The Ceyleib People - 1967 - Tanyet

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

First off - this is not a good headphones album.  It tosses entire tracks from left to right in the stereo spectrum.  I am listening on headphones and the effect is pissing me off.  Just make it true mono and end my day, please.  Maybe you've got some software to collapse it own your own.  Do it.  This absolutely needs to be a mono album as opposed to immaculately stoned, yet idiotic stereo.

On to the good news.  This is a full out trippy stumble though inspired raga rock, inflected by the vibrations of a professional studio.  Professionals do appear.  Ry Cooder is blasting his guitar through several of the sections and Larry Knetchel is on keyboards.  I'm going to be honest - I don't really know who Knetchel is, but I do recall seeing his name in a lot of places.  I have, like, ten Cooder albums on CD and I'm pretty sure a listened to a few of them at least one time.  But that doesn't matter.  When you listen to Ceyleib People, you are listening to fantastic raga rock instrumentals inscrutably thrown out into either stereo channel - one at a time for 90% of the time.  Allmusic Guide suggests that there are tracks here, but I've got it all lumped into four sections that will engroovy you one at a time.

This is very cool stuff, mixed in the worst way possible.  I would raise the quality half a point if you just collapsed it all into a single channel.  Sometimes mono needs to be king and this is exhibit A.  Otherwise, kudos to the Ceyleib People.

Children - 1968 - Rebirth

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

What do we get here?  We get a very groovy sunshine pop disc and the story behind it.  The Children is a cosmic collision between a couple of West Texas acid rock bands, The Stoics and The Argyles.  This particular compilation bring you the garage stomping sound of both, an intermediary of The Mind's Eye, and the walking through the flowers, tripping out on Donovan and the Zombies vibrations of the titular band here.

Let's cut straight to the marrow.  I dig the two tunes by The Stoics.  They have a wildly spiraling, scream and guitar shout that compares to nothing else but fellow Texans, the 13th Floor Elevators.  The Argyles comparatively suck, frat rocking like the Kingsmen and the Trashmen.  It's not the worst pedigree, but Roky Erickson of the Elevators may not approve (or not!).  So then there is the main event.  After the psychedelically violent kick in that spot between your brows of the Stoics and somewhat of the Argyles and the Mind's Eye, you are now tripping in a meadow of fairies with Children.  It's not bad, but it is a shock.  Isolated on it's own, you are now looking at a Sgt. Pepper reflected surface that flows through California syrup and strings - the hybrid band had in fact relocated to that state.  "I Got Involved" probably perverts the twee side of the Kinks a bit too much, but most of the other tracks give you a finger-picked pattern of laid back psychedelic grooviness.  "Pictoral" ups the stakes a bit, but it is still dreamy and doesn't plow the icepick in your head the way those first couple Stoic tracks do.

You don't just get an album here, you get a little aural biopic.  Children are pretty groovy on their own, and will appeal to those of you with sunshine ears and baroque thoughts.  But dammit!  Those first few tracks!  It's a tease that I would love to fall deeper into.  But y'know, we get what we get with this reality in the end.  This may well appeal to your reality.

Electrick Sages - Hemlock Butterfly (video)

The Electrick Sages have arrived to explore the labyrinth behind the door of reality.  Our previous project, the Glaze of Cathexis, were simply looking at that door.  You have been bamboozled and you can see it.  We are speaking to your vibrations, and we try to dig it in the grooviest way possible.  This is our mission,  The album will show up on December 5th.  For now - get into evolution - and dive into this video of Hemlock Butterfly.  The video transmutes the vibes of Stan Brakhage and Kenneth Anger.  The sound runs on through the line connecting David Bowie with Joy Division.  The lyrics bounce off of some of those pesky conspiracy theories that drive you to wear a tinfoil hat.  But that is just a vocabulary.  The goal is to wake you up, and open your eyes to the fractal reality that surrounds you.