MIND DE-CODER 9
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"But what if tomorrow never knows? It didn’t today".
FLYING WHITE DOTS COLOSSAL INTRO
Isn't it, though? Taken from his second album STARING AT THE SKY, released in 2007, an all-star psychedelic mash-up album, available for free download here
PAUL GIOVANNI AND MAGNET CORN RIGGS
I was probably being a bit too clever here, but if you're not trying to be clever, then why bother? What I did was play two versions of Corn Riggs at the same time; the first from the original version of THE WICKER MAN soundtrack, released in 1998, which, because the original master tapes had gone missing, was lifted directly from the film itself, complete with the film's soundtrack; and a second version of the song taken from the recently re-issued 2002 CD of the film’s soundtrack taken from the recently discovered master tapes, found, bizarrely enough, within cult-film maker Roger Corman's private collection of film prints. I think, actually, the experiment works, although strictly speaking it was more of an interesting accident brought about by my trying to figure out which version I ultimately prefer. Turns out I like them both equally, which is why I jiggered about with them and used them both.
THE ELECTRIC PRUNES I HAD TOO MUCH TO DREAM (LAST NIGHT)
A stone-cold psychedelic classic from a band who never claimed to be a psychedelic act; and it's true that their sound was not so much psychedelic than a sonic outburst of pure psych. The Electric Prunes, a joke name that stuck, grew from an early garage band called The Sanctions - I had Too Much To Dream (Last Night), released in 1966, with all its distorted guitars and oscillating reverb, has all the primitive buzz of a garage band, a harder sound that would soon be out of place in the fluffier summer of love that was to follow shortly, which is why this song was pretty much their only hit. It also featured on their debut album, THE ELECTRIC PRUNES: I HAD TOO MUCH TO DREAM (LAST NIGHT), released in 1967.
RUPERT'S PEOPLE PROLOGUE TO A MAGIC WORLD
Rupert's People have a lineage that's so complicated that at one point it existed as a virtual band, in name only, after the manager fired the whole group but kept the name. Prologue To A Magic World, released in 1967, was one of only three singles the many line-up's of the band were able to produce, and a shameless cash-in on the then English psychedelic vogue for referencing whimsical Victorian literature - in the case, Alice In Wonderland. They never released an album in their lifetime, but a collection of their singles, and those of related bands that seem to have consisted of Rupert's People under different names (don't ask), is now available as THE MAGIC WORLD OF RUPERT'S PEOPLE, released in 2001.
BROADCAST AND THE FOCUS GROUP THE BE COLONY
Taken from the hauntological classic BROADCAST AND THE FOCUS GROUP INVESTIGATE WITCH CULTS OF THE RADIO AGE, released in 2009, an album so trippy, so dislocated, so laced in wonder and intrigue, that it almost makes Mind De-Coder redundant (almost). Broadcast and The Focus Group have produced an album of gurgling synthesizers, ringing chimes, Radiophonic echoes, deranged melodies, sudden burst of funky drumming, wandering woodwind, and hauntological reel-to-reel experimentation, all wrapped up with Broadcast's Trish Keenan dead-pan nursery rhyme vocals. Haunting, bewildering and yet strangely familiar, as if half-remembered from a dream. I love it.
ISOBEL CAMBELL MILK WHITE SHEETS
See, I'm a sucker for a cello; make it sound faintly medieval and I'm sold. Isobel Campbell’s 2006 album MILK WHITE SHEETS is almost weightless in its simplicity, drawing on an English folk tradition that at times, like in this track, borders on the ethereal. Quite lovely.
SHELAGH McDONALD LIZ'S SONG
Shelagh McDonald's story has a touch of the mythic about it. Following the release of her second album, STARGAZER, released in 1971, from which the evocative Liz's Song is taken, Shelagh McDonald, all set to be the next Sandy Denny, mysteriously disappears for 34 years, only to resurface in 2005 after reading a Scottish Daily Mail story about her musical legacy and unsolved disappearance. It seems her very first acid trip was a life-changing nightmare that lasted for over a month leaving her a scared, paranoid, fragile and mostly broken, emotional wreck - she retreated to Scotland where she slowly mended herself, only to discover she could no longer sing. She married a local bookseller and began a nomadic existence, often living in tents in the Scottish Highlands, never to record again. If that's not the stuff of legend then I don't know what is.
OASIS FALLING DOWN (A MONSTROUS PSYCHEDELIC BUBBLE EXPLODING IN YOUR MIND REMIX)
Despite not being what you'd call a huge fan of Oasis, I have been looking forward to playing this; all 22 minutes of it. This is Amorphous Androgynous creating a loved-up psychedelic wig-out of the 2008 single by Oasis, featuring singing children, sitars and kitchen sinks. Pretty much does was it says on the label.
SOFT HEARTED SCIENTISTS GARDEN SONG
The third album from the Soft Hearted Scientists is actually a collection of 16 demos that the band thought too good not to release. One might wonder why, if they liked them so much, they didn't record them properly (the band had moved on from the songs, apparently, but the songs hadn't moved on from them and simply wouldn't go away), but in actual fact, the songs on SCARECROW SMILE: HOME DEMOS, VOL. 1, released in 2008, work very well without any adornishments. Garden Song works as a sanctuary in a restless world and is also just a little bit spooky.
On which Damon goes all pastoral and folky on this, the recently released DR. DEE, 18 songs inspired by the life of John Dee, mathematician, polymath, astrologer, alchemist, spymaster and adviser to Queen Elizabeth I. It’s a lovely affair, mostly comprised of early English choral work and instrumentation, with some West African and renaissance sounds thrown in for good measure.
If you’re a fan of cheesy 60’s spy flicks like Our Man Flint, or The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (United Network Command for Law Enforcement, by the way), then you’ll know that, inevitably, there’d be a fight scene in some swinging nightclub packed with groovy teenagers politely dancing to some switched on band who, crucially, never stop playing as the fight erupts and chairs fly through the air, often followed by the James Coburn/Napolean Solo type hero who, following a sock squarely to the chin, would crash into a table, which would then collapse under him causing said groovy teenagers to scatter but not actually stop dancing, which the hero would then shake off, without a mark on him, before returning to the fray. You know the sort I mean – well, The Monochrome Set reminds me of that band (not necessarily with this track, but the observation still holds true). They actually grew out of punk, but were never actually embraced by that audience who thought them too arch and clever. Sadly they never received much of an audience from anyone else either but went on to release five cult albums during the early eighties that would go on to influence bands like The Smiths and Franz Ferdinand, of course. I loved them and for years modeled my look on lead singer, Bid – all safari suits and smoking jackets.
In Love, Cancer? can be found on their second album, LOVE ZOMBIES, released in 1980. They’ve reformed several times and even released an album a couple of years ago, but if you want to check them out, and you should, you really need to hear those first albums – they’re great, and very embraceable.
SIR PSYCH HELLO
ECHO (PART ONE)
Sir Psych (or Martin Nunez, when his mum calls him in for
dinner) is one half of psychedelic rockers The Smoking Trees, an LA based duo
with a flair for poppy garage psych.
Hello Echo is taken from Sir Psych’s second solo album, HELLO ECHO,
released earlier this year as a download album from his site here where
you can download it for free – it’s basically the sound of someone
experimenting with echo and reverb, but in your psychedelic circles, this sort
of thing is to be applauded and should happen more often.
AGITATION FREE YOU
PLAY FOR US TODAY/ SAHARA CITY (excerpt)
One of your lesser known krautrock groups, but none the worse
for that, Agitation Free’s debut album, MALESCH, released 1972, is a near
perfect representation of the band’s sound – an intricate musical blend of free
jazz, psychedelia and ‘found’ recordings made in Egypt and Lebanon from which
they derived much of their inspiration. You Play For Us Today and Sahara City are the
opening two tracks from the album but I’ve only included an excerpt from Sahara
City, because it meanders somewhat in the middle but, crucially, that’s exactly
what I needed it to do in this instance.
NEU! HALLOGALLO
Hallogallo, opening side 1 of Neu!’s debut album, NEU!, released in 1971, gave krautrock its motorifik heart, and, as Julian Cope notes in his trusty Krautrockampler, even if Neu! had split up right after this track they would have still changed rock ‘n’ roll for ever. It has no melody, no vocals, nothing to tell you where you are in this seamless piece of music, and yet this riffless groove soars like seagulls on echo-less cliffs. Neu! grew out of an early version of Kraftwerk, you know.
CLUSTER PLAS
With this, our third Krautrock track this evening, Cluster bring a natural sense of timelessness to music that is released from archaic structures such as bars or beats per minute. Plas is reminiscent of pounding echoes of sound reverberating around the universe, and is taken from their 1972 album CLUSTER II, which may have actually been their fourth album – these things get lost in the mists of time…
CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL RUDE AWAKENING #2
Rude Awakening #2 is taken from Creedence Clearwater Revival's difficult 6th album, 1970's PENDULUM. It is essentially the psychedelic-progressive rock track on an album that sees the group reaching out in challenging new directions, just before inevitably splitting up, and I only use an excerpt of the track (the good bit).
Insanity Sect are one of those bands who's work appears on those ambient dub type compilation albums that appeared about 20 years ago with names like DUB DOPE, and AMBIENT DUB VOLUME THREE: AQUA from which this track is actually taken. Chocktaw Ridge was released in 1993 and gets included here because I distinctly remember hearing it once under splendidly enhanced circumstances wherein I simply assumed that I was listening to two tracks playing at the same time in different rooms on a broken tape recorder. I can laugh about it now...
MOON WIRING CLUB TRACK 11
More hauntological going’s-on from the Moon Wiring Club. This track is taken from the bonus disc CLUTCH IT LIKE A GONK (GONK EDITION), released in 2011 and my current go-to album for perfect 1 minute fillers.
JOE BYRD AND THE FIELD HIPPIES MOONSONG-PELOG
This lovely track is brought to you by Joe Byrd And The Field Hippies, following Joe Byrd’s departure from the United States Of America, a highly experimental, avant-garde psychedelic art-rock band who’s one album was released in 1968. If anything Byrd’s work with the Field Hippies was even more experimental, taking in an extensive use of effects, delays, echoes, backwards vocals, trippy Moog and electronics noodlings mixed with stunning bursts of fuzzed out guitars and acid-damaged lyrics. Moonsong-Pelog is the final part of the opening three-part suite that has otherwise been described as an 11-minute acid trip unto itself and features on the band’s only album, AMERICAN METAPHYSICAL CIRCUS, released in 1969.
CAN OSCURA PRIMAVERA
An atypically pretty (and short) track from Can featuring a duet between guitar and wind noises, taken from their recently released triple -CD of forgotten studio jams, THE LOST TAPES, released 2012.
DR. TIMOTHY LEARY ALL GIRLS ARE YOURS
In many ways the definitive trip album and certainly one that should be listened to at least once by anyone who is seriously inclined towards lysergic exploration, shall we say. Timothy Leary’s album TUNE IN, TURN ON, DROP OUT, released 1967, is a narrated meditational guide over free-form psychedelic rock music which will take you to places inside your head that you have never been to before and to which you may not want to return to again – but you should go at least once. It originally accompanied a documentary film of the same name and the phrase itself, popularized by Leary at the Human Be-In in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, has been misinterpreted to mean ‘Get stoned and abandon all constructive activity’, when, in fact, Leary was suggesting that the purpose of the psychedelic experience, like every great religion of the past, was to seek to find the divinity within and to express this revelation in a life of glorification and the worship of God. An easy mistake to make, though.
THE WITCH AND THE ROBOT YOU ALREADY KNOW EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT TIME TRAVEL (JUST LOOK AT THE STARS)
The Witch and the Robot are from England's Lake District and their music reflects the kind of surreal thinking and sense of space one develops when you inhabit a mystical landscape that glimmers for miles in every direction. Their debut album, ON SAFARI, released in 2009, is a sublime mix of dark psychedelia, folk, sea shanties (sea shanties!) and spoken word pieces taking in tales of time travel, dead puppeteers, the sea and seeking out the graves of giants. You Already Know Everything There Is To Know About Time Travel is by no means the most dramatic track on the album but it does conclude the show quite nicely.
And that would be a bit of the late, great Bill Hicks.
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