Cary Grace- The Uffculme Variations CD-R (Door 13 Music D13 0017)

Cary is back with a mostly instrumental live concert CD-r recorded at the Kozfest 2016, where she performed under the name the Cary Grace band with special guests Steffi Sharpstrings and Graham Clark (both played with GONG and were on Cary’s previous album). No one is credited on the album except Cary, Steffi and Graham but I guess the band is also featuring these folks who played in Cary’s band in 2016: Andy Budge on bass, David Payne on Drums, Victoria Reyes on keyboards, backing vocals, and oboe? This live album features 6 track, three from some of her albums and three new improvised tracks and last a little under an hour. The whole thing starts off with Orange Sky (from Tygerland).  Haunting keyboards, drums, bass, Cary’s powerful voice (with some nice delays) and layers of guitar and violin (Graham).  A slow spacey track. Trouble is a much more upbeat rock number featuring Graham and later some ripping guitar from Steffi around the 4mins mark. A lot of really nice jamming in this track including an organ/keyboard solo later on. Kozmik Eye is a 15min jammed out track starting with some nice glissando guitar and violin while the drums and bass keep the groove going. Some spacey keys are also hiding in the back. Next Steffi takes the first long solo. The vocals kick in after 5mins and then back to more improvising and a bit of reggae like grooves, spacey synths, ripping guitars.. Cool stuff. The title track is 7mins and again features some really nice guitar and violin exchanges. The bass playing really shines through as well. I feel like Cary is often too low in the mix with her synths on many of the tracks. (You know she makes synth modules, cool!).  A very nice and melodic track. You can really hear the audience is digging it at the end of this one. Cassiopeia 2016, is a new take on an old song of Cary’s.  A long 11min jam with Steffi and Graham taking center stage at least to start. The Grand theme of things ends this very cool show, with a slow moody track with a heavier guitar from the great Kozfest in England. I would love to go to this one someday…. Anyway, another cool release.. Check it out.

http://carygrace.com

The Honey Pot- Ascending Scales (Fruits de Mer Records WINKLE 25)

I was not familiar with this UK band before this amazing double CD-R released. They released another record on this label back in 2008, so it was well overdue but well worth the weight.  A worthy release for FDM 100^th release! It features a lot of very cool musicians (from the 60s and the current scene) performing a mix of cover songs and original Honey Pot songs, some new and some re-recorded versions. I love the opening track called 1969 featuring James Lowe from the Electric Prunes.  Solomon Deep features Dick Taylor from The Pretty Things. Loveis Green features Jack Ellister, Dr Crippen’s Waiting Room features Anton Barbeau), Can’t you see the Witch (with Cary Grace), Half a Memory (with Peter and Tom from July) and Sitting all Alone features Judy Dyble and Us and Them. Only I’ve been so Tired on the first CD has no guests.

The 2^nd CD features the almighty Nick Salomon and Ade Shaw on a track called Time Machine. Lucky Spaceman features Gregory Curvey from The Luck of eden Hall, Rainy Day Mushroom Pillow, Into the Deep with Bruce Wolley from the Buggles and finally River Runs by with Tony Durant from Fuchsia. The track America, Icarus takes on his own with the band.. I have been spinning these discs a lot lately and really am impressed. A great release.

http://www.fruitsdemerrecords.com

Narcosatanicos- Body Cults (Bad Afro Records AFROLP051)

Narcosatanicos is a young 6 piece Danish band playing quite dark psych noise rock from Århus. This is the bands 3^rd release and a bit of a surprise to have it on the garage rock label, Bad Afro but cool.. The promo sheet describes it as a sonic mind fuck fueled by bad acid, paranoia and distortion.. Far out.. Well, yes it is… The album features 7 tracks between 4 and 9mins and length and starts off with the heavy Vulvic Church. Heavy doom rock, interspersed with a bit of Nik Turner like saxophone and psyched out guitar. The drums are very thrashy and noisy in the mix. Far out….  Vile is a bit more punk, think a heavy psych version of Inner City Unit! Check out the video below. Mania lowers the intensity slightly at the start but the mania and sonic assault continues. The vocals on this track and all the others are mixed really low so you can really not make out what he sings or screams unless you really listen hard. It is more for sonic overload. Television Dreams is more hypnotic and has this spaced out repeated section that you can really get lost in.  Matamoro, an instrumental track, really slows things down with the focus on the long saxophone solo while the rest of the 2 guitars, violin, just space out and make trippy stuff over the slow bass and drum rhythm. At 5mins a heavy riff kicks in and they go totally mad and psyched out at the end.. Intense. Void Kink brings back the darkness and vocals. Bliss ends the bad trip with a crazy sax driven madness but this drops down at 2mins and a cool bass and drum groove kicks in and some nice panned instruments fly back and forth across the sound scape. It builds up in a crazy way… If you dig bands like Domovoyd, Dark Buddha Rising, … please give this Danish act a listen..

This is for sure the bands first masterpiece and a hell of a dark trip if you are stoned. Wow……

http://www.badafro.dk

http://narcosatanicos.bandcamp.com

US AND THEM- Fading within the Dwindling Sun 10” (Fruits de Mer Records Crustacean 75)

Us and Them is a duo from Sweden. Britt the female singer has taken on the task to try to do justice to covering the almightly Sandy Denny from Fairport Convention.  This 10” EP features 5 cover songs 3 written by Sandy, one by Richard Thompson and a traditional number (Banks of the Nile).  Sadly, I misplaced the CD-R and I can’t find it anywhere to give a detailed review but please check out this track on you tube below…. Sorry….

http://www.fruitsdemerrecords.com