Taylor’s Universe- Worn Out (Marvel of Beauty Records MOBCD023)

Multi-instrumentalist, Robin Taylor is back with another release and it features the same crew (Karsten Vogel, Hugh Steinmetz, Klaus Thane, Jakob Mygind, Louise Nipper) with which he has now made many records with but the addition of highly acclaimed jazz guitarist Jon Hemmersam, providing all the lead guitar. He is mainly featured on the opening track, Floating Rats. The track starts very floating with just saxophone as it slowly picks up and the drums, bass and finally guitar join the drone keyboard and horns. At 3mins the track really picks up in intensity and this is when Jon really kicks in with some fluid and fast guitar runs before being counterbalanced by the horns. There is a bit of back and forth between the horns and guitar to keep the track very fluid and interesting and then Robin kicks in with the organ to change the dynamic. Excellent track. Munich is the longest track on the album at 10½ mins and starts with some very happy beautiful horns to compliment the repetitive almost Kraftwerk like synths running beneath. Things change completely when the uptempo bass line takes the lead and the different horn players just jam away and Robin comes back with some organ as well. The track takes many different dynamics and includes adding some effects to the horns. Robin plays a major role in this track. . Imaginary Church is much shorter and features the organ quite prominent again in this 4½min track. Cruelty in Words is a quite happy track with cool dynamics and a mix of organ and piano in the quiet parts and the horns in the more melodic parts. Some interesting drums (sound almost programmed, artificial) in the mid section. Jon is hardly playing in this track only adding a couple of short solos near the end. Excellent track. Jens in Afghanistan starts with some military snare drum theme and some flute like horns. There is a sample of something about war playing in the background. The theme slowly gets a bit darker in nature but returns to the happy theme. Eventually the military snare drumming ends and then the track is very saxophone dominated with a repeated theme by the others for a period until the end.  Sergeant Pepperoni ends the CD. This track is 8½ mins long and starts with some spacey organ and saxophone as the others slowly enter the soundscape. Jon plays some fantastic guitar in this track and about half way through the track devolves into some freeform spacey chaos before reappearing out the end into the main theme again. Cool.. Another really excellent release from Robin and his creative crew..

http://www.progressor.net/robin-taylor/

Kama Loka (Kommun2:22)

The latest release on the Malmö, Sweden based label, Kommun2 is a sort of super group of folks who have recorded records for the label. This includes members from the Aron Band, SKL, Anders and others. The main compositions are by Morten Aron and Tobias Petterson (owner label, also plays bass and flute). Side A starts with the Aron track, Skovsøen (The Forest Lake) and it is sung in Danish. It has a very cool spacey, mysterious vibe with haunting voices, violin and guitar. Later it evolves into a more psychedelic vibe. Øjesten (Eye Rock) has a beautiful guitar melody and starts with violin. Mikael Ödesjö plays some fantastic guitar on this track. Trold i Bakke (Troll in Tray) is an instrumental piece by keyboardist Anders Pilegård. It starts off as a folky thing but then goes into a more psychedelic section and back to the main theme. Flip the record over and also change language from Danish to Swedish. Gånglåt till Floalt (Marching Tune Floalt) starts as all the tracks have with violin and then the organ takes the lead followed by the flute. Then the violin returns to a more folky theme before the psychedelic lead guitar takes over and really lifts the track into a new dimension, which reminds me of late 60s Pink Floyd with the spacey organ and vocals and feeling. The last track Når lingonen Mognar (After Lingonberries Matures is an old song by the Swedish band Harvester) is a hypnotic track with a repeated choir of voices. Cool stuff. The record comes in a super heavy sleeve with a beautiful artwork by the great Swedish painter, Peter Wallgren. Single pressing in 500 copies only.

http://www.motljud.com/

Re-Evolution- FdM sings the Hollies (Fruits de Mer Records Crustacean 37)

This is quite a special release that comes as a 12” record plus a 7” in two colour vinyl versions limited to 800 copies. There are 16 different artists and the whole thing last about an hour. The songs back then were all pretty short. I am not that familiar with the Hollies, but they were a UK band from Manchester who played their own version of pop music akin to the Beatles with multi-harmony vocals. Most of the tracks here are taken from the Hollies brief psychedelic period from 1966-1967. Graham Nash was one of their key members. A few of the labels standard artists are represented like the Bevis Frond (the best song on the record, amazing version of Hard hard Year), Beautify Junkyards, The Re-stoned, The Higher State, Langor, Electric Stars, Auralcandy, The Gathering Gray, The Seventh Ring of Saturn, Hi Fiction Science, Sky Picnic, Us and Them and Jay Tausig but also a lot of bands I have never heard of. Anyway, since I have never heard the originals, it is really hard for me to comment but I think this is a great release and true to the spirit of the original psychedelic music birth of the 60s.. Great job..

