will.

If Can is your all-time favorite band, you still might hate this. I personally find it to be quite enjoyable and managed to finish "Metroid: Fusion" while playing this one over and over. I can't play too many albums that many times over.

Buy Me:
Holger Czukay - 1969 - Canaxis

Can - 1976 - Flow Motion

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

Can made a very unfortunate slide into crappiness during the latter half of the 1970's. I picked up Flow Motion as it is supposed to be the best album from that period, but it's still not that great. I suppose I'd like it more if it came from some completely obscure krautrock group, but it's from the Can, dammit, and it should be better!

Anyway, for Holger Czukay's last voyage with the band as a full time bassist, Can decides to play around with dance and island rhythms. Honestly, if I want to hear some island rhythms, I'm probably not going to grab an album made by a bunch of Germans - just as I don't want to hear opera singers rap. Compared with the metronomic blast of Can's classic work, there's not much here to impress. I know bands need to move on and try new things, but they should hopefully do it successfully, as Can did on albums like Future Days. Here we're just taking a step down.

Anyway let's get to the good news. On opening track "I Want More," the band does a pretty good job of making an avant-pop single. It just doesn't sound much like Can. They pull a similar feat on side one closer "Babylonian Pearl." They should've handed these tracks over to David Bowie, who probably could have made them a perfect fit. In between we find the band playing around with island and even disco rhythms to various degrees of success. "Cascade Waltz"
has some fun sonic bursts courtesy of Irmin Schmidt and I do like the tribal disco of "...And More."

As I suppose was a Can tradition, they get more experimental on the next side. We get an ethnological forgery on the album with the completely tribal "Smoke." Finally, Can's edge makes an appearance and for me this is the best cut on the album. Then Can attempts an epic track with the closing title song. Unfortunately, they ride along a simple galloping groove for a full ten minutes and it's just not that interesting; I get bored after about two minutes of this. It's like something that would have been a short interlude on a better track like "Halleluwah."

So, there you have it. This is nowhere near Can's prime, but it includes one stellar Can track in the form of "Smoke," along with dabblings in avant-pop, island sounds, and disco. For me the disco works pretty well, the avant-pop is ok, and the island stuff tends to fall on it's face. I wouldn't venture here unless you've already heard Tago Mago 362 times.

Buy Me:
Can - 1976 - Flow Motion

Can - 1976 - Unlimited Edition

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

When folks talk about Can's essential albums, Unlimited Edition does not often make the list. It�'s admittedly an odds and sods collection and features tracks featuring vocalists Malcolm Mooney, Damo Suzuki, and the four-piece Can. And yes, there are definitely a few duff tracks. Regardless of these shortcomings and discontinuities, Unlimited Edition holds together surprisingly well (at least the first disc does) and is home to some of Can's best tracks, including arguably the very best Mooney tracks.

Can always kept the tape rolling at their Inner Space studio, so they had no problem coming up with prime stuff that may have simply not fit on their proper LPs. Let's go ahead and talk about the Mooney tracks first, which I feel are the highlights of this album. Mooney appears on four tracks: "Mother Upduff," "Fall Of Another Year," "Connection," and "Empress And The Ukraine Kid." In the Pitchfork Media review, they note that these tracks would make a kick-ass EP and I wholeheartedly agree with them. It's like hearing an alternate universe Can where they were just as good as the prime Suzuki years, but in which Mooney had never quit the band. It's a very different, more-rock oriented direction, but still provides a showcase for Can's metronomic signature and a bit of weird experimentation. I especially dig the extremely strange story and avant-jazz backing in "Mother Upduff." It sounds like Mooney's making it up as he goes along and I mean this as a compliment. Mooney's vocal seems to be pre-emptively channeling Jello Biafra on "Connection." If there's any downside with the Mooney sessions, it's the repetition. Can did this with Suzuki too, but they also more or less abandoned all sense of conventional rock with Suzuki. Still, when the riffs are as awesome as those in "Fall Of Another Year" and "Connection," I have no problem with a little repetition. As a side note, Mooney's vocal seems to be pre-emptively channeling Jello Biafra on "Connection."

Suzuki's tracks are also quite good here, but don't stand out as much. I do enjoy the strange chanting of "Doko E," but Can probably did end up with their best stuff on the proper albums when Suzuki was their vocalist.

The band does quite well on their own here. Opening track "Gomorrha" is awesome, with one of the best deployments of Can's recurring 'descending-riff' motif. It's certainly a standout for bassist Czukay.

Along with plenty of song snippets which are fun but were probably never fleshed out enough for a proper album, there are also five tracks from Can's ethnological forgeries series. Once again, these would not have fit on the bands classic albums (although later installment would show up on albums like Flow Motion), but it's very amusing to hear the band attempt world influences ranging from Turkey to Japan to Dixieland jazz.

