MIND DE-CODER 4
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ON THIS WEEK'S SHOW
''Get us some more of those funny mushrooms, boys, your dad likes them on his pizza"
THE ROLLING STONES WE LOVE YOU
The Rolling Stones at their psychedelic best; released in the aftermath of the draconian prison sentences handed out to Jagger and Richards following the Redlands home invasion by Metropolitan police in the summer of 1967 - defiant and angry, cheeky and ironic, a slap in the face for the establishment forces that were hounding them at the time, and an absolute gift of a single, featuring a psychedelic catalogue of gaol sounds, mellotron, Moroccan beats, otherworldly taped vocal effects and, of course, John and Paul on backing vocals. Marvelous record.
THE EARLIES BREAKING POINT
Sitar-driven, Krautrock space raga from The Earlies, the half-Manchester, half Texan quartet, a band who transcend their prog influences for their second album THE ENEMY CHORUS, released in 2007, and instead bring some Stereolab to the mix. Works for me.
THE ALIENS HEY LEANNE
I love this track - it's taken from their debut release the ALIENOID STARMONICA EP, from 2006. It features this brilliant, woozy country and western psychedelic classic Hey Leanne, which, of course, brilliant this, sounds like 'alien' when pronounced slowly, or indeed, fastly - it took me ages to figure that one out. I mean, I'm a fan of the band anyway, but this track is jaw-droppingly good.
AMORPHOUS ANDROGYNOUS GIVEN THAT WE'VE GIVEN
Taken from the album THE PEPPERMINT TREE AND THE SEEDS OF SUPERCONSCIOUSNESS, released in 2008, this is a trippy little number from an album that is not unlike a Syd-era Pink Floyd relic covered by Faust and produced by Can. This is Future Sound Of London under their psychedelic guise that is both mystical and inventive, and comes across as a psychedelic-soul-sitar-tastic mash-up of eastern vibes and sonic landscapes of hyper-sound - with the odd tune thrown in.
MAGIC WORMS GREEN MELLO HILL
This ridiculously obscure track (even by my standards) seems to exist solely on a compilation album called THE BEST OF AND THE REST OF BRITISH PSYCHEDELIA which appears to be a round-up of largely unreleased tracks from the semi-legendary Blue Morgan Town record label, a progressive and psychedelic outlet in the late-60's for a number of acts whose music was never actually heard outside of the recording studio on account of the label's inability to sell records to the listening public - a great pity as a recent re-release of the album demonstrates that the label had some great little bands pass through its doors. About Magic Worms (not to be confused with current band under the same moniker) next to nothing is known - by which I mean nothing at all. To make everything slightly more confusing, Green Mello Hill (correct spelling by the way) seems to have made it's way onto the b-side of fellow label mates Angel Pavement's 1969 single Baby, You Gotta Stay, but as to what version came first, and who covered whom, I am unable to say. Nice track though; I like it.
ASSOCIATION PANDORA'S GOLDEN HEEBIE JEEBIES
This band, however, seem to have made loads of albums (and might even still be touring in one form or other), but regrettably, after a couple of #1 singles in the mid-60's, people stopped buying them. This track, complete with Byrds-type harmonies come from their second album RENAISSANCE, released in 1967, and is the psychedelic confection on a record that otherwise featured a kind of jazz-folk-rock-bubblegum-pop approach to album making that eventually went out of style. Strangely, Pandora's Golden Heebie Jeebies sounds better now than it did then. Enjoy.
THE SMALL FACES JOURNEY
From side two of the classic 1968 album, OGDENS' NUT GONE FLAKE, of course, in which the great Stanley Unwin narrates the story of Happiness Stan and his search for the other half of the moon. Widely regarded as one of the first concept albums, although only side two really counts, this is The Small Faces at their most groovy and psychedelic.
PUMAJAW SPANGLER
Lovely pastoral melancholy from Pumajaw, who's 2008 album CURIOSITY BOX creates a mysterious, beguiling tapestry of folky sounds hidden within swathes of lush noise and beats.