http://www.fruitsdemerrecords.com

Walden- Metchosin (Prairie Fire Tapes PF052)

Walden is a duo of Jacob Moyer (drums, lyrics, flutes, voice) and ES Festus (bass, electric, acoustic guitars). MMII-Golden Light broke over the waves starts with some acoustic guitar and then an intense spacey electric guitar riff kicks in that is repeated over and over as the bass takes the lead underneath the wall of sound that has developed. It eventually comes down as the guitar riffs slow down and the vocal starts and then the music gets very intense and a death-evil style vocal takes over as the guys almost reach thrash metal intensity and a layer of flute is added on for strange effect. A Walking Song is mainly acoustic guitar with a occasional rhythm that sounds like a knock at the door. Flip the tape over now for the MMXII- Every Star called our Names. This is a very fast uptempo piece to start and even more low fi than A side. While the music is pretty happy and melodic, the vocal is quite dark and almost evil but the lyrics are actually quite positive. Strange combination. The Coda I starts off with a bass, drums and flute and then the intense spacey riff guitar kicks in but the flute is still driving the track until it just fades out. Coda II ends the tape with some nice acoustic guitar playing. A very nice piece of music.  Inside the tape case you get the lyrics to the two songs that have them.

http://www.prairefiretapes.com

MONTIBUS COMMUNITAS " Montibus Communitas" (EYE 002)

Montibus Communitas is a trio from Peru joining up with some of the Dutch people in Ayahuasca Dark Trip. This is release is a vinyl only release in 300 copies. It features two tracks per LP side. The first track, Amaru, is very organ driven with some percussion (panning) and basic beats with some spacey sounds here and there. It is very repetitive and not all that interesting until the last 5mins and goes on for more than 15mins. It did not hold my attention very well and I kept waiting for something more interesting to happen. El ‘rio al amanecer is much shorter and ends the side. The water flows, some guitar is lightly played, a flute and birds create some cool ambience in this track. Salmo a Cristo is a short track starting side B of the record. It begins with a bit more noisy percussion and then the organ drone followed by some nice flute. Eventually some male and female voices appear as the organ drone gets louder and more intense in the mix and the percussion more to the background. Semilla starts with some forest birds before the effected organ sound fades up and a guitar and some other instruments slowly become recognizable. Very spacey trippy sound to start but then it lets lose it’s grip and begins to come to the standard production sound of the record. If you want to take some sort of organ drone forest trip, you might want to pick this up..

http://cosmiceyerecords.blogspot.dk/

Hemmelig Tempo- Who put John Cage on the Guestlist? (Gazul Records GA8850)

This is a very strange but also pretty cool CD but you just have to approach it will open ears. This group of Norwegians have been performing live for some years but this is their debut CD on the Gazul label, a side label of Musea. The material here was mainly played live in 2008 in locations in and around Bergen in Norway. It features Dokto Døv, Professor Fokuda-San, and Professor Waffel (can be seen playing with SEID) playing a wide range of analog synthesizers and effects with the occasional vacuum cleaner, water filled bucket and other strange things. The tracks are quite variable in length. I quite like the title track the way it has this mysterious drone and then these sounds like someone is trying to eat the tapes in the background or something strange is happening. Later some analog loops drive the track after a strange transition. This kind of strange drone, electronic trip music is pretty hard to describe. First Report from the Temporary Laboratory of Buddha Pavilion, has a dreamy like state with static sounds, bells, and a NASA sound sample at the end. Doktor Døvs on the last sound you will ever here is pretty strange stuff as well lasting nearly 10 mins. How to wear a lab coat is a track that is really cut up into strange pieces, samples, sounds, evolutions. Notes from Professor Fokudas mountain Seminar starts of droney and different sounds enter and leave at what seems to be random as the track evolves, sputters, trips, falls, gets back up again and finally leaves. The last track only lasts 4 seconds and then the 51min trip is over. The music is totally experimental, far out, challenging, sometimes exciting, sometimes a bit too weird but always intriguing for patient people. Cool stuff.

http://www.hemmeligtempo.no/

Hawkwind Light Orchestra- Stellar Variations (Esoteric Recordings EANTCD1008)

