The Spacious Mind- The Drifter (Trail Records 020)

The Spacious Mind (TSM) were the premiere psychedelic band from Sweden up until 2005, when some of the band had moved away from their small town up north and started to move in different musical and personal directions. This limited edition CD is a compilation of rare tracks by the band. Tracks 1&3 are from the Reality D Blipcrotch 10”, the first release on the bands own God damn I'm a Country Man label. These are both trippy songs.  Track 2, Euphoria Euphoria is taken from the rare Garden of a well Fed Head LP, that was released in only 300 copies on a small Texas label, Lone Starfighter Records. Great track.  Floatin’ down the River Whistlin’ on a Tune, was on the Copenhagen Space Rock Festival 2002 CD, which I released on Burnt Hippie recordings with my label partners. Sadly, this festival never took place.   The last two tracks are from a live CD-R and a good feeling for how the band was live at this time. (2003). These are rarest of the tracks as the CD-R these appeared on was only made in about 50 copies.  The CD has a very nice remastered sound and flow to the tracks. Great liner notes. The label shortened tracks 3,4&6 from the original versions and the band was not very happy about this (some poor communication lead to this) but a 2^nd edition will be released with the unedited tracks, so keep an eye out for that next year.

http://trailrecords.us

Trip Lava- Ounds (Shark Records SH1002-0941 18-02)

Trip Lava is the project of Joel Lee. He likes to experiment with sound. He records all the instruments himself and is a big fan of strange sound manipulations. I reviewed his quite strange and intriguing album, Oddball in the Corner Pocket way back in 2007.  Well, Joel is back with a new CD release called Ounds and it features 10 tracks. OundsPt 1starts things off with some drum samples, strange sampled and manipulated keyboards that drone, twist and mutate until a sort of drum groove and more melodic synth takes over and some bass guitar slides into the mix. Some very nice bass playing underneath the sort of Casio keyboard sound. The track fades out and Oblivision begins with some really spacey keyboards and the track really drifts but ends quite suddenly.  Ouseh of Orsmirr has some strange sound effect samples mixed with some cool bass playing, frantic drumming (at times) and then the cheasy keyboard. It is a weird combination but it works to create an interesting track, not too dissimilar to the opening number except the freaked out ending samples. OrfOntrastic starts with some looped and distorted sounds but evolved into a sort of drum and bass drivin’ track later goes into some looped guitar. Creative.  Ongadays starts with a fender Rhodes like keyboard with some long delays. Is that bass or guitar that compliments? Bass, I think. I really liked this track. Osmicc Oldeng Ordsw of Onmeldag is another bass drum and keyboard track with the focus on the lead synthesizer. It features a very cool solo but later some strange vocal manipulations and other bizzare sounds are filtered into kick it out of normality. Oopl de Oopl starts with a arpeggiated synth that he manipulates the speed back and forth before some variation occurs. Strange ending.  Oomsmushr starts with a guitar strum and then off into the wilds of nature we float for 1 min and then things head off to the carnival funhouse and later the insane asylum. The CD ends with Ounds pt2, which is broken into 4 parts.  What a trip!!  Enjoy as you enter into Joel’s world of sound..

https://www.facebook.com/TripLava/?ref=br_rs

http://www.sharkrecords.com

Warp Transmission- The Process Ultra (Creepy Crawl Recordings CC06LP)

This is the 2^nd album on Creepy Crawl by the Finnish psychedelic rock band, Warp Transmission. The first was entitled Tamud Shun and featured a number of tracks recorded live in the rehearsal room plus others. Some of it had been released on cassette on the Heavy Meditation label. This new record features 7 tracks. Ultra Thrust starts things off fast and furious in a whirl of psychedelic rock and sounds.  Cast into the Process starts slowly with some spoken words and a freaky bass like in a dungeon.  After a min or so the psychedelic vocal kicks in and off we go with a powerful trip! A bit of old school Hawkwind vibe in this one as well as it fades down for the Insect. A fast and psyched out track with some intense vocals and a raw low fi sound. Rips your head clean off. Wipe Out is super psychedelic with just a very spaced out effected vocal and bass (mostly). That is the end of side A. Crash like Waves starts with an opening guitar line and slower stoned groove (a bit like some of the slower White Manna stuff) and a distance dreamy vocal. This is one of the longest tracks on this album at nearly 7 mins. The Stranded features a very repetitive guitar line and highly effected vocal and some eerie synths. Quicksilver Mainstream is the last track on album another one to blast you into psychedelic oblivion ala Yuri Gagarin mode.

This is a pretty cool band like a mix of White Manna, GNOD, the Heads and Terminal Cheesecake.. Intense and psychedelic.

https://www.facebook.com/creepyxcrawl

Antrhoprophh- SRR 2.5: Special Love Songs for Hard Working People in Alarm Clock Britian (Creepy Crawl Recordings CC05)

I have never heard any albums by this band but I recall it was a crazy show at Roadburn.  I have to say these are totally far out instrumental love song guitar freak outs. The opening track, Jan Birth Jam, has some of the most nasty guitar playing I have heard in a long time. A very tortured, noisy, in your face sound, while the band just pounds a way in the distance. It was recorded live in the rehearsal space. Side B features 3 tracks, the first of which is called No one likes You. This one has vocals over the intense drumming and layers of guitar freakout. Pig Squealer is another one live from the rehearsal room and another freak rocker with some far out vocals and just nastness to it. Song for a King is totally different with a spoken word over a simple drum and some really bizzare synths and other strange sounds. The LP ends with Cardinal Drag, which is pretty trippy stuff with some acoustic guitar, druggy vocals and fuzz guitar and other bizzare sounds to fuck up your mind.. Do not get too stoned when listening to this record, it could be dangerous to your health!

https://www.facebook.com/creepyxcrawl

https://anthroprophh.bandcamp.com/album/anthroprophh

Sherpa- Tigris & Euphrates (Sulatron Records st1805-2)

Sherpa is an Italian band that plays some really nice relaxed floating music. The band was formed in 2014 and this is the 2nd album on Sulatron Records.  This is an album born as a concept around the evolution of the human being. All the songs are focused on the evolution of human language through the eras and how language has deeply changed the relationship between people, for better or for worst. It is released on vinyl and CD. 

Tracklist:
Kim(((o)))                         07:25

Creatures from Ur                                              06:38
Equiseto                                                                  05:21

Abscent To The Mother Language                07:53

Overwhelmed                                                       07:36
Descent Of Inanna To The Underworld       07:43

The music flows and glides and is based a lot of repetitive guitar sections and some nice releaxed vocals. The band go from clean to highly effected vocals at times. A very enjoyable and relaxing record to float away to.

www.sulatron.com

www.facebook.com/sherpa.ita
www.sherpaita.bandcamp.com