I really love listening to this album. Although laden with one non-epic (I'm looking at you, 17-minute long "Cutaway") and some piecemeal one to two minute tracks, Unlimited Edition makes for a fine tour of Can at their often best. It's like a retrospective from an alternate dimension where Can put out something different that Tago Mago or Ege Bambasi.

Buy Me:
Can - 1976 - Unlimited Edition

Can - 1974 - Soon Over Babaluma

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

People tend to see this album as either the end of Can's classic period or the beginning of their depressing plunge. I'm not sure if I ascribe to one of these views, but I am unwilling to put this one in the same ballpark as something like Future Days or Tago Mago. There's still enough here to be worthwhile, however, as Can brings the spacey glide or Future Days down to Earth or perhaps some alien planet.

Of course, the big change here is the absence of vocalist Damo Suzuki. Previous to this disc he ran off with a Jehovah's Witness and the band went on as a four-piece with Irmin Schmidt and Michael Karoli taking vocals. Neither of them are particularly strong singers, but they often sound strangely sort of like Suzuki. What's really different is that Can no longer has a catalyst for their sonic explorations. I feel that Mooney and especially Suzuki seemed to prod the band into the interstellar reaches. On "Dizzy Dizzy" and "Come Sta. La Luna" we find a much less experimental-sounding band. The quality of the tracks are still pretty good, but they're missing a bit of the old fire. Drummer Liebezeit in particular seems to have a lot less intensity on the first two tracks.

With the the third track, the almost Bitches Brew -like "Splash," Can steps up and delivers a track worthy of their legacy. Even Liebezeit delivers here with lots of awesome jazzy polyrhythms. One thing that is a personal qualm about this album and "Splash" is the violin-sounding keyboards that Schmidt employs throughout the album. It simply is not my favorite sound in this context. You might dig it.

Side two of the album is fortunately classic Can. "Chain Reaction" and "Quantum Physics" successfully the more experimental side of Can for what is pretty much the last time in their recording career. The band finally soars off of a bubbling rhythm for some spectacular ensemble jamming (I feel Can is one of only a few rock bands that deserves a license to jam) before settling into a somewhat goofy, galloping section with vocals. Then the band practically dissolves into "Quantum Physics." The band whisps away over the next eight minutes until nothing is left. It's the sound of peaceful disintegration.

If you've already got Can's classics, this is probably the next place to go. It's missing a real standout track like "Mushroom" or a great epic like "Mother Sky," but enough of Can's talent comes through to make this worth exploring. It probably was the last time that Can's experimental edge made the cut.

Buy Me:
Can - 1974 - Soon Over Babaluma

Dragonfly - 1968 - Celestial Songs EP

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

As you can see from the cover art, Dragonfly was the first home of Peter Criss, drummer from Kiss. Wait, no. Scratch that. Here we have a talented group of Dutch guys who called themselves Dragonfly who managed a 1968 released but never got to record more than an EP. It's too bad because this is a damn fine EP with great psychedelic hooks and a touch of experimentation that shows some real promise.

"Celestial Dreams" actually packs several innovations into its four minutes. Along with a fine, almost psych-folk vocal we get an awesome jazzy rhythm section, a touch of Hendrix-type lead guitars, and some odd noises which sound halfway between the three-way of analog synths, strings, and horns swooping through the background. Then with the similarly titled "Celestial Empire," the band lunges into full-tilt fuzzed out garage psych. That's a lot of genres for one side of an EP.

The second side includes a few lighter rockers that show no drop in quality with "Desert Of Almond" and "Prince Of Amboyna." Maybe these guys were going for concept albums in miniature. These last couple tracks make me think of early Caravan a little bit as they are also psych pop with a touch of jazz rhythms thrown it. Distinctively different is once again the guitarist, who is one of the best Hendrix imitators that I've come across. It almost makes me think that the man himself may have dropped in on these sessions. Almost.

You'll thirst for more after you give this a listen, but we've got to get what we can. These guys are ripe for one of those compilations that dredge up long forgotten studio demos and/or live tracks if such a thing exists.

Billy Nicholls - 1968 - Would You Believe

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

Billy Nicholls had everything going for him for a while. He dropped out of high school in 1967 and headed to seek his musical fortune in swinging London. Somehow he managed to impress George Harrison enough to get a referral to the fledgling Immediate Records, where he got to record an album almost completely self penned, complete with backing from an orchestra and the Small Faces. Unfortunately, the bottom then fell out for poor Billy. Immediate Records sank like a stone, and except for a couple of promo copies, this one didn't see the light of day until the late 1990's.

As with many withheld albums, the reputation of this is a bit inflated. The rep is that this is another Pet Sounds, which sets the bar just a little too high. This isn't too far under though, comparing favorably with the Small Faces own albums and proving itself maybe the best example of British sunshine pop.

Once again, it's not quite Brian Wilson level, but the vocal arrangements on Would You Believe are exceptional. Billy has a soaring, smooth voice and his backing arrangements are nothing to sneeze at. They do manage to eclipse what the Who or the Beatles were doing vocally at the time.

Of course, the other carrot hanging in front of your face here is the presence of the Small Faces. They do a fine job, although the show restraint as not to steal Billy's thunder. I'd say their moment of glory on this album is on "Girl From New York," with Steve Marriott providing at face-melting fuzzed out lead guitar, and drummer Jerry Shirley pounding the hell out of his skins. Another session notable in the guise of Nicky Hopkins shows up on the disc, playing some fine harpsichord parts.

Still, young Billy is clearly the star of this album, with the previously mentioned angelic vocals and some wise beyond his 19 years songwriting. The songs here are very much fully formed and top tier. Immediate seemed strangely wary anyway and saddled him with the outside written title track which leads the album. Although a little poppier and less soaring than Billy's own compositions, it is fortunately also a great track and ends up an asset.

Billy certainly had some fine potential single material of his own. Everything here is damn catchy, but "Daytime Girl" sounds like it should have been a top of the pops classic record. Oh well. I'm also partial to the climbing vocal of "Life Is Short." It's no mystery where Brian Wilson comparisons come in as he was one of the only other fellows writing stuff like this.
There's also the topical hipster reference with "London Social Degree," which is one of those songs you have to pick the initials out of. It too has a great melody and would have been fine without the goofy hipster touch.

Would You Believe is an album with a tinge of regret. This is only Billy's debut and had this gotten a proper release, it could have stood toe-to-toe with the Kinks' Village Green or the participating Small Faces' Ogden's Nut. Billy could've been a contender so to speak as his career progressed. As it was, Billy became more of a behind-the-scenes figure, working with a number of big names like the Who and Phil Collins behind the boards.

The most recent reissue includes some demos and outtakes on a second disc entitled Snapshot. I'm too lazy to review it, but seeing as this admittedly fully formed album is his only proper release that I know of, you'll want to hear it for a bit more of Billy.

Buy Me:
Billy Nicholls - 1968 - Would You Believe

Small Faces - 1968 - Ogden's Nut Gone Flake

Quality: 4 out of 5
Trip-O-Meter: 3.5 out of 5

I bet I would've done this one earlier if I hadn't threatened to do so in my profile blurb. Oh well, we've gotten to it now, and this stands as the Small Faces prime psychedelic moment. It is their best album, but I'd still hand someone the Immediate Singles as an introduction before this.

The band's psychedelic window dressings are much denser on this disc than on their previous recordings. Even with the amped-up freakiness, I can't help but think that these guys are R&B rockers at heart. Fortunately the band used this dichotomy as an asset which is none more apparent than on this album.

Ogden's Nut Gone Flake is a primordial concept album, even though the concept doesn't really kick in until the second side. That's not to say that there isn't some fine material throughout. Really, some of the tracks completely divorced from the 'concept' are highlights of the album.

Among the classics to be found on side one is the rocker "Afterglow." This one starts of with some rather clickity rhythms (that fare much better in the mono mix) and a crooning Ronnie Lane, before going full-tilt hard rock majestic with Steve Marriott providing an anthemic lead.

Separated from "Afterglow" by a few tracks that still maintain a good 'album track' quality is the almost novelty single "Lazy Sunday." Legend has it that the band intended this track as more or less of a joke, but for better or for worse they equipped it with a great chorus. The song proved itself as a single and basically found its way on the album whether the band wanted it to or not. Granted, I can see where the band balked at the goofy cockney vocals, but it's still a great track.

Speaking of cockney, once the second side starts, so does the 'concept' which is punctuated by narrative gibberish courtesy of British comedian Stanley Unwin. It's mildly amusing once or twice, especially if you've been drinking, but all in all probably wasn't the best choice. The concept's there, but you're a braver man (or woman) than I if you're able to find your way through the thick brouge to experience the lysergic tale of Happiness Stan.

Fortunately the songs are still pretty good. "Rollin' Over" cops the "Purple Haze" riff a little too closely for me to enjoy, but "The Journey" nicely delivers on it's title. "Mad John" is a totally groovy folkish story song, and "HappyDaysToyTown" gives us a climactic conclusion to Happiness Stan's story while sounding utterly and tweely insane. It kind of gives me the same vibe as the movie ending "Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life" from Monty Python's Life Of Brian.

At least in the album format, this is the crowning achievement of the Small Faces. It has a few weaknesses that tend to get glossed over in most reviews, but still has enough verve and cool tracks to be a required listen.

Buy Me:
Small Faces - 1968 - Ogden's Nut Gone Flake