Some of the members of Hawkwind, the ones that live close to where Dave Brock lives and has the Hawkwind studio, have put together this record. All the songs are by Dave, Richard (Drums, vocals) and Niall (guitar, bass). The material was recorded in 2011 and appears as outtakes, experiments, strange visions, and stuff that just did not fit in with the Onward LP. I have to say the CD is real mixed bag. Some of it is really great and some just does not speak to me. The CD came out in December 2012 and the vinyl edition is due out in April and limited to 500 copies. 11 tracks, 53mins starting off with Stellar Perspective. The sound is quite psychedelic with multiple layers of guitars, spinning, pulsing synths and Dave’s vocal with some effects and more to the back and it slowly moves more to the front. Richard takes the 2^nd lead vocal as the track slows down. Great bass playing. All our Dreams is more tranquiel and spacey with a more spoken word vocal. That classic spacey Dave Brock guitar is so nice. The track really evolves into an almost like dance track but maintains this cool guitar line. Not sure the keyboard really fits but what the hell. Cool track. Damp day in August is a short piece that leads into the up tempo and political track, It’s all Lies. Niall lays down the cool bass line and a catchy political track takes hold (“Forget about religion, it’s down with the Pope!”). Variation 3 is a short instrumental track with a lot of strange overdubs and sounds but a nice lead guitar section complimenting the distorted Fender Rhodes like piano. Four Legs good, two legs Bad has programmed drums and would have fit well on the White Zone record with its ambient space keyboard line.  It takes a dramatic change at 1min and then the repeated song title with strange voices, barking dogs, etc.. is quite far out.. almost disturbing. In the Footsteps of the Great One is next and I wonder who they are talking about as you can’t tell from the lyrics, some of which Dave borrows from some of his older songs. IT starts with an eastern string instrument before the spacey synths and vocals take over. Quite a few layers of stuff going on as the drum groove kicks in to give the track a steady rhythm. Spaced out! A song for a New Age is one the band has played live in the past (and written by Tim Blake) features Richard on the main vocal and Dave plays a nice guitar solo while Niall gives the track its main body with great bass playing. The track is pretty basic and not nearly as layered as most of the tracks. We serve Mankind starts with a trance techno like keyboard that briefly fades to the back as the guitar, bass and drums take over this dark electronic track. City of Rust starts with a flight introduction sample before the track begins. Powerful lyrics on this one and delivered in a spoken word fashion, kind of like the Calvert-Brock CD. Then at 1½ mins it turns into one of the most rocking tracks on the CD. Instant Predictions closes the CD also in a rocking way with Richard on the lead vocal. It has a really spaced out sound. Pretty cool record.

http://www.hawkwind.com

Harrow- Wanderer (Prairie Fire Tapes PF051)

Harrow is a three piece band from Victoria, Canada, that plays very raw, nasty, sometimes doomy stuff, other times quite melodic. This band reminds me of Kreator or Bathory without the guitar solos.  Into the Valley starts with acoustic guitar as the drums build up and then intense evil thrash kicks in. The next two songs are also found on the live side of the tape. Journey into the Mountain and To weather the Storm follow. This part of the tape mellows things out for a bit with some acoustic pieces until the band kicks in hard and heavy and screaming again. Exile and Rebirth end the powerful side A. Side B of the tapes is live at the Moontower and features a couple of the songs from the A side. The sound quality is really raw and nasty. Keening starts things off doomy but then it changes to a more melodic thread. The vocals are like death metal though. In the Shadow of the Stone (also on the A side) is more lead by the bass until the noisy thrash begins. Very low fi insane sound. Vast unending Lands continues the aural assault of raw, nasty metal in this short track. After a brief talk introduction, the band kicks into the intense Wraith. Watcher (not the Motorhead/ Hawkwind track), is also very extreme music. The side ends with Snow Falls on the Night of the Solstice, which is also featured on the A side of the tape. Very Intense and raw stuff. Not easy on the ears.. Recommend to play at low volume at least the B side of the tape.

http://www.prairefiretapes.com

GNOD- Presents… Dwellings and Druss (Trenmat Records TR034)

GNOD are back with another release. I buy and collect all that I can by the band but I have to say the last couple have really let me down. I think they are just starting to release everything no matter how interesting it is or not. Anyway, this a pretty cheap production with just black and white artwork and a black label (hard to tell which side is which), on a  thin gold vinyl pressing. Dwellings- Revalation 9 starts the record off and it about 15-20 min drone drum machine piece. Quite repetitive and you really lose interest after a while. No guitar, no bass, no vocals, … pretty boring stuff. Flip the record over and you have Druss- 20 sides a Minute. It starts with a repeated synthesizer loop and does not really go anywhere or do anything interesting besides speed up and it is over. The next piece called Dwellings- Defeatism is by far the most interesting and evolved track. The only one really worth listening to. After the synth loop a simple kick drum pattern is repeated over and over. Eventually, a like snare edge is added to make the rhythm more complex and more synth layers start to appear as well as it builds up into some a bit more interesting. it becomes almost tribal the rhythm but the rest is just not very interesting. Pity… I also did not like the split with Shit and Shine very much so did not review it. This is nothing like the great records they have released with Rocket.

http://ingnodwetrust.tumblr.com/ http://www.trensmat.com

Flowers must Die (Kommun2:21/RYR017)

The Swedish psychedelic rock band, Flowers must Die are back with a new double vinyl release on the Kommun2 label. It features 8 instrumental songs spread over the 4 sides. The material on this LP is a mix of old and new material with some recorded as long ago as 2008. The record starts off with Jamfota which gets you into the comfort zone of the band but then when Enio starts it gets very tripped out stuff with strange sounds, intense bass lines, driving rhythms, and just damn freaked out! Ennio jam sort of fades away, just before you think you have had enough…  Spindlarnas Träd has quite a heavy riff and is lead by the violin and later the electric guitar along the mighty path of destruction. Köket Brinner maintains this dark brooding theme. Hörsägen brings things back down to earth in a floating style but still freaky. Gkenvandring is a side long track that has a lead by a heavy bass line but then slowly takes on its on universe as the guitar drive the melodic and also noisy aspect and the synths and sounds create the intensity. Make sure you are strapped in properly. Side D starts off with Blågylta and is another intense one lead by a repetitive rhythm-groove. IT kind of freaks you out the way they raise some of the instruments volume quite dramatically without notice to keep you on guard. Now, the trip is ending. FMD are a quite special psychedelic experience travelling in their own special musical universe sometimes alongside groups like the Spacious Mind and Hawkwind and other times in a more tripped out universe. I have seen them three times live and they are always cool and interesting. Freak out..

http://www.flowersmustdie.com http://www.motljud.com

Elevatorfører- Opkald era ukendt Etage (Levitation Records LR002)

Elevatorfører is a new Danish psychedelic rock band. They are a large and quite funny band and all the songs are sung in Danish and the band dresses in cool attire for their live shows. This album was recorded live at the Copenhagen venue, Amager Bio. The band was opening up for Young Flowers and Spids Nøgenhat. Den Magiske Skala opens the record up with a pretty rocking uptempo track where as on most tracks, the farfisa is the lead instrument. Søsangen (The Sea Song) starts with the sounds of bubbles being blown into a large bucket as the singer tells the audience it is ok to smoke your joints now. This is a beautiful floating song. Ukendt Etage (Unknown Floor) starts with a real 60s style guitar line and the farfisa again takes the lead. Skovtur (Forest Trip) features some acoustic guitar but is a track you could imagine at the Matrix in San Francisco in the 60s. Side B starts with Den Hypnotiske jakke (The hypnotic Jacket) features a more psychedelic keyboard and is one of the longest, best and most psychedelic tracks on the record. Vertikal Bus (Vertical Bus) is back to your straightforward farfisa driven 60s track. Samerens Rejse (Same’s Trip) is a quite spacey track as the band meanders and the different instruments add to the slow moving soundscape and the singer gives his best vocals. Now the trip is over, about 35mins. If they had used some vocal effects, more liberty with instrument panning,etc.  it would make the music quite a bit more psychedelic. While the mix is really good, the ones mixing don’t really have that much of a sense for the psychedelic even though that is the genre this music is in.  Cool release, especially if you understand Danish and are fans of 60s organ driven psych. The record is released on vinyl only in 500 copies but also comes with a coupon for the digital version as well and a large full color booklet with great photos of the band and event and all the information.

http://elevatorforer.bandcamp.com  LevitationRecords

Dean Allan Floyd-Road to Atlas 10” (Crusher Records)

 Dean Allan Floyd is a new four act from Sweden featuring a Canadian on lead vocals and guitar.  This is their 2^nd release following up their debut from March 2012 called “The sounds can be so Cruel”.  I never heard the LP but it got great reviews. The EP starts off with Sadness of Mankind. IT has a 60s style vibe with the vocal, organ and cool drive of the ethereal organ. The guitar break section has quite a psychedelic mix. Insects is a special track with quite a lot of stuff happening and lots of different spaced out and cool sections in this generally UK inspired psych song. Leave me Be is a short blues track. Hwy Lost (Revisited) has a great guitar riff and groove that drives this track. It gets really psyched out at the end. Far out. The title track, Road to Atlas ends this 22min EP and it is a more laid back track with some backwards effects. Pretty psychedelic stuff.. The band starts off their 3 week European tour in Copenhagen on March 1^st. Hope to see you there to support this cool jamming psychedelic rock band. They are supposed to play different sets every night and do some jamming.

http://www.crusherrecords.com http://www.facebook.com/deanallanfloydmusic

Ayahuasca Dark Trip- Mind Journey (Cosmic Eye Records Eye001)

DT are a Dutch band and this is the first release on the new Greek Label, Cosmic Eye. The material on this LP has been previously available on the bands web site, where I had listened to it several times. The band has made 3 releases on bandcamp but this is the first on vinyl. There is 100 copies on dark red vinyl and 200 on black. It also comes with a A1 size poster that is very cool. Astral Sunset starts the record off on its hypnotic and heavy trip. The music is mostly just heavy guitar, bass and drums but at different times, organ, didgeridoo, flutes, floating vocals, enter into the picture. Very spacey and trippy at times. Mind Journey raises the intensity level as the trip becomes darker and more dangerous.. Lucky, you get a break as you need to flip the record to hear To the Holy Mountain! It starts with some backwards parts over the bass line that goes on for several minutes before the drums kick in and the haunting psychedelic voices creep into the picture. The guitar slowly takes the lead as the track just keeps drawing you in further and further from your reality. Space Raga ends this amazing space trip.

Fans of Lamp of the Universe, Dark Budda Rising, and BONG, will dig this band…

http://ayahuascadarktrip.bandcamp.com www.facebook.com/ayahuascadarktrip  http://cosmiceyerecords.blogspot.dk/

All them Witches- Our Mother Electricity (Elektrohasch 159)

If I am not mistaken, this is the first US band ever released on Elektrohasch Records. The three piece band hails from Nashville and you can hear some of this influence in the music for sure. While the band is a three piece there is much more than just guitar, bass and drums on the CD. Sometimes Hammond organ, like on this opening track, Heavy like a Witch. This reminds me of Sgt Sunshine but with a more bluesy edge until the organ kicks in. This is one of the heaviest tracks on the record so don’t be misled but this one as the record has a lot of diversity to follow. The Urn is lead but a simple foot stomping rhythm and slide guitar. Bloodhounds, has a more intense in your face guitar in this really bluesy track. Guns is a slow stoney track with cool lyrics but then it really picks up at the end into a heavy groove. Elkblood Heart is slower heavy ballad a bit like US Christmas but with a laid back vocal. Until it Unwinds is a slow building track which features some cool spacey delay guitar along the trip. Some piano can also be heard low in the mix but higher towards the end when they sort of jam this one out. It is the longest track on the CD at 8½mins. Easy goes back to the late 60s early 70s sounds of Neil Young and features some nice slide guitar. Family Song for the Leaving is another laid back track before the excellent and emotional Right Hand track that ends this enjoyable album.  At times, the band plays a very cool bluesy version of stoner rock and other times more 70s styles blues rock with a lot of slide guitar. Fans of the Flying Eyes will probably dig these guys but maybe not think they are psychedelic enough.

http://www.elektrohasch.de  https://www.facebook.com/allthemwitches?ref=tn_tnmn

Mantric Muse and Storskogen- Operaen, Christiania, DK Feb 9th, 2013

          Mantric Muse, the Copenhagen instrumental progressive psychedelic rock band are back playing gigs once again in support of their new CD, which came out in December 2012. I used to hang out and see the guys play all the time but they stopped playing live in 2006 and are not back. It was a cold, snowy night but some people decided to leave the house. The doors did not open until 22 and MM started playing about 22:45. Stefan and Thomas from Gas Giant came and they had never seen Mantric Muse back in the day. Tom, as well as some of the regulars that come and see the band out in Dragens Hule were here as well. I guess about 35-40 people were in the audience. The band opened with an older song in a new arrangement called DMU. Next was Sinbad Søfareren and this sounded great. The sound was good upfront to the stage but further back in the room, it was a bit boomy and the drums had a special sound. We stood up front. Cinope was next and I filmed this one. See below. Nanoid was next but they had to stop about one minute into the song as the computer synth sequences and the band were slightly off. Magnus stopped everyone and they reset and off they went. They play a great version of Azur, Sfunx, the ambient track Gnoxience and ending the set with a long jam on Deep Sea Cheops. They also played a new song that they have not recorded yet called Armh. It was a cool set and some people were dancing and into it while most sat in the corner not sure what to make of it since they were here to see the Swedish Reggae band that was next!

Set List: DMU, Sinbad Søfareren, Cinope, Nanoid, Azur, Gnoxience, SFunx, Armh, Deep Sea Cheops

          Next up was Storskogen (Large Forest), a band described as Swedish Forest reggae. I was not sure exactly what that was until the band started playing and then I understood. They are a 7 piece band with bass, drums, guitar, keyboards, percussion, sitar and a lady who played violin and flutes. I really liked the opening track (see video below) and now I could understand why it was forest-folk reggae. The violin really made it cool and the sitar was a nice compliment. The sitar player only played on every 3^rd song or so and they mixed instrumental songs with ones with Swedish vocals. The guitar player and female violin player did the singing. I actually thought they were quite good and unique and I don’t think I have seen a band quite like this. It has been some years since I saw a reggae band and I enjoyed it. Cool evening..

http://www.mantricmuse.com 

Jiri's 30th Birthday Party- Den Grå Hall, Christiania jan 18th, 2013

This was our first concert of the year and what a cool party it was on this cold winter night. Jiri the bass player from Fri Galaxe, Univerzals was turning 30 and throwing a party at Den Grå Hall in Christiania.  He had arranged for 5 bands to play and we were supposed to be the last band at around 23:30 but of course it rarely works out right. Sabine and I showed up about 21:30 or so and it was a damn cold bike ride (about -5C outside plus some wind). When we arrived the 3^rd band was suppose be starting but the first act was only just finishing! I also did not really know what the line up of the band was going to be tonight and we might only have one guitar player. People slowly showed up though. Jocke, then Nick and last Mogens after midnight. PIB was there and wanted to play drums so we said yes.

          Jiri’s band Fri Galaxe played a nice set and really had the crowd of about 80 people dancing and very happy. A cool band that plays melodic blues rock with all Danish lyrics and some hippie and political themes. They also have a wonderful female singer. They played about an hour and then a band I don’t know what their name was.

Fri Galaxe

Set List: Legaliser, Total til Grin, Johannes, G13, Blommesangen, De Eneste, Når Fr Heden Tår Os, Alle Vores Drømme, Fredselsker, Gadefest, Soldans, Politiei Tror, Blomster og Kys

They had a female singer who also played a beautiful Les Paul (played nearly the same chords on every song), another guitar player, bass and drums. They played high energy pop music. Someone said they sounded like Juliana Hatfield but I don’t know who she is. I got pretty bored with them and they had a hard time getting anyone interested either. I liked some of what the bass player played but they were just not that interesting. They were having fun, which was great.

Set List:Good Intentions, If, You in Me, Anything but Ordinary, Bitter Taste, Liar, Another Night, Tenfold, Forget Me, Until you Said, Oxymoron

KIC

KIC (Kids in Christiania) were next and they rocked the place. They have a really powerful female singer and two guitar players, neither played any lead guitar to speak of. Now people were up front and singing and having a good time again. It was getting fucking late though and I wondered when they would finish. I heard the music had to stop at 02:30 but then Jiri’s said no, it was cool to play longer.  People really enjoyed their set and then most of the people left.

Set List: Leaving You, Catch Me, hard 2 Understand, Waste my Life, Like you and Me, Home, Fear Me, Vanity, Follow Me, Old (dedicated to Jiri!), Pretty

          It was around 01:30 when we finally got started and it was a mixture of pretty wasted people by this time and a total of maybe 40 people. We had PIB on drums to start the show and I don’t know how long he played before Martin from Fri Galaxe took over and as I recall the drummer from KIC even jumped in during the 2^nd jam, which was like 57mins long! We had the horn section from Fri Galaxe (Tobias-Sax, Ole- Trombone) join and that was great. Nick was all alone on the guitar so it was good to have the horns, which I think worked great. Nick was amazing this night though. Playing really cool stuff. The concert was a bit crazy to start as Mogens was still setting up when the concert just sort of started on it’s own.. Jiri would pop up now and then and he played the lead synth at the very beginning, helped on bass (by knealing below Jocke and playing some stuff on the neck), played the floor tom, and even the trombone. Wild stuff… Some of the concert was really cool and I am not sure about the rest but it was damn fun…. as always.. You can hear the show below. Enjoy…

http://archive.org/details/OSC2013-01-18.FLAC

Traveling Circle- Escape from Black Cloud (Nasoni Records NASONI121)

Traveling Circle is a underground band from the USA and released on the German label, Nasoni Records, which specializes in psychedelic rock bands from around the world. They released the band’s first record as well. The band is a three piece and they are not playing long spaced out pieces (maybe live) but the LP features 10 songs (34mins) but they are not that straightforward and they have a special sound with falsetto vocals, plenty of fuzz and echo and a nice analog sound. Higher starts with a repetitive riff and an echoed ethereal vocal that you can hardly make out. One might think a bit of Wooden shjips but the bass is played totally different. The Candlelight Sways is a more heavy number and also features some Theremin. Newborn Shadow is slow and spacey. Green Spider is instrumental and features some guitar not unlike Yawning Man. Closer is nearly instrumental with just 3 lines of words (see the nice color insert) and a fuzzed out guitar played in a quite stoned way. Awesome song. Flip the record over for the Willow Tree Fair. This one has a really cool spacey wah guitar and this really dreamy vocal. Some electric piano really compliments the track well. I love the psychedelic guitar break on this one. Rock this Feeling is really different from other tracks with a interesting vocal approach mixing the falsetto and normal vocal and a nice groove and guitar. Fountain of Time starts with a drum solo, how rare is that? Conduit is Closing is spacey and features some more Theremin. Quite psychedelic stuff. Tears from the Soul closes this 34 min psychedelic experience. This is best to hear when you are stoned…

http://www.nasoni-records.com  https://www.facebook.com/TravelingCircle

Powder Blue- Dream in Black (DubDitch1971-032)

Powder Blue (http://thesheaf.com)

This is a female fronted 4 piece band that plays spacey melodic music. Guitarist and vocalist Shelby writes all the songs. Go on Forever starts the side A with an organ before the guitar and stoned groove takes on and the dreamy vocal takes center place. Cool song. The title track is next is more repetitive and later on some cool organ takes the lead and the guitar changes and attempts a bit of interplay before the track fades out. The Haunting starts with a delay guitar and just floats. Nice track. The Side B starts with Hot Fire, which is an uptempo track with the guitar in the front and a cool vocal. It also features short guitar and keyboard solos. All of his love is more straight forward short rock track with no solos. Turn to Dust lets the keyboards take the lead. This is not some commercial rock. It is melodic, sometimes catchy but it always has this low fi, spacey vibe to it.

http://www.prairefiretapes.com

Timemazine- Issue #7 (Greece)

Timemazine is a super cool magazine from Greece. IT often comes with a CD or 7” record of rare or unreleased material. In this case you get both with a super cool 7” record of unreleased material by the excellent Greek band, Purple Overdose. The CD that comes with the issue features a mixture of released and unreleased material by the bands that there are articles on in the issue. The unreleased tracks are by the Bevis Frond, Permanent Clearlight, Cranium Pie, Sendelica and a rare uncut version of an old Alrune Rod song covered by Spids Nøgenhat! This issue has long, in-depth and great interviews with a wide range of people in the psychedelic music scene, some from the early days like Mark Weitz and George Bunnell from Strawberry Alarm Clock, Keith Law from Jardine to more contemporary people like Lorenzo Woodrose (Spids Nøgenhat, Dragontears, Baby Woodrose) and the Flying Eyes. I have read a lot of interviews with Nick Saloman from the Bevis Frond, but I have to say this was one of the best I have read. The article on Evi Hassapides Watson was very interesting as I had never heard of her.  It is a really excellent magazine and I highly recommend you check it out if you like to read some interesting stories about bands you may know and some you may not know.

http://timelordmichalis.blogspot.com

Vokokesh- The Alchemist’s Tale (Pure Pop PURE13)

Vokokesh is back with another improvised jamming spaced out psychic trip to another strange world. The band is stripped down to just guitar, bass and drums and strange percussion instruments with some spoken word poem thrown in one track. Base Metal Blues starts things off in a slow growing way and Richard really experiments with some super cool guitar effects that sound harsh and metallic at times. Doing a Slow Burn is next and very strange with some guitar tuning torture, percussion and unintelligible samples. The Fuzz God Awakens starts with some mid paced steady drums and guitar that slowly gets more and more effects layered on it as Richard takes the solo further and further. They are strange jammers.

Flip the record over to the Four Elements. It starts off more straightforward with just some guitar riffing as a real track tries to evolve and it is a bit melodic as well and features a really nice solo but it gets really far out. Otto mit dem Barte starts pretty far out with a spoken word piece just as the 2^nd piece on the other side did but you can at least tell it is German! The Philosopher’s Tone is the last track on this pretty experimental LP. Richard plays some cool guitar with a bit of delay and later wah guitar, as they push the intensity. I think some people are not really going to appreciate the very free and crazy approach to this record, others will love it.

http://www.ppfnp.com

Eternal Elysium- Highflyer (Cornicopia CRCD004)

This was a Japanese only release by the cool psychedelic rock band, Eternal Elysium. I had my good friend Hatsumi send it to me. Highflyer" is the theme for Shinya Ishikawa (from Big Japan Pro Wrestling), which I think is pretty cool. Anyway, the EP is only released in Japan for now and will eventually come out on vinyl with some extra material. High Flyer is the opening track. It starts with a riff a lot like Immigrant Song by Led Zeppelin but then goes in a different direction when the singing kicks in. Heavy and intense and later the saxophone and trumpet kicks in to make it a bit more psychedelic. Map is sung in Japanese and a bit more melodic but still it has a pretty heavy guitar riff and the occasional slide guitar as well. Tana, the female bass player also sings a little at the end. Circulation is next and this was also on the 10” with Sardonis but it might be a slightly different version here? A really cool psychedelic guitar solo is unleashed as this track really kicks ass. Heavy intense stoned doomy track. High Flyer- Down not Out ends the CD. This is not at all just a reprises of the first track. It is really cool and experimental with piano, trumpet, sax and not much guitar at all.

http://www.cornucopiarecords.com/ee/

EARTHLING SOCIETY- ZODIAK LP (Nasoni Records NASONI128)

The UK Psychedelic Space rock band, Earthling Society is back with a new record. This one was all recorded on one day in July 2012 in Blackpool, UK. The band is stripped down to just a three piece on this release so the main tracks focus on Fred’s spacey guitar, the bass and drums but there are also layers of extra guitar, spaced out sounds, synths, etc.. You hear it is a bit more freeform though. Zodiak starts things off and is a mid- paced and pretty psychedelic track the way the guitar and vocals are mixed. The drums have quite some reverb and the snare is loud and really cuts through the mix. The Silver and the Black really picks up the pace but the sound is quite psychedelic. The section just before the guitar solo is really tripped out. Quite a long track, over 10 mins. The million headed Cobra of Eternity is a shorter song that ends the A side of the record. It starts very mellow and floating but features some great multi-layered guitar. It is mostly instrumental until the end. Great stuff. Now, flip the vinyl over and start the 2^nd part of your journey with Silver Phase. Silver Phase starts in the middle of a jam and is faded up just as you can catch the beginning of the trip. IT has this really heavy effect on the sound which gives it this really spaced out sound but it is over in just a couple of minutes. Strange.. The Astral Traveller takes the rest of the side and it starts off reminding me of the great Hawkwind classic, 7 by 7. Fred plays some fantastic guitar is this great long floating, spacey track. The track seems like it is coming to a end with a lot of spaced out guitar effects but then he kicks back in with a riff and the band comes back driven by a heavy bass line before the guitar really takes the lead again. They return to the 7 by 7 like theme at the end. Fans of early Hawkwind will really dig this record. I should mention that this will also be released on CD by the 4Zero Records label, which has released many of the bands other records. It will include 4 bonus tracks.

http://www.earthlingsociety.co.uk http://www.4zerorecords.co.uk

(Blouse) USA- Tammy Beans (DubDitch1971-032)

This is a cassette only release and features 9 tracks by this mainly one man act (Benjamin Thomas-Kennedy). It features a few live tracks as well as three guests (Nathan, Ryan and Jesse). Side A is mostly all ambient spacey stuff with a focus on just synthesizers. The exception is Ianos, which features the other guys listed above. Dr Shambles starts side B with some fast drums and then the guitar and keyboards kicks in. This is something really different and raw as the instruments don’t really complement each other at first but then they seem to communicate a bit more. The Lateral Power has a the same folks but totally different keyboards and what sounds like a drum machine. Killingsworth is a very dreamy piece. Slow Release sees the return of the other guys again. Interesting release and quite different from the other tapes from this label.

http://blouseblouse.bandcamp.com  http://www.prairefiretapes.com