PULP WEEDS II (ORIGIN OF THE SPECIES)
Pulp's WE LOVE LIFE, released in 2001, is best seen as the comedown album following the giddy highs of Britpop and all that media exposure that eventually messed the band up. On Weeds II, a tired and cynical Jarvis whispers witheringly about life on the margins of society, revealed in the scornful: "Come on, Do your dance, Do your funny little dance". The thing is, it's also incredibly trippy. The album was produced by Scott Walker, the first time he'd ever produced anyone other than himself (one feels almost duty-bound to include this sort of factoid), and he gives the album moments of grandiose musical wonder, and an air of snarling dinner table intimacy. I wonder if anyone bought it?
THE BEE GEES ODESSA
I know – THE BEE GEES! – who would have thought?, but the luminous ODESSA is the opening track from their 1969 album of the same name, an ornate and ambitious double album that actually split the band for a few years and, who knows, may have saved the world from the later disco-Bee Gees had they not had the good sense to reform fairly quickly(I’ll leave that up to you to decide whether that’s a good thing or not, but I’m quite a fan, me). People tend to forget that the sixties version of The Bee Gees released three albums of thrilling psychedelic pop and that Got To Get A Message To You, a #1 hit single from the previous year, was about a convicted killer’s dying request. Odessa (City On The Black Sea), to give the track its full title, seems to be about the sinking of the ship Veronica on Valentine’s Day, 1899; it lasts eight minutes and contains flamenco flourishes. Funny looking bunch, weren't they? I don't think i would have used that photo on the front cover of an album I actually wanted someone to buy.
VOICE OF THE SEVEN WOODS THE JOURNEY
I played a track the other week by Rick Tomlinson, recently enjoying a Krautrock phase under the name Voice Of The Seven Thunders. The Journey is taken from his earlier incarnation as Voice Of The Seven Woods who’s EP, THE JOURNEY, released in 2008, carves an altogether more spacious sound, creating beautiful melodies using the sparest of components. Stately and elegiac.
LADY JANE GENTLY, JOHNNY, MY JINGALO
Taken from WILLOW'S SONGS, an album that presents a number of traditional recordings of songs that pop up in one form or another in The Wicker Man, the cult wyrd-folk horror film, Gently, Johnny, My Jingalo by LADY JAYNE speaks of moonlit going's-on amongst the corn riggs as sung by a charmingly prim but horny nursery school teacher whose pants you definitely want to get into (but that may be just me, The Wicker Man tend to has that kind of effect on me). Sadly, the real Lady Jayne, as opposed to the one in my fantasies, must remain a mystery, as no information is given regarding who she was or when she recorded this lovely track. I've recently come across this album (below) but have been unable to find any information about it, other than it's title: GENTLY, JOHNNY, MY JINGALO - RISQUE BALLADS AND FOLK SONGS OF ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND. If you know more, please do tell.
FOTHERINGAY TWO WEEKS LAST SUMMER
No one really expected FOTHERINGAY 2 to appear out of nowhere, 38 years after the band abandoned the project following Sandy Denny's departure to pursue a solo career, but suddenly in 2008 there it was, in the shops, and clocking up lots of column inches on the folk blog-sites. I was never really a fan of Fotheringay, but think that Two Weeks Last Summer has a haunting, hypnotic quality to it that can stop you dead in your tracks as you re-live, suddenly and unexpectedly, an incomplete but perfect moment that you thought you'd managed to hide away somewhere forever in the depths of your mind, but which now completely overwhelms you as you stand helplessly in line at the post office and remember that time in the woods in the rain with the one you thought you'd be with forever when love had a sound that you can no longer recall, try as you might, but it left an echo that now, for a few moments, reverberates around your tired and aching heart and causes tears to sting inexplicably in your eyes as you stand there years later, sadder and older and queueing up to pay a rates bill with all those other people, only, you've never felt so alone. Odd how songs can do that, eh?
BRAVE CAPTAIN TELL HER YOU WANT HER
I've always liked this song - it speaks of regret and wisdom gained through aching sadness, dislocated by noise and Beach Boys vocals. Brace Captain is Martin Carr, and this was his project after the Boo Radleys split. Tell Her You Want Her is taken from his 2004 album NOTHING LIVES LONG, HE SANG, ONLY THE EARTH AND THE MOUNTAINS which, once again, kind of speaks to that part of you that loved and lost, once, only to love again - and then have lost it again, after which it's worth retreating to somewhere in the countryside in order to take lots of drugs and otherwise give up. And maybe grow your own vegetables.
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA CLOUD SONG
The United States Of America were an avant-garde, psychedelic, experimental-rock band from the States who, in 1967, recorded their one eponymous album with the intention of combining Electronic sound (as distinct from music), musical/political activism and Performance art. Come back – it’s really good! They threw out the lead guitar and replaced it with strings, keyboards, primitive synthesizers, violins, harpsichords and ring modulators, and most important of all, proper identifiable songs, with tunes, like the lovely pastoral Cloud Song sung by the band’s splendidly named DOROTHY MOSKOWITZ.
THE SHORTWAVE SET ROADSIDE
Victorian funk from junk-shop revivalists The Shortwave Set, taken from their debut album THE DEBT COLLECTION, released in 2005. This absolute delight of an album features a melodica here, an old zither there, an Indian shruti box, an omnichord and a strange collection of tinpot instruments, samples, textures and sounds that complement their wonky psychedelic hangover songs; one of my favourite albums ever, in fact.
JULIAN COPE HOLY MOTHER OF GOD
Julian Cope and mellotron from the CD that accompanied the 2000 tour, AN AUDIENCE WITH THE COPE, an evening of rock 'n' roll stories, fluorescent mellotrons, wa-wa electric-acoustic guitars, triumphs and failures and platform boots. On the CD's spine, it reads: “You can't beat your brain for entertainment", and includes the quote by Dudley Young from his book Origins of the Sacred: “In the beginning was the holler". I've always found this song strangely affecting.
CHRISTOPHE F. & BLACK SHEEP I NEVER WRITE SLOW LOVE SONGS
A lovely little track from the album HEATHEN FRONTIERS IN SOUND, released 2009, by Black Sheep member Christophe F. who, on this spiritual record, brings forth a superb and succinct set of lyrics explaining the nature of Revolution and the manner in which, he believes, this can all be effected. A lot catchier than you’d think.
SOFT HEARTED SCIENTISTS ISABELLA (KEEP RIDING THE ROAD TO THE SEA)
And in a show of fine tunes I save the finest for last. Isabella (Keep Riding the Road to the Sea) is taken from UNCANNY TALES OF THE EVERYDAY UNDERGROWTH, a collection of their first EP's, released in 2005, and rather like The Beta Band's first three EP's album, it's proving remarkably difficult to transcend. I love this album, it's a nearly flawless collection sugary psychedelic folky pop, full of great tunes with sing-a-long choruses that can make me make happy or sad depending on my mood and the time of day. The seven way vocal harmony that takes up the second half of the song...well, I just think it's a wonderful thing in a world that doesn't have enough wonderful things anymore. I buy this album as presents for people.
MATTHEW SHAW LANREATH
Not so much a tune as a sound sculpture, this is the closing 10 minutes of Matthew Shaw’s beautiful nocturnal drone, scored for guitar and field recordings, for which the term phonography has had to be invented. Lanreath is a 45 minute guitar workout, albeit one in which the guitar is no more than a hovering distant drone that manages to sound like the sun coming up in slow motion across a misty meadow in Cornwall, which is, in fact, what composer Matthew Shaw intended. The album was recorded in the summer of 2011in the small Cornish village of Lanreath. The field recordings used are taken from around the village itself, from which Shaw explores the soundscape of a single place. You can find the full track on the album of the same name, released in 2011.
I Thank